Microsoft Office 365

Office 365 is a subscription software and online service operated by Microsoft that can be used in Central Europe since October 2010. He is with Google Docs and Zoho Office Suite and includes comparable depending on your rate, among other Exchange Online, Lync Online, SharePoint Online, Office Web Apps, the classic Microsoft Office software as well as Skype and OneDrive.

History

Office 365 goes back to the so-called Business Productivity Online Suite ( BPOS short ), which had offered exclusively for small and medium businesses Microsoft. In October 2010, Office 365 was officially presented as a successor. After a closed beta test Office 365 was transferred in June 2011 in regular operation. It was then announced that the existing offer ( BPOS or Office Live ) will set no later than 1 May 2012.

Since the introduction of Office 2013, Microsoft offers the service also individuals. As part of to be paid monthly or yearly subscriptions to the buyer acquires the right to the desktop software on two or five devices to install, plus additional space for OneDrive, free minutes for Skype and access to the Office Web Apps. Microsoft announced in May 2013, the latest version of Office 365 had been sold since its introduction over 10 million times. The end of 2013, the Group starts the Student Advantage program, can obtain a free license for Office 365 Pro Plus on the learners of the participating educational institutions in Dream Park shop.

Variants

Unlike Google Docs, for a single price, Microsoft Office 365 offers several tariffs at. With the release of Office 2013 included the following steps:

  • Office 365 Home Premium, including Microsoft Office, Office Web Apps, OneDrive and Skype
  • Office 365 University, including Microsoft Office, Office Web Apps, OneDrive and Skype
  • Office 365 Small Business, including Exchange Online, Lync Online and SharePoint Online Office 365 Small Business Premium, in addition to Microsoft Office
  • Variants in the Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3 Enterprise and Enterprise E4
  • Enterprise E3 with unlimited Exchange online archive for storage of e-mails and Microsoft Office
  • Enterprise E4 E3 as well as with a Lync Plus CAL for one to be operated even Lync Server

In Office 365 Enterprise licenses also for individual services, for example, only for Exchange Online are available in addition to the variants E1, E3 and E4. Likewise, there are there options for people without their own computer ( so-called kiosk users).

Office 365 Small Business is limited to 25 users. It is possible to switch between the different rates, but not between the various stages. This means that for example a switch from Office 365 Small Business to Office 365 Enterprise on acquisition of existing data is not possible, but probably of small business on Small Business Premium.

Software

With Exchange Online, Lync Online and SharePoint Online are services that are provided in the cloud. This means that the user does not have to worry about maintenance of the programs or the administration of a server. Updates are also automatically installed and are available immediately. The office package Microsoft Office Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Co. can be either fully downloaded and installed or streamed. The latter means that the applications are downloaded from the Internet and not permanently established. The function is only possible on a computer running Windows 7 or Windows 8, older versions of the OS and OS X are not supported.

Microsoft a guaranteed availability of all applications and services in Office 365 from 99.9 percent the year.

With the introduction of Office 365, Microsoft has begun to produce software for smartphones and tablets from other manufacturers, to facilitate the access to Office 365. These include, for example, Lync for Android and iOS that allow a VoIP connection, as well as SharePoint News Feed for the iPhone and iPad. Since June 2013, there are also Office Mobile for iPhone that allows editing of Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on the iPhone. This requires an active subscription for Office 365

Criticism

With the publication of the first version of the service, it was not possible to edit a document simultaneously by two users. Experts assessed this as an essential function, without which a competition with Google Docs is possible only insufficiently. Microsoft responded with an update that was put online in July 2011. At this time, Office 365 had about 50 million users.

In June 2011, Microsoft admitted publicly to have granted access to secure data within the European Union because of the Patriot Act, and in spite of the Safe Harbour Agreement, U.S. intelligence agencies. However, Microsoft has once again asserted their consistent adherence to European and German data protection directives in a press conference on data protection in the cloud on 5 December 2011.

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