Microsoft to go inside for its new head of Online Services

Another day, another Microsoft executive departure. The latest to go is Dave Thompson, the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Online Services.

It turns out Thompson -- who is in charge of Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) and its Office 365 successor -- told his team last year that he planned to retire later in 2011, after the company turns on Office 365. And the succession plan already is in place. Lee Nackman, who currently is Corporate Vice President, Directory, Access, and Information Protection, is going to become the "new" Thompson, according to Microsoft executives.

In his current role, Nackman already is responsible for delivering identity-focused technologies to Microsoft's Online Services Deployment Platform, so the succession to his new job shouldn't be overly jarring. (Before his current job, Nackman was the head of Microsoft's Identity and Security Division. And before that, Nackman worked at Microsoft IBM for 26 years, where he most recently was vice president for product development and customer support of IBM's Rational software division.

Microsoft is creating a common platform across its individual and packaged Online services. The goal is to make Office 365 and its component parts -- Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online, CRM Online -- as well as new Microsoft Online services like the Windows Intune PC management service which will be released in 2011, based on a common billing, provisioning and commerce platform. A common dashboard will allow users to manage any/all of the Microsoft Online services, according to the company's Office 365 roadmap.

Microsoft is expected to make Office 365 available to users in early June, according to my sources.