Microsoft Introduces Office 365 Cloud Apps - InformationWeek

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Slideshow: Microsoft Office 2010 In PicturesMicrosoft announced Tuesday Office 365 for Small Business, intended for organizations with 1 to 25 users, as part of its cloud-based Office 365 service offerings.

Office 365 provides Microsoft Office 2010 Online, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online,and Lync Online in a single cloud-based service. This marks the first time all these applications are being made available as a single offering, according to the company.

According to Kurt Del Bene, president, Microsoft Office Division in the webcast announcement, the small-business offering includes mobile email and calendar; a public-facing website, plus team intranet and extranet sites, based on Microsoft SharePoint. It also includes video conferencing and Microsoft Office Web Apps, which are, according to Microsoft, "online companions to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote" that let users access, view, and edit documents directly from a web browser. The enterprise version includes additional features.

Tim Harmon, a principal analyst with Forrester Research, commented, "This is late to the game, but not too late, given that this leapfrogs beyond current offerings like GoogleApps and IBM's LotusLive. A combination of GoogleApps plus Box.net could offer somewhat comparable functions... this announcement may prompt Google to respond, possibly via an acquisition."

Users will access Office 365 via a web browser, on a subscription basis. Microsoft will be providing its cloud services through data centers, with a 99.99 SLA.

"I think that Office 365 will be more successful than Microsoft's BPOS by an order of magnitude," said Forrester's Harmon. "All our research shows that SMBs are becoming more mobile and more distributed, often with multiple, even virtual offices, and with more of their people on the road. For SMBs with these attributes, this is an important direction to consider."

Mobile workers and others may still want dual-deployment that includes local provisioning, for when there is no connectivity available, Harmon suggested.

Microsoft claims that Office 365 "works with the most popular browsers, smartphones and desktop applications people use today." According to Harmon, Microsoft said that Office 365 will work with the Internet Explorer, FireFox and Safari browsers, and will be supported on smartphones including BlackBerry, Android and iPhone. The subscription cost does not include BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Microsoft plans to add Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to Office 365 sometime later next year. According to the company, Office 365 will replace the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), Office Live Small Business and Live@edu.

The small-business version of Office 365 will be available for $6/user/month. Office 365 will be available next year, according to the company. A limited beta is available now, free, from www.office365.com.

SEE ALSO: Office 365: Microsoft's Next Big Cloud Platform

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Mossberg reviews, recommends Office for Mac 2011 - Apple Insider

Mossberg reviews, recommends Office for Mac 2011

By Josh Ong

Published: 10:30 PM EST

After reviewing Microsoft's upcoming Office for Mac 2011, which now includes Outlook, Walt Mossberg concluded that it was "by far the best Mac version of the suite" and recommended it to users.

The newest version of Microsoft's office suite is faster and better, although it is missing a few minor features from the Windows version, Mossberg said in his review for the Wall Street Journal. Office for Mac 2011 is due out Oct. 26.

One of the main draws of Office for Mac 2011 is the addition of Outlook, the email, calendar and contacts program popular with business users. Outlook, which has been built as a Cocoa application from the ground up, will replace Entourage, a Mac-specific email client bundled with previous versions of Office for Mac. Office for Mac 2011 will allow users to import Outlook data files, but it is currently unable to export its data to Windows.

Office for Mac 2011 also adds the ribbon interface that was added to Windows Office several years ago. However, unlike the Windows version, the ribbons can be disabled in favor of the more familiar menu and toolbars, which have been retained in the Mac version.

Though Office for Mac 2011 is missing several features from its Windows counterpart, it has also gained some Mac-only features. According to Mossberg, the "Dynamic Re-order" feature and a new Full Screen view with minimal distractions are features specific to the Mac. Pivot charts in Excel, full video editing in PowerPoint, and a "backstage" feature are missing from the Mac version.

Mossberg conducted several compatibility and fidelity tests between the Windows and Mac versions of Office with generally favorable results, especially with documents created in the most recent Windows version, Office 2010. Cross-compatibility between Windows and Mac versions of Office has been an issue in the past.

Office Mac 2011 is currently available for pre-order from Amazon.com, which is offering release-date delivery. The Home and Student edition is $110 while the Home and Business edition is priced at $175.

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