Support for BPOS in Remote Desktop Services

For those businesses looking to leverage Microsoft Cloud based services, but also have a Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services for those with Windows Server 2003) infrastructure need to heed some somewhat unknown advice – Wait for Office 365.

Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite does not support running in a Remote Desktop Services environment. The main reason for this is due to the incompatibility of the Single Sign on Tool in such an environment. There are some folks out there that claim they have this combination working in a production environment, see Community Forums post. But, buyer beware, if you call Microsoft with an issue in this environment, you’ll have better luck getting help from your mother-in-law than from customer support.

However, the Single Sign on Tool has been deprecated in the now private beta, soon to be public beta, later to be the publically available Office 365. Therefore, running both Outlook 2010 in cached mode, TechNet planning overview, and Office 365 in a Remote Desktop Services environment is fully supported by Microsoft.

Word is that Office 365 will be generally available some time this summer, June or July. However, look for the public beta in the coming weeks to get your first look at this much more mature and robust cloud services offering from Microsoft.