Post#12
What is Office 365?
· Microsoft office collaborates tools delivered through the cloud
· Access from anywhere to: gmail, web conferencing, documents and calendars
· Business class security
· Backed by Microsoft
How it works
Ø Microsoft manages the IT software and you control the user access rights
Ø Licenced on a flexible per-user, per-month subscription cost
Ø Provides cloud-based management tools in a single location
Services
Office Professional Plus
- Control your inbox with Conversation View; schedule meetings more efficiently by viewing calendar availability for colleagues in other companies as well as your own co-workers in Microsoft Outlook
- Outlook Social Connector to better leverage the power of business and social networks
- Collaborate with real-time co-editing
- Microsoft PowerPoint Broadcast Slide Show shares slideshows instantly around the world
- Work virtually any place and on any device with Office Web Apps
Ø Other services include: Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online and Office Web Apps
Ø NOTE: Office Professional Plus appears to be the service that is listed most consistently in each of the available plans.
Plans
Professional and Small Business
- For up to 25 employees
- A solution without dedicated IT staff
- Essential email, calendar and website services
- Free online community support
< $6 per user per month
Midsize Business and Enterprises
- For any size business
- Advanced IT configuration and control
- Office Professional Plus, Active Directory or advanced archiving
- 27x7 IT Administrator support
- Choice between monthly and annual contracts
Education
- Plans for academic and education institutions
- Delivers the power of cloud productivity to educational institutions of all sizes
- Would have to try the E trial for midsize businesses and enterprises (there is no specific Office 365 for education trial)
- Combine the familiar Office desktop suite with online versions of Microsoft’s next-generation communications and collaboration services.
- Simple to use and easy to administer – all backed by the security and guaranteed reliability you expect from Microsoft
1 comment:
I've heard about Microsoft's introduction into the area of cloud-based services, and wondered what it looked like but never looked for myself. Thanks for detailing the structure here.
I'm pretty sure of two things: 1. Cloud computing is a big deal and is here to stay. It's convenient and enormously useful.
But:
2. I'm not so sure about monolithic companies offering suites of software and services being the way that people will eventually go.
This is not Microsoft-bashing. I would say the same thing about Adobe, Apple or even Google. I just wonder about buying into a company's view of everything I want to do. I like some Microsoft products and I like a bunch of Apple products. I use most of the Google services from Gmail to sites. But I don't like all of the products equally, and my sweet spot is a mashup of products from several companies. I want iCal, Excel, Google docs and analytics, DreamWeaver and InDesign. And I don't want to have to pay a subscription to each of these companies to use their products in the cloud. Just my opinion.
But the cloud? I love cloud computing the way I use it, and I'm not so paranoid about where the servers are. I realize other people are sensitive about that kind of thing, but I think personal preferences are an important issue here.
Okay - one piece of Microsoft bashing. The line "all backed by the security and guaranteed reliability you expect from Microsoft" gave me a moment of mirth.
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