Microsoft today launched Office 365, its cloud-based productivity and collaboration suite, in 40 countries around the world. Office 365 combines access to Exchange e-mail, Lync messaging, SharePoint collaboration, the Office Web Apps, all into one monthly subscription.
Seven different price plans are available; one for small businesses and individuals, at $6 per user per month, four enterprise plans from $10 to $27 per user per month, and two for kiosk workers, priced at $4 and $10 per person per month. The small business and enterprise plans all offer 25 GB of e-mail, SharePoint access, and Lync messaging; the more expensive price tiers then add Office Web App access, the full desktop Office suite, and Lync voice capabilities. There's also an à la carte option allowing mix-and-match selection of features if the standard plans don't fit an organization's needs. The enterprise plans are more expensive than the comparably featured small business plan, but offer better support—the small business plan has no phone support—and better security—HTTPS access to SharePoint is only found on enterprise plans.
Office 365 will also replace the current Live@edu set of cloud services for educational institutions. This service is still yet to go live, however.
Announcing the product's launch, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer particularly emphasized the value Office 365 can offer small businesses. Unlike BPOS, Microsoft's previous cloud-hosted Exchange, SharePoint, and Office Communications offering, which had a five-seat minimum, Office 365 can be used even for single-person businesses. Small organizations have access to the full range of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync capabilities, with almost none of the administrative overhead. Ballmer claimed that this levels the playing field between small and large companies, saying that Office 365 gives "small and midsize businesses powerful collaboration tools that have given big businesses an edge for years."
With its new support for Office and Office Web Apps, Office 365 has a more extensive feature set than BPOS, drawing natural comparisons with cloud suites like Google Apps and Zoho. A unique strength Microsoft has in this area is the full desktop Office application—recognizing both that the Web applications are not yet suitable for all tasks, and that not all users are able to be online at all times. Support for sharing files with Office 365 will also be built in to the Mango update to Windows Phone, to provide better mobile access.
Microsoft promises 99.9 percent availability with Office 365. Its BPOS service has suffered numerous bouts of downtime lately—most recently, network connectivity problems preventing North American customers from using their e-mail. Though Office 365 is a different system from BPOS, it may be some time before the new platform can regain the trust lost by its predecessor.
Also released today is Office 2010 Service Pack 1. A comprehensive pack of security fixes, the release notes claim it updates Outlook to support Office 365.
Seven different price plans are available; one for small businesses and individuals, at $6 per user per month, four enterprise plans from $10 to $27 per user per month, and two for kiosk workers, priced at $4 and $10 per person per month. The small business and enterprise plans all offer 25 GB of e-mail, SharePoint access, and Lync messaging; the more expensive price tiers then add Office Web App access, the full desktop Office suite, and Lync voice capabilities. There's also an à la carte option allowing mix-and-match selection of features if the standard plans don't fit an organization's needs. The enterprise plans are more expensive than the comparably featured small business plan, but offer better support—the small business plan has no phone support—and better security—HTTPS access to SharePoint is only found on enterprise plans.
Office 365 will also replace the current Live@edu set of cloud services for educational institutions. This service is still yet to go live, however.
Announcing the product's launch, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer particularly emphasized the value Office 365 can offer small businesses. Unlike BPOS, Microsoft's previous cloud-hosted Exchange, SharePoint, and Office Communications offering, which had a five-seat minimum, Office 365 can be used even for single-person businesses. Small organizations have access to the full range of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync capabilities, with almost none of the administrative overhead. Ballmer claimed that this levels the playing field between small and large companies, saying that Office 365 gives "small and midsize businesses powerful collaboration tools that have given big businesses an edge for years."
With its new support for Office and Office Web Apps, Office 365 has a more extensive feature set than BPOS, drawing natural comparisons with cloud suites like Google Apps and Zoho. A unique strength Microsoft has in this area is the full desktop Office application—recognizing both that the Web applications are not yet suitable for all tasks, and that not all users are able to be online at all times. Support for sharing files with Office 365 will also be built in to the Mango update to Windows Phone, to provide better mobile access.
Microsoft promises 99.9 percent availability with Office 365. Its BPOS service has suffered numerous bouts of downtime lately—most recently, network connectivity problems preventing North American customers from using their e-mail. Though Office 365 is a different system from BPOS, it may be some time before the new platform can regain the trust lost by its predecessor.
Also released today is Office 2010 Service Pack 1. A comprehensive pack of security fixes, the release notes claim it updates Outlook to support Office 365.
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