What is Office 365?

Roshan Mehta, 23 December 2010

Exciting times are on the way with Microsoft releasing some amazing new software to celebrate the New Year. We are already anxious for the final release of Dynamics CRM 2011, but there is also a new line of Office software applications to be hosted in the cloud. This has been given the name “Office 365”.

Office 365 offers many of the Microsoft Office applications that you have become familiar with over the years and has made these available on demand from wherever you are in the world. The idea of storing these applications in the cloud saves time and costs associated with hardware and software setup for your business. This means you don’t need to maintain your own servers as it’s all included in the Office 365 experience.

Office 365 includes Microsoft Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online. For those of you who haven’t heard of Lync online, it is the next release of Microsoft Office Communicator services which allows you to connect with people via instant messaging, audio, and video calling from anywhere at any time.

What are the benefits of Office in the cloud?

• Access to Microsoft Office applications from anywhere at any time.
• Support for multiple devices including PC, Mac, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Phone.
• 99.9% uptime guaranteed and disaster recovery.
• Simultaneously edit documents with colleagues.
• Audio and video capabilities for meetings as well as screen share functionality. Also the ability to share calendars and schedule meetings.
• Social networking abilities through the Outlook social connector.
• Minimal user training.
• Up-to-date with the latest versions of Office applications.
• Anti-spam and anti-virus protection.
• Access your documents online and offline.
• 24/7 phone support.

The cloud experience also provides web based Office applications with support over multiple browsers to edit your documents. The Office 365 payment structure means that you pay per user license, NOT per device which can be a massive cost saving for any business. However, as the customer, you always remain in control of your Office 365 subscription including migrating, planning, and scheduling.

For more information, please visit Louise Alderton’s blog on cloud computing. You can also check out the Office 365 website to get a head-start on this new technology.