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Microsoft Office Suite Offers Cloud Computing Capabilities

October 3, 2016 by Lore Marketing Team

Businesses nationwide have embraced Microsoft Office Suite and Office 365 as their cloud-computing infrastructure. Last year, there were almost 50 million Office 365 users. This put Office 365 on track to being a $6.3 billion business, while offering the means for users to increase their revenue with its full suite of applications and software.

Microsoft Office suite consists of the following:

  • Word
  • Excel
  • PowerPoint
  • OneNote
  • Outlook
  • Access
  • Publisher
  • OneDrive

OneDrive offers online storage. This is where locally installed Microsoft Office meets Office 365 to provide cloud computing capabilities.

OneDrive includes personal and business versions. OneDrive for Businesses provides a “cloud-based storage service, offered through various Office 365 subscription plans,” according to Reuben Krippner. “It’s a window to all files in Office 365.”

With OneDrive for Businesses, users can create, access, and edit files from any device; including desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone – thanks to Microsoft Office iOS and Android apps. One of the many features of the cloud-based system is the notification feature, which allows for real-time collaboration on Office documents. When one user begins working on a shared file, a notification is sent to all users who have access, who then have the option to open the app for real-time multi-user collaboration.

How Microsoft Office Suite Cloud Capabilities Help Business IT

IT departments often have the challenging job of managing all of a business’ applications and software on its servers, in addition to making changes as the business’ needs change over time. IT workers must also ensure PCs run continuously and efficiently while keeping the servers incorporating all of the business’ applications and software needs onto its server. Managing that server, applications and software can be quite cumbersome as a business grows. It’s why TechRepublic reports “burnout is an ever increasing concern as budgets become tighter and workloads increase.” The consequence of this burnout is decreasing retention rates for IT workers, and repeated talent acquisition can be costly for growing company. . Microsoft Office Suite with OneDrive for Business is an effective way to reduce stress for IT workers, because of its Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

The SaaS model allows users to only use the applications they need for their business. It runs on a cloud infrastructure, and in this case, Microsoft’s server. This allows for cloud computing from various devices. The SaaS provider (Microsoft) manages everything that has to do with the efficiency of the applications such as load balancing, firewalls, manual updates for operating systems, and runtime environments. Users also don’t have to deal with cloud infrastructures and everything that comes along with them like networks, servers, operating systems and storage.

Customization is still a possibility for user-specific applications. APIs are also available for developers.

Upcoming Advancements for Microsoft Office Suite

Microsoft Office Suite will be seeing some improvements over the next few months. This isn’t surprise, as Microsoft often updates their applications to meet the needs of tomorrow’s businesses. Some of the upcoming features include:

  • The ability for users to control their SharePoint and OneDrive encryption keys
  • Label SharePoint sites to classify them with such labels as “Confidential”
  • Access to audit logs as part of Office 365’s Security and Compliance Center

Mobile improvements are also on the horizon. Android and Windows devices will have the capabilities to see how many times people discover and view files stored in OneDrive. Notifications about when files are shared will be included on Windows devices – they are already on Android and iOS devices.

Desktop improvements are scheduled to be released before the end of 2016. Users will be able to access and edit all of their files in OneDrive and SharePoint Online using a browser. Thumbnail views from Adobe and other video and photo files will also be integrated. These features and many others are highly anticipated by users.

Transitioning to Microsoft Office for Businesses

It takes an experienced professional to transition to Microsoft Office Suite and Office 365. As any IT specialist knows, transitioning servers, configuring applications and software is not done haphazardly. To ensure all data is transferred seamlessly, someone who is skilled at transitioning businesses to a system such as Office 365 is critical.

Contact us today for more information on upgrading your business to Microsoft Office Suite and Office 365.