Microsoft Office 365 Continues to Grow

One thing is proving certain. Microsoft is one of the winners in the cloud. Almost three years ago we decided to retire our on premises Microsoft Exchange (email) server in favor of cloud services. For us was simply a decision of limited technology staff but the goal of actually enhancing software services throughout the organization's departments. At that time government adoption of cloud services was just beginning and now 3 years later it seems to be growing within the private & public sectors alike.

Microsoft managed to bag another big deal after the government of US approved contract of subscription based productivity suite Office 365 for one of it's departments. The PEO-EIS that manages a variety of contracting programs for the Army awarded 50,000 seats of Microsoft Office 365 to Microsoft and Dell, together since Dell, delivers the service; Microsoft doesn’t sell directly to the government.

Microsoft Office 365 for the U.S. Department of Defense

Following the announcement, Microsoft will start implementing its own Office 365 productivity software that includes Office 365′s email, calendar, Office Web Apps, Lync, and SharePoint features.

Our cloud solutions are becoming the choice across our public sector organizations who recognize the essential importance of security and reliability for their organizations, said Curt Kolcun, Microsoft VP for U.S. Public Sector. He further added,
The Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) is available to any Department of Defense (DoD) Service, agency and mission partner without additional competitive process. This opportunity gives Microsoft the ability to work with civilian agencies and federal entities at all levels to provide commercial cloud services, opening up new mobile opportunities”.

The contract bagged by Microsoft rests on the decision made by the Defense Department to adopt commercial products and cloud services for developing its communication system and therefore s victory for Microsoft.

Currently over a million state, local and federal government employees are using Office 365. So, this isn’t the first major deal Microsoft has signed for its Office 365 solution. Municipalities and organizations across the US have already partnered with Redmond, Microsoft also in recent weeks received provisional authority to operate its Windows Azure and cloud infrastructure for federal agencies, from a joint Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) board.

Microsoft's Cloud Gets Cheaper

Cloud storage is becoming cheaper every day. Does anyone else remember the day when you would pay about 100 bucks for a 10MB disc drive! Things have changed so radically that in many cases, it becomes free. Microsoft announced that it will triple the amount of space on SkyDrive Pro and doubling the capacity of Exchange Online. Microsoft now exceeds free cloud storage from other options on the market.

According to ZDNet, the inbox of users Exchange Online and Office 365 will increase from 25 to 50 GB. The change will be slow, and will reach customers in the coming months. “There is a price increase associated with this change. Fold the mail is part of our promise to add value to our clients for Office 365" wrote Stephen Brown, marketing manager for the Exchange team.

There are different plans to use cloud services from Microsoft. Customers who are in the Exchange Online Plan 1, Office 365 Small Business, Enterprise E1, G1 Government and Education A1 should be seeing the change in the coming weeks.

The market for cloud storage is constantly changing. Recently, Box announced it will give away 10 GB while Google Apps offers 30 GB between Drive and Gmail. Companies that need a cloud solution have several options. And the more options, the better the solutions.

This is especially good news for organizations like the Borough of West Chester who are customers of Microsoft 365!

Office Invades Android

Microsoft has launched the official Office Mobile for 365 app on Android as promised. Similar to the iOS version, users will need an Office 365 subscription to be able to use it for both viewing and editing of documents.

In order to use it, you’ll have to be an Office 365 subscriber, with plans starting at $60 a year for a single user.

 

Like every other Microsoft app, Office for Android has a beautiful UI, and the necessary changes have been made to adapt it to the Holo interface of the OS while keeping a consistent look across all platforms. It has considerably more editing options than Google’s Drive app, and you can view all Office documents and create and edit Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files.

Any offline edits you make are synced to the cloud, and a list of recently-updated documents syncs with the desktop version of Office 365. There’s also a sharing and commenting system, and access to SkyDrive and Sharepoint, with word documents downloaded from SkyDrive resuming from where you left off previously on mobile, PC, or tablet.
Speaking of tablets, Office Mobile does not have a tablet version, which was a glaring omission on iOS as well. This is presumably to keep the app exclusive to Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets.

So, is the much-anticipated arrival worth the admission price for actually using Office Mobile on Android? If you’re already an Office 365 subscriber, then it’s a no-brainer.

Office 365 Arrives @ Apple - Sort Of

Timing is everything. We here at the Borough of West Chester have been in Microsoft's (email) cloud for over 2 years now and in fact just a couple weeks ago we were upgraded to Microsoft 365. This week after more than a year of rumors, Microsoft has finally released a version of its Office suite for the iPhone (yes the iPhone). If you use an iPhone you can now access Office 365 from your smartphone.



Office 365 in the iPhone App Store!

The app, available for subscribers of Office 365, includes iPhone versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which will allow you to create, edit, and update all of your documents and sync them with Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage service.

However the app is currently only being offered for the iPhone, not the iPad. You can get around this somewhat by searching in the store for it on your iPad but selecting iPhone apps. Once downloaded you will need to increase the size (2x) to fill your screen. Until a true iPad app is available this is the only option if you want to access your Office 365 account on your iPad.

Here is How to Setup Office 365 on Your iPhone or iPad

1. Search for Office 365 in the app store. If you are using an iPad make sure to select "iPhone Apps" or you will not see it. The app is free so there is no reason not to install it - if you have an Office 365 account.

2. Once downloaded slide through the short tutorial and at the end you will be promoted to log into to your account. Select "I have an Office 365 subscription" and enter your email address to activate Office.

3. It will then ask you what type of account you have. Select "Organizational Account".

4. Once completed you will have access to any documents you have saved in SkyDrive or SharePoint.

5. If you have an additional Skydrive account you can add it by selecting the "Open" folder and choosing Add a Place.

With Microsoft now selling Office 365 as a subscription service to consumers I am sure a true iPad app as well one for Android devices is around the corner as well. Stay tuned.