Microsoft announces next stage of cloud strategy: Office 365

Filed under: Utilities, Office, Microsoft

If the screenshot above seems a bit grainy, it's because I snapped it off of a live video that Microsoft has just finished streaming. It was a 30-minute event announcing Office 365, which is a very bold foray into the cloud for Microsoft. Some of the highlights of the announcement:

• Full access to Microsoft Word and Excel -- plus video conferencing, quick-setup website, intranet, extranet, and more
• Subscription-based -- from $2-$27 per month per user, with the average small-business user coming in at $6/month
• Single-sign on - log on to your PC (or phone), and you're logged onto the entire system
• IT administrators have almost full control -- just like local installations, the administrator will be able to configure how a user can interact with the system

Microsoft's idea for enterprises is that the whole place would run on a single platform; so the CTO will use the exact same system and infrastructure as the guys down at the mail room, but each user will only get "what they need" (which explains the wide price range).

It sure sounds interesting, but I'm afraid I can't show you any in-product screenshots yet because this is an announcement rather than a launch. The product will be generally available sometime in 2011, but beta signups do begin today over at office365.com. Just to show you how fresh off the press this is (or how unprepared Microsoft is), the Office365.com website isn't even ready yet - as of this writing, it still hosts the website for an IT company from Melbourne, which was apparently the domain's previous owner.

At any rate, Microsoft says that both large organizations and tiny businesses can benefit from Office365, so if any of this sounds interesting, go sign up for the beta! (It should be up from 3PM EST, but we'll see!)

Microsoft announces next stage of cloud strategy: Office 365 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/10/19/microsoft-announces-office-365-beta-sign-ups-begin-today/

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