SkyDrive Pro Storage Increased to 25GB

Microsoft announced today on the Office 365 technology Blog that they are increasing the default storage available in each user’s SkyDrive Pro to 25GB from the current 7GB. They’ve also added an option allowing increase to 50GB or 100GBs of storage on a user by user basis. The optional additional storage will come out of your regular tenant storage allocation. Tenants can buy additional storage if needed at a cost of $.20 USD/GB/Month. Microsoft is also adding a new view to SkyDrive Pro that will display links to all the documents that have been shared with you personally, no matter whose SkyDrive Pro they are stored on. So you get more room for storing and sharing your own documents and easier access to all the documents that others have shared with you. That’s what I call a Win/Win.

You can read the whole announcement here:

http://blogs.office.com/b/office365tech/archive/2013/08/27/skydrive-pro-increases-storage-and-ease-of-sharing.aspx

MCSD: SharePoint Certification Officially Announced

There have been rumors running around for months about what exams would be required to earn the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer certification for SharePoint 2013. MS Learning officially added MCSD: SharePoint to their site today. You can see all the SharePoint certifications, including MCSD, here.

The Two SharePoint specific Development exams haven’t been released yet, but should be available later this summer. In the meantime you can get started on the two non-SharePoint specific certification exams.

Another point that should be noted. This announcement continues the trend started with the SharePoint Microsoft Certified Masters certification. Certifications will now be time constrained. You must recertify every two years to maintain the MCSD: SharePoint certification. This is also true for MCSM: SharePoint (three years) and MCSE: SharePoint (two years). This recertification requirement reflects Microsoft’s move away from doing major specific releases, like 2007, 2010, and 2013, to a more continuous release cycle with quarterly service releases for Office 365. You can expect to see On-premise SharePoint going to a more continuous evolution over the next several years also. These new certs anticipate that development in both the Online and On-Premise environments.

SharePoint 2013 has reached RTM

Earlier today Microsoft announced that Office 2013, including SharePoint Server 2013, reached the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build. That means that coding and testing is complete and work will now commence on getting these products packaged up and into the appropriate distribution channels for customers. YOu can read the full announcement here:

Office Reaches RTM!

But here are some of the high points and important details covered in the announcement.

People who purchase Office 2010 after October 19, 2012 will get a free upgrade to Office 2013 when it is released.
Surface RT tablets will include a preview version of Office 2013 when they ship on October 26th.
Office 365 customers will begin to see some of the new 2013 capabilities with the next service update in November.
TechNet and MSDN subscribers should have access to RTM code by mid-November. Which happens to be just after the SharePoint Conference November 12-15, 2012.

SharePoint MVP for the 5th Year!

Last weekend was really exciting for two reasons. First, because my eldest daughter got married on Saturday. We were so busy getting ready for the wedding that I almost forgot about my MVP award date on July 1st. But soon enough the wedding was over and things started to get back to normal on Sunday and there was my the email announcing my MVP award again this year for SharePoint. This is my fifth year and I get more EXCITED about the program every year. Every year I make more friends and contacts through the program. Their help and support is invaluable when it comes to learning all the nooks and crannies in this product. I often wonder how I learned as much as I did before I gained access to the resources and contacts available to me as an MVP. And every year brings more opportunities for learning and sharing that knowledge with others in the community.

But the bottom line is still that I wouldn’t be an MVP if it weren’t for all of you out there in the community. In the last year I’ve begun to run into a number of people who recognize my name from the MSDN Forums. Its been great to meet all of you in person and thanks for all the questions that you’ve asked. Some of them provide an easy outlet for sharing what I already know. But others provide challenges to learn new things so I can help answer questions. Without your stimulating questions I wouldn’t be receiving this award. I hope to continue to live up to the honor and hope that I never get complacent about what its really about: Helping to support the SharePoint community.

Last Day at Sharesquared

Yesterday was my last day working for Sharesquared. I’ve really enjoyed working with a wonderful group of consultants and clients for the last couple of years but it was time for a change. Sharesquared is a virtual company that hires the best talent they can find wherever you happen to live. The result is a virtual company where most of the work is done through “Telecommuting”. The result is a company with some really talented people who are a pleasure to work with, but who you only have contact with electronically. Although I enjoyed working from home it can lose its appeal after a while when all but one of your colleagues lives 2 to 3 time zones away and you only see people face to face at the annual company meeting. So when an opportunity came up recently to work for a growing consulting firm headquartered here in Cleveland I decided it was time to make the move. That company is the BlueChip Consulting Group.

Unlike Sharesquared, who focus completely on SharePoint, BlueChip views itself as an “Infrastructure Optimization Consulting Firm”. They have several successful practices including a growing SharePoint practice. My role at BlueChip will be similar to the role I had at Sharesquared. I’ll be a Senior Solutions Architect serving as the chief technical architect within the Portals and Collaboration team at Blue Chip. In that role it will be my job to help design new SharePoint implementations and provide technical mentoring to the other members of the team. The difference is that I’ll see the other members of the team face to face on a regular basis. I’m looking forward to getting to know the members of the team and starting work on some new projects. I start work at BlueChip next Monday.

So to all my friends at Sharesquared, the best of luck and continued success. And to all my future friends at BlueChip, I can’t wait to get started. My new contact info is listed below. If my email is in your address book please change it to:

paul.stork@bluechip-llc.com