An Early Look At Microsoft Office 365 Features

On June 28, 2011, Microsoft launched Office 365 in 40 countries after a massive public beta involving 200,000 organizations from every region. This product encompasses Office Professional Plus and the online 2010 versions of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync with sufficient features to handle many firms' collaboration requirements. The benefits include subscription pricing, lower server and administrative costs, always-current software, and anywhere access. But not every feature from the on-premises versions is available. For example, Lync Online doesn't have the same level of integration with telephony infrastructure and can't do conferencing due to regulatory constraints in many countries. SharePoint Online doesn't have the same capability to run custom code. Before contemplating a move to Office 365, examine the feature and operational differences between it and the on-premises servers.