Cloud – Office 365
Microsoft Office 365 brings together cloud versions of the most trusted communications and collaboration products with the latest version of Microsoft Office for businesses of all sizes.
What is it?
Microsoft Office 365 provides cloud based email, collaboration, and communications.
You need no on premise servers, and Microsoft takes care of management in maintenance in secure enterprise class data centres that you connect to over the internet. 99.9% uptime is guaranteed, and Microsoft takes care of operational best practice, backups, disaster recovery, security, and updates.
You simply pay a monthly per user subscription.
You can connect from anywhere using PCs, laptops, or mobile devices (including Blackberrys).
The products provided are Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Lync, and Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010.
What are the benefits?
Cloud services generally result in lower IT expenses and greater capabilities, because they remove the need to maintain and administer services yourself. This allow you and your employees to focus on more strategic objectives. Further benefits include
Lower initial capital costs and predictable recurring expenses. With cloud based services there is no need for a large up-front infrastructure investment. There is a shift from CAPEX to OPEX.
More flexibility and scalability. You can easily scale up or down as you need to, without significant investment, or lengthy disruptive on site projects.
Rapid deployment. With no hardware to set up, you can be up and running quickly.
Easier to share information. You can access information from anywhere with an internet connection.
How can PointBeyond help?
Moving services to the cloud has the potential to lower IT expenditure and free up resources.
PointBeyond can help you to plan and assess your needs and to select the appropriate solution.
We can get everything set up for you, and ensure that your transition is smooth and seamless.
If you need further customisation or data integration, then of course our experts are on hand to assist.
Finally we can assist with training and ongoing support.
Contact us for a demo, a free trial, or more information.
An Office 365 fact sheet can be downloaded here.
Request a free trial today. A free, no obligation trial will allow you to evaluate these tools for yourself. Contact us to get your trial set up.
Is it secure? It’s a question that we frequently get asked, and something that Microsoft has taken very seriously in providing its cloud based services. Services are based on the Trustworthy Computing Initiative, and services meet at least half a dozen standards including ISO 27001, SAS 70 Type I and Type II, and TIC. The reality is that in the right hands, your messaging and collaboration applications are likely more secure, more available, and more scalable than if you were bearing the expense and effort of operating those services yourself.
For more information download this white paper: Security Features in Microsoft Online Services.
