Microsoft Office 365: pros and cons

What is Office 365?

Traditionally, Microsoft Office has been a software application that is downloaded and installed on one or more PCs with a single or multi-user license agreement.

First introduced in 2010 and expanded in 2013 to include new plans, Microsoft Office 365 is a pay-as-you-go subscription version that provides ONLINE access to various software and services that eliminate the need for your own Microsoft Small Business Server. Typically plans can include:

• Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Publisher, Excel, etc.)
• Microsoft Exchange Online (hosted email)
• Microsoft Lync 2010 (communication server)
• Sharepoint document management (document server)
• Skydrive storage
• Malware protection

So is MS Office 365 right for you and your business?

The pros of Office 365

• Its applications can be accessed through any device (including mobile), through any web browser, as long as you have the correct permissions and access to an Internet connection (even wi-fi).
• Reduced capital expenditures
• Instead of paying for new versions, Office 365 updates are automatically included in your subscription
• Multiple users can have access to the same documents, for example, you can store documents in Sharepoint 2010 and have the ability to make changes, review versions, or even leave notes for your colleagues.
• Eliminate any infrastructure problems in case you need to relocate the office.
• Greater server stability, with a high uptime SLA. (assumes network reliability)

The cons of Office 365

• Your data is stored ‘in the cloud’ in Microsoft data centers, so it is dependent on both network and bandwidth. If your internet connection fails, you will lose access to your software and data until it is restored
• You have very little control over this ‘cloud’ environment in which your data is stored, while there are uptime guarantees that any failure in the data center infrastructure can have a direct impact on the availability of Office 365. Yes Microsoft or other high-end data center provider outages happen, small businesses have no leverage.
• You may feel that there are higher security risks associated with storing data “online”. If this is a key factor for your business, there are upgrade options available, but they could be cost prohibitive.
• Application performance may be slower over an internet connection, especially if you have home users with lower internet connectivity and broadband speeds. This could have the effect of reducing productivity.
• There are limits on the number of email recipients you can have in a 24 hour period.

Ultimately, if you are considering moving to Office 365, you should evaluate its suitability based on your own individual business requirements. How would your business be affected if you were unable to access the applications? Are the possible security implications a problem? What budget do you have available? Do you have any internal IT support? Will you still need a local server for certain requirements?

With any IT decision, it is always best to seek help identifying the impact on your business and how to minimize any potential risk.