There are many advantages your organization will achieve with Office 365; however here are the top ten reasons why we think Office 365 is the best cloud platform available:
#10 – Easy Administration
Cloud solutions should be easy to administer allowing organizations to become self-sufficient. Office 365 allows you to easily add new users, reset passwords, add services and storage, and much more through an easy to use web based interface.
#9 – Scalability
Let’s say your firm just won a major new contract, that’s wonderful! But now you need to hire 20 new employees. Normally, you would be faced with the difficult prospect of procuring, installing, and maintaining additional equipment and software. Now with Office 365, an organization can scale from 100 to 1000 overnight. Office 365 is built for organizations as small as a few staff members up to a Fortune 500. For example, Patagonia, JetBlue, and the American Heart Association are just some of the newest Enterprise customers of Office 365. Just add the licenses you need to your account and the services are available immediately!
#8 – Security
A common myth about cloud computing is that it is somehow less secure then hosting your own servers and data onsite. However, organizations typically invest very little in security for their networks to ensure their data and applications are adequately protected. Often their security investments are limited to a single firewall.
Microsoft spends millions of dollars annually to ensure your data is safe and secure. This includes extensive physical security at their datacenters, intrusion detection systems, and a crack team of security professionals that monitor your systems around the clock.
#7 – Disaster Recovery
All businesses are vulnerable to disasters, natural and man-made, and loss of business data can cause irreparable harm. However, Office 365 with its distributed architecture can provide redundancy with data being stored at multiple datacenters located throughout the United States, making your organization’s data as close as it gets to disaster proof.
#6 – Green IT
According to an IDC report, In house servers consume up to 80% more power than the power sipping datacenter solutions hosted by Microsoft. Each server you eliminate from your network can eliminate up to 4 tons of carbon dioxide per year!
#5 – Mobility
We see evidence every day that business has evolved into a “Post-PC” world as staff, clients, and partners demand access to data and applications on their smartphones, tablets, mobile devices. Office 365 is built from the ground up as a mobile solution. You will have access to documents, emails, and data from any mobile device with an internet connection. Unfortunately, that’s also eliminating the excuse “I left it at the office…”
#4 – Remote Access
Looking to expand your organization to the next city or state or country? That’s easy! In addition to accessing services via your mobile device, Office 365 is also built to provide access to services for PCs anywhere with an internet connection. This eliminates the need for complex and expensive solutions like terminal servers and VPNs to access email, documents, and collaboration services. No matter where you go, as long as you have an internet connection, Office 365 services are available to you.
#3 – Software Updates
Many organizations are forced to wait to adopt the newest software until budget permits. Office 365 radically changes the software purchasing model by moving Microsoft customers to a subscription fee vs. a onetime purchase. With Office 365, customers receive the latest updates to Microsoft Office Professional, Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync included in their subscription. In addition, Microsoft has committed to releasing periodic feature releases every year that will expand the capabilities of 365 without an additional cost to the subscriber.
#2 – Cost Savings
Organizations can save up to 70% or more on their annual IT expenditures by leveraging cloud technologies. How is this possible? It’s the same concept as building a car in your garage or writing a check to the Ford Motor Company. Microsoft does this on a mass scale allowing them to offer Enterprise software at a fraction of the cost. Therefore with Office 365, organizations eliminate buying new servers and software every 3-5 years as well as their associated maintenance costs.
#1 – Ease of Use
Perhaps the greatest benefit of Office 365 is how easy and simple it is to use. Instead of having to learn a new cloud based system like Google Apps, your staff can continue to use the Microsoft products they have learned and are comfortable with but without the headache, extra costs, and overhead. It’s the best of both worlds, the benefits of cloud computing and the familiar world of Microsoft.