Articles about Office 365

If there's one common request I get from readers via email, it's that they want an updated deep dive on my thoughts regarding the whole Office 365 vs Google Apps debate. It's a topic I've written about on numerous occasions in the past -- dissecting the facts, wading through the FUD, and piecing together my honest opinion on who comes out on top.

But it has been years since I dove into the crux of the debate, honing in on why one suite beats another in the important aspects that set them apart. And in the world of IT, years is an eternity.

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The shifting of systems to the cloud has an effect on many areas of the enterprise, not least IT. The role of IT professionals is beginning to enter new territory.

In the latest of its Trends in Cloud IT series automated management specialist BetterCloud looks at how the emergence of the cloud is altering perceptions. It's freeing up valuable time that cloud IT admins are using to become proactive decision makers in their organizations, rather than simply reacting to problems.

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Microsoft today announces a number of changes to the online version of Outlook. One of the biggest updates sees the rollout of a new, cleaner interface which Microsoft says helps to improve efficiency. In addition to aesthetic alterations, there are also a number of new tools that make it easier to manage an inbox.

There is also something of a rebranding taking place. The Outlook Web App (OWA) is no more; say hello to Outlook on the web. The new name is a minor change, however. The big news today are the visual and productivity updates.

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Anyone reliant on Office for their day to day computing just gained two new weapons in their arsenal. Google has created a plugin that adds built in support for Google Drive, and automation fans will be pleased to learn that Office 365 channels have now gone live on IFTTT. But this is not the only new cloud-based tool.

It has long been possible to use Google Drive in conjunction with Office, but it has meant having to use the middleman of a local folder synchronized using the Google Drive app. The new plugin lets you cut straight to the chase and save directly to Google Drive -- handy if you don’t want or need a local copy.

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Despite being able to communicate with friends, family, and co-workers in myriad different ways, email remains incredibly popular. However, if you just want to send a quick message, ask a question, or fire off a reply, it’s often not as speedy or convenient as text messaging.

Send, from Microsoft Garage, is a new app that makes sending quick emails as easy as texting, without the need for a subject line, greeting, or signature.

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One of the main reasons businesses move their systems to the cloud is to save money. Where business communications are concerned the savings can be significant but can lead to having yet another separate platform.

Now though business communications specialist RingCentral is announcing the integration of RingCentral Office with Microsoft Office 365. This blends RingCentral's cloud business phone system with Microsoft's cloud productivity work environment, giving joint customers a powerful solution.

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Microsoft Office is the best office suite on the planet. Nothing annoys me more than when someone suggests that LibreOffice is a comparable solution. If you are a home user, sure, you can get by with a limited word processor and spreadsheet offering. If you are a business owner, however, you are crazy to use anything other than Microsoft Office.

Today, GE -- one of the world's most respected companies -- announces that it chose Microsoft Office 365 for its 300,000+ employees. Not only is GE's decision very wise, but it is a huge win for Microsoft too.

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After testing its productivity suite for more than four months and pushing seven updates to it, Microsoft today announces that it is releasing Office 2016 for Mac users. Available in 139 countries and in 16 languages, the productivity suite is now ready for Office 365 subscribers to snag. Those who want a standalone version of it will have to wait till September, however.

In its latest version of Office, the company is betting on the cloud power and integration. It says that with Office 2016, users will be able to access their documents "anytime, anywhere, and on any device". Office 2016 integrates with a number of popular services including Office 365, of course, as well as OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint.

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Eric Ligman, Microsoft Director of Worldwide Partner Experience is once again giving away a large collection of useful eBooks covering widely used products including Windows 8 and 8.1, Windows 7, OneNote, Skype, Office 2013, Office 365, Azure, and Lync 2013. Since his last mega giveaway, Eric has added a bunch of new topics including Windows 10.

Ligman is not a new, or an unknown name in the field. He has been writing guides for years now and has written close to 500 of those so far. His eBooks are very popular among tech enthusiasts, and business people, as well as regular home users who just want to get their work done.

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Google and Microsoft are the two big players in the cloud office suite market. But what do the customers of each look like and how are they implementing and using the software?

Cloud management specialist BetterCloud has released the results of a survey of 1,500 IT professionals looking at customers of both systems, the age and size of their companies, cost-savings for each, and when companies will achieve 100 percent cloud use.

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Office 365 debuted with the last release of the software, bringing the service to what Microsoft has always likely wanted -- a subscription. It's a decent deal with five licenses and the ability to move them to new computers.

Now the software giant is rolling out one-click app access in its Office 365 store. The company is trying to make things as simple as possible, by adding the store and deployment without admin support. No configuration or admin support? That sounds like an IT nightmare, but hopefully Microsoft is vetting everything before it goes live.

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Increasingly mobile workforces have led to a loss of data control. Information on laptops and smart phones as well as within multiple cloud applications means increased risk of company data loss and the inability to track, hold or monitor data for regulatory compliance and legal obligations.

Data protection specialist Druva is announcing Microsoft Office 365 integration of its InSync product, offering a centralized conduit for enterprises to manage this dispersed data.

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With distributed networks, virtual servers and the cloud, corporate data is increasingly stored in lots of different places, making backup and business continuity more of a challenge.

Following its acquisition of Backupify in December last year, backup and recovery specialist Datto is launching a range of new products and enhancements designed to protect data no matter where it resides -- across on-premise physical or virtual servers or in the cloud via SaaS applications.

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Cloud management specialist BetterCloud has released the results of its latest survey into the pace of cloud adoption in businesses.

The survey of 1,500 IT professionals from 53 countries also looks at the differences in cloud office systems and their customers, the current and expected usage rates for cloud applications, and the effects of cloud office systems on productivity, collaboration, cost savings and more.

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Social integration is a key aspect of Microsoft's vision for its most prominent consumer-facing products. For instance, on Outlook.com you can have a Skype conversation, on Skype you can chat with Facebook friends, and on Windows Phone you can see your contacts' social updates, like tweets, in People hub. This is one of my favorite things about the software giant's products. It is also a standout feature that its rivals are not yet offering.

A core component is Facebook integration, which is present in Windows and Windows Phone, as well as Office 365, OneDrive and Outlook.com. But, thanks to an update to Facebook's Graph API, integration with the most-popular social network is going away in all currently-supported products.

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