The Brand New Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 is a huge departure from former versions offered by Microsoft. The new Mcrosoft Office 365  is a cloud friendly, web based service.  It not only offers cloud based services, it is now available as a subscription based service.  This is a huge shift for Microsoft, which formerly only charged a one time fee for their service.  With the new subscription based service, you will have access to all updates as they become available.

For many people, cloud computing is a necessity.  People want to be able to have instant access  to their email or documents, wherever they are.  Perhaps due to this reality, and perhaps as a way of competing with Google Drive,  Microsoft Office 365 now offers 20GB of SkyDrive space.  This is in addition to the 7GB which is already offered for free by Microsoft. So if you store any of your Office files in SkyDrive you will be able to access them from any device that is connected to the web.

Another feature included is Office on Demand.  This service allows you to stream Office to PCs that don’t actually have the suite installed. The package also includes 60 free minutes of Skype calls, to landlines, per month.  Of course, all of the major Office applications are included as well.  This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, and Publisher.  Office 365 Small Business Premium also comes with Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync.

Office 365 Home Premium is available for either $99.99 a year or $9.99 per month, and covers up to five computers per household.  The PC and Mac versions are both available as part of the package.   Office 365 Small Business Premium is available for $150.00 per year.  Teachers and college students will get a break in the subscription pricing. Microsoft Office 365 will be available to those users for $80 for four years.  Other subscription information is available on Microsoft’s website.

[Image via corbystudio]