Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 (often called Microsoft 365 or Office 365) is a Web-based version of Microsoft's Office suite of enterprise-grade productivity applications. Office 365 is delivered to users through the cloud and includes Exchange Online for email, SharePoint Online for collaboration, Lync Online for unified communications, and a suite of Office Web Apps, Web-based versions of the traditional Microsoft Office suite of applications.

The product was first announced in October, 2010 but not made widely available until June, 2011. This new Microsoft Office suite was essentially designed to replace the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite for corporate users, however Office 365 offers numerous plans to suit the needs of home and business users in addition to corporate users. 365 users have the option of accessing the applications in Microsoft Office 2010 Professional via a monthly subscription.

Microsoft 365 is part of Microsoft's Software Plus Services strategy, combining the advantages of cloud-based remote computing software options with the company’s traditional base of on-premises software offerings. One advantage of Office 365 is that it is regularly updated approximately every 90 days and users are not required to pay upgrade fees.