After months of testing, Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity suite Office 365 is finally ready for the masses.
The software giant announced yesterday that Microsoft Office 365 is now available in 40 markets. The service, which was introduced in beta last year, brings together several of Microsoft’s most popular enterprise products: Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync.
However, rather than purchase a disk and install the programs, Office 365 is available through the cloud as a Software-as-a-Service, meaning users can simply pay a monthly subscription to use the software, rather than purchase it outright.
This delivery model, Microsoft said, will ensure users always have access to the most up-to-date version of its software, and it will allow for greater collaboration among employees, who can simply share documents and files with one another in the cloud.
“Great collaboration is critical to business growth, and because it’s so important, we believe the best collaboration technology should be available to everyone,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a release.
In addition to smartphones and tablets, cloud computing has been one of the hottest technology topics in recent years, particularly in the enterprise sector. As more companies deploy the technology, the global cloud market is expected to reach $241 billion by 2020, according to Forrester Research.
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