In this article I will try to explain what O365 is and how it can be used. With Office 365 Microsoft is providing the office.com platform that allows using the office suite in the browser or as an installed app and allowes the integration of third party products.

Another big difference to the previous office versions is licensing. You do not buy and own the software anymore, you rather rent them for a monthly price. The subscription fee is depending on what apps you want to use.

Depending on the license type you also get an Exchange Online License with a 50GB inbox with your subscription. While it is hard to justify renting the office suite when it comes down to numbers, this is a real game changer. No on-prem Exchange Server means no need for updates, maintenance and migrations (e.g. money and downtime).

The same goes for Azure Active-Directory that might replace an on-prem DC.

I wont comment on data privacy regarding the 1TB OneDrive Cloudstorage comming with the lincese.

The O365 wikipedia page provides quite a good overview.

 

The O365 Products

Main Online- oder Desktop Apps:

• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• OneNote
• Outlook

Other Products are:

• Publisher
• Access
• OneDrive
• Skype for Business
• OneNote
• SharePoint
• Flow
• Tasks (Oultlook Desktop App integrated)
• Calendar (Oultlook Desktop App integrated)
• Dynamics 365 (ERP and CRM tool)
• Forms (Umfrage, Fragebögen, Anforderungsformulare)

Also you have acces to third party apps using the store.

Cheers, Ori