Yesterday we reported on the existence of an Office update project. No, it wasn’t going by the name Blue, instead using “Gemini”.
Since then, we have learned a tiny bit more about the update initiative thanks to Stephen Chapman of MSFTkitchen. Chapman discovered a Microsoft Professional Test Leader profile that refers to Gemini, though references to it have since been deleted from the net.
Here’s what he found:
- Redesigning Office 365 backend architecture and deployment strategy in Office Gemini and beyond (ongoing)
- Designing Office365 deployment in ultra-small capacity units to serve local customers
- Fully automated automatic site resilience solution for Exchange server
- Owning data protection scorecard – across backend of Office 365 – Exchange (~150M users)
So what exactly does that tell us? The fact that the entire backend is being rebuilt for Office 365 seems to hint at some pretty big changes coming to Office Gemini, and perhaps to Office 16 down the road as well.
To be honest, it doesn’t shed too much light, but it does indicate that Gemini could be a lot more than a minor update. When will we know more? I wouldn’t be surprised if more news about Office 365 and Office Gemini end up being revealed at the BUILD conference, though the actual end-product might not show up until late this year or even next year.
Bottom-line is that Microsoft is taking the idea of more consistent semi-major updates more seriously both with its operating systems and even its office products. What do you think of the Blue/Gemini updates based on what we know so far? Share your thoughts below.
