Thank you, SharePoint Saturday Netherlands 2016!

I was happy to be accepted as a speaker for SharePoint Saturday Netherlands, which was held in Vianen (near Utrecht) last weekend. It’s been a super busy May and June for me so far, yet I was very happy to be able to make a visit to the Netherlands before the holiday season. My sister (and her Dutch husband) live near Utrecht, so the event was also a good opportunity for me to catch up with them. Last time our catch-up ended at 5 am by bicycling through Utrecht – so good memories. Flying to Schiphol is rather easy, as… Read MoreThank you, SharePoint Saturday Netherlands 2016! »

Thank you, SharePoint Saturday Paris 2016!

I was honored and privileged to be chosen as a speaker for SharePoint Saturday Paris 2016. The event was held this past weekend, 28th of May at the Montparnasse Tower. My trip started as usual from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport in Finland. I normally fly Finnair, and after a few years of collecting the elusive flyer’s miles I am finally able to get free coffee in the lounge. I’m not fully certain if this is the peak of my exclusive membership, but it sure feels like a lot of work. Upon arriving to Charles de Gaulle airport I decide to take… Read MoreThank you, SharePoint Saturday Paris 2016! »
Windows proverbs

Thank you, SharePoint Saturday Madrid!

I had the honor to attend SharePoint Saturday Madrid this past weekend as a speaker. This was the second such event in Spain for me, the previous one being SharePoint Saturday Barcelona in September 2015. My Spanish language skills are still very much missing, broken and limited but I was happy to realize I could kind of follow a simple discussion – those few minutes on Duolingo I took last year are starting to pay off! The event was held at Microsoft Madrid offices. One of the main reasons for attending SharePoint Saturday events for me is the chance to… Read MoreThank you, SharePoint Saturday Madrid! »

The Future of SharePoint: collection of resources

Today is May 4th, or Star Wars day, and also the date for The Future of SharePoint announcements from Microsoft. I knew that many of my friends, colleagues and people I follow on social media would blog about the event during the webcast, as well as their thoughts on the new and shiny things for SharePoint, OneDrive for Busines and Office 365. So, while I love writing I also seem to be a bit too busy to do it properly this time of the year. My company’s fiscal year ends on April 30th, so there’s some housekeeping that needs to… Read MoreThe Future of SharePoint: collection of resources »
Build keynote (2nd day)

Second day announcements and thoughts from Build 2016

(This blog post is being updated during the keynote, last updated 31st of March, 10:50 am PDT) Today is the second day of Build 2016 in San Francisco. I wrote about my travel and first day in another post. Expectations for this day are high, as yesterday’s keynote was somewhat a let-down. There were good bits, but not the usual wow-effect people have come to expect from an event like this. A lot of the stuff that was shown was either previously released and marketing hype was strong during the talks. Second day keynote Keynote starts, as expected, with Scott… Read MoreSecond day announcements and thoughts from Build 2016 »
Moscone Center

Announcements and thoughts from Microsoft Build 2016

(This post is updated March 30th, 11 am PDT) Build 2016: Announcements and thoughts (this blog post) Build 2016: Second day This week I am in San Francisco for the yearly Microsoft Build-conference. I try to attend at least one major Microsoft event every year and as Microsoft Ignite was rescheduled for September, I had a chance to allocate some time to spend 6 days in sunny San Francisco. This blog post will serve as a placeholder for my blogging throughout the week – I hope you’ll find this useful! Travel I’m based in Helsinki, Finland. That’s about 8700 km… Read MoreAnnouncements and thoughts from Microsoft Build 2016 »

Recap from SharePoint Saturday Dubai 2016

I had the opportunity and pleasure to present at SharePoint Saturday Dubai 2016 this past weekend. This was also the first international event of the year for me. I’ve never had a chance to visit Dubai so it was a great to visit the warmer climates of UAE for an extended weekend. My presentation topic was a deep dive on SharePoint 2016 architectures. Overall I think it went really well, and I always enjoy when I get to present fresh content, rather than talk about the past. SharePoint 2016 Release Candidate was released just recently so there is plenty to… Read MoreRecap from SharePoint Saturday Dubai 2016 »

SharePoint Server 2016 Release Candidate and Project Server 2016 Release Candidate are now available

SharePoint Server 2016 Release Candidate and Project Server 2016 Release Candidate versions were released today, January 19th. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been working with SharePoint since the earliest versions in around year 2000, so after so many generations it’s very nice to see the latest release being feature complete and closer to the final 2016 version. I wanted to write a few thoughts on SharePoint Server 2016 while spinning up my VMs to update with the latest RC build. You can download bits for both release candidates here. Where are we today? After SharePoint releases in 2001, 2003,… Read MoreSharePoint Server 2016 Release Candidate and Project Server 2016 Release Candidate are now available »

First Helsinki Hackathon was a success–check out the results!

My company (Onsight Helsinki) arranged together with Blue Meteorite the first Helsinki Hackathon event in Helsinki, January 15th. The main theme for the hackathon was to build a working solution using Office 365, especially with the Office 365 APIs and possibly also Microsoft Graph. I was inspired to have a local hackathon after attending the European SharePoint Conference last November, and seeing the results and enthusiasm from attendees who attended the hackathon while there. There’s a chance to learn, spend a great evening with very knowledgeable people and have pizza. What’s not to like? The event started on Friday evening… Read MoreFirst Helsinki Hackathon was a success–check out the results! »

Thoughts from European SharePoint Conference 2015

I had a chance to participate in European SharePoint Conference last week in Stockholm, Sweden. This was nice for several reasons. I didn’t have to travel all the way to Seattle, like the previous week for Microsoft MVP Summit. My flight from Helsinki also took less than an hour, which is very convenient. For the first time ever I chose to fly to Bromma, instead of the more international Arlanda airport in Stockholm. This was a very convenient way of getting to Stockholm fast. The downside is that when leaving Sweden, Bromma seems to be very crowded and cramped. The… Read MoreThoughts from European SharePoint Conference 2015 »