What is Office 365?
Traditionally, Microsoft Office is really a software application which you download and install onto a number PC’s beneath a single or multiple user license agreement.
First introduced really and expanded in 2013 to incorporate new plans, Microsoft Office 365 is really a pay-as-you-go subscription version providing ONLINE usage of various software and services taking off the need to have your individual Microsoft Small Business Server. Typically the plans range from:
Microsoft Office Suite (word, publisher, excel etc)
Microsoft Exchange Online (hosted email)
Microsoft Lync 2010 (communications server)
Sharepoint Document Management (document server)
Skydrive Storage
Malware Protection
So is MS Office 365 meets your needs and your business?
The Pros of Office 365
Your applications is usually accessed via any device (including mobile), through any internet browser as long as you hold the correct permissions and having access to an connection to the web, (even wi-fi).
Reduced capital expenditure
Instead of handing over for new versions, Office 365 upgrades are automatically included inside your subscription
Multiple users can have having access to the same documents, by way of example you can store documents in Sharepoint 2010 and develop the ability to make changes, review versions or perhaps leave notes for colleagues.
Removes any infrastructure headaches if you ever need to undertake office relocation.
Greater server stability, that has a high uptime Service Level Agreement. (assumes network reliability)
The Cons of Office 365
Your information is stored in 'the Cloud' in Microsoft Data Centres so that you are just a few both network and bandwidth. If your net connection fails you may lose use of your software and data until it really is restored
You have little control over this 'cloud' environment your results are stored in, whilst you will find uptime guarantees any datacentre infrastructure failure may have a direct influence on the availability of Office 365. If Microsoft or another high end Data Centre provider outages occur, smaller businesses have no leverage.
You may consider there being higher security risks connected with 'online' data storage. If this can be a key factor for the business, you'll find upgrade possibilities open but they might be cost prohibitive.
Application performance could possibly be slower over a net connection, particularly if you have web based users with inferior internet connectivity and broadband speeds. This could possess the knock on effect of reducing productivity
There are limits on the number of email recipients you might have within a round the clock period