Announcement of office 365 (codename “Union”), Microsoft’s Next Generation Productivity Services. This product will arrive next year
Office 365 wil come in 2 sizes: Office 365 for small businesses and Office 365 for Enterprises.
Office 365 for small businesses
A small business can be up and running with Office 365 in just 15 minutes. It will give them Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online and an external website for just $6 or 5.25 euros per user, per month
Office 365 for enterprises
This version will start at $2 or €1.75 per user, per month for basic e-mail, the so called KIOSK version, the will include:
- 500 MB email storage per mailbox
- POP3 access for mobile connectivity
- Outlook Web App for email access on a PC
- Ability to view SharePoint sites to stay informed
- Office Web Apps (with certain plans)
- Single IT management console to easily add users and administer between plans
The full enterprise version will have:
- Large 25 GB mailboxes and the ability to send attachments up to 25 MB
- Financially-backed, guaranteed 99.9% uptime Service Level Agreement
- 24/7, IT-level support over the phone, the web or email
- Single sign on capabilities with Active Directory deployment
- Latest version of Office Professional Plus – connecting users to communication and collaboration services
- Office Web Apps for viewing, sharing and minor editing of documents directly from a browser
- Industry-leading, always-up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spam solutions
Integrated IM and presence, online meetings with audio and video conferencing and multiparty data sharing
- Team sites to share, manage and search for information and resources
Existing BPOS Customers will receive the same services with some new enhancements for the same price as they pay today ($10, €9 per user per month).
- Single sign on (!!!)
- New Outlook Web App
- Email archiving, retention and cross mailbox search
- View documents using Office Web Apps
- Increased SharePoint storage
- My Sites and other new team sites
- Site search capabilities
Office 365 for enterprises also includes the option to get Microsoft Office Professional Plus desktop software on a pay-as-you-go basis, for the first time ever. For $24 or 22.75 euros per user, per month, organizations can get Office Professional Plus along with e-mail, voicemail, enterprise social networking, instant messaging, Web portals, extranets, voiceconferencing and videoconferencing, webconferencing, 24×7 phone support, on-premises licenses, and more.
I think this product could be “it”. Especially when you consider there will be a 1 user license, all those owner managed businesses will benefit from this cloud service. With this release Microsoft definitely embraces the cloud as the Next Platform.
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