Weekly #WhyMSFT Round-Up 1/20/2012

Microsoft Office 365's New Enterprise Fans
Moving to Office 365 are airline JetBlue, outdoor clothing designer Patagonia, and the American Heart Association. "Each customer is unique, different in size, mission, and industry, yet all have a common technology mission--to foster greater collaboration and communication, enhance productivity, and realize the efficiencies associated with the cloud," said Microsoft, in a statement.

Telekom Malaysia Adds Office 365 to its Cloud Service
"Cloud computing is a revolution that will enable businesses to be more agile and flexible to keep pace with changing market speeds and expectations. Today, we are expanding our cloud services offering to include Software-as-a-Service."

BETT 2012: Microsoft UK Will Take Office 365 to Schools
This summer, Microsoft will start to offer its cloud-based Office 365 suite to British schools, according to Steve Beswick, Director of Education at Microsoft. "Office 365 for Education will be the same as enterprises get," said Beswick. "The only difference is price." However, price is yet to be announced.

Microsoft Makes Cloud Management Move On VMware
System Center 2012 is due out sometime in the first half of this year and the next version "isn't your grandfather's System Center. Organizations of all sizes can use it to manage both their data centers and their cloud computing," Anderson said in the interview.

Why a Hybrid Approach to Cloud Computing Works Best for Now
Nichols says a hybrid cloud strategy, which incorporates both off-site and off-site services, provides a “failsafe” model for enterprises. “Maybe there are some things you can do in the cloud model, and some things that you can’t because maybe you don’t feel as secure. But the cloud could be one more failsafe.”