Microsoft Gets into the Cloud; Meet Office 365

Microsoft is finally dipping into the cloud after Google took the world by storm. Soon ready with a tasty treat called Office 365, Microsoft is hoping to revolutionize the way people work.

Office 365 is an online Office/email/file sharing/collaboration/project management service that aims to compete with Google, but geared specifically for businesses. PowerPoint, Excel, Word? Online and available anywhere! Multiple people can open the same document at the same time and edit, etc. Full, robust e-mail with 25GB of space? Online and available anywhere, on any device even (full Mac, iPhone, Android, PC, Windows Phone, and Blackberry support, mmm no more Mac/PC weirdness), built in chat system, scheduling, feeds, social networking, and the list goes on...

Check out their site to learn more:
http://office365.microsoft.com/en-US/online-services.aspx

I wasn't sure Microsoft would be able to pull it off, but after watching the videos and reading up on it, I am really interested in trying it out. We have been looking at possibly switching to Google Apps, but it looks like we may have a serious alternative that is going to make our decision even harder. I am looking forward to hopefully being able to test it out in the beta... fingers crossed. Come on MS let me try it out! *wink wink*

Of course the downside to the cloud (with Google, MS, or any company really) is that if the internet goes down or you can't get to an internet connection, well... looks like you get some time off until things are back up and running, ha. I am not certain that Office 365 has an "offline" version or mode included, but I will be keeping a close eye on this one.

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