What Is Office 365?

Office 365 is Microsoft’s cloud for businesses. Designed around productivity and collaboration, Microsoft has integrated over 30 apps into the cloud platform. From email, file storage, and secure chat for teams, businesses around the world are empowering their users by improving productivity while cutting costs. Microsoft’s continued shift to cloud computing has had a significant impact on businesses.

Exchange Online is Microsoft Office 365’s cloud-based email solution. The industry-leading cloud solution is the most common app adopted by small businesses and Fortune 500 companies. Microsoft Exchange Online provides the benefits of a cloud-based email service with the robust capabilities of an on-premises server deployment. Simple to manage and rock-solid security has made Exchange Online the top business email service in the cloud. SPAM filters, compliance, e-discovery, and archiving are integrated directly into the platform. Since every user can have a mailbox up to 50GB in size and send and receive emails as large as 150MB, organizations can stop managing mailboxes and start being more productive.

OneDrive is Microsoft Office 365’s cloud-based file storage and sharing solution. Every user has their own secure OneDrive where they can work, sync, and share documents. Users can access OneDrive files using a web browser or keep the files synced to their computer for offline access. Once a file is stored in OneDrive, they can share the file with other users or with colleagues outside the organization. External users can be given a link or configured with their own username and password for additional security. All files are stored in a safe and secure data center and transmitted using the latest encryption technology.

Microsoft Teams is one of the latest apps added to the Office 365 toolset. Designed for the fast-based business world, organizations can use Teams to create real-time group chat for text, audio, and video communication. Each team has their own private area where they can link to different sites, apps, and more. Employees can chat in real time, share documents, start private chats, or integrate their channel with a ton of different third-party applications. Teams is seeing widespread use to help teams collaborate faster to get more done. Microsoft has developed an app for virtually all devices to keep up with the growing demand of today’s business world.

Spanning across all major industries worldwide, the adoption rate for Office 365 continues to beat expectations. Over 70% of Fortune 500 companies have bought Office 365. From small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, the return on investment is hard to ignore. Information technology spending has decreased by 15% for organizations using cloud services. Despite the lower cost of cloud computing, productivity has sky rocketed over 18%.

John Gruber is a Collaboration Engineer and is responsible for helping customers manage and maintain Microsoft Office 365. John brings 10 years of information technology (IT) experience, helping small and large organizations across North America. Follow him on Twitter @gruberjl or visit http://gitbit.org.