Microsoft Online Services

Microsoft Online Services is Microsoft's hosted-software offering and a component of their software plus services strategy. Microsoft Online Services are hosted by Microsoft and sold "with" Microsoft partners.

The suite includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online, Microsoft Forefront, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

For businesses, the Software-plus-Services approach enables organizations to access the capabilities of enterprise software through on-premises servers, as online services, or a combination of both, depending on specific business requirements. Services also provide the option to add complementary capabilities that enhance on-premises server software and simplify system management and maintenance.

The Business Productivity Online Standard Suite represents the first of a growing portfolio of Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft Online Services are a component of the broader Microsoft Software-plus-Services strategy that includes both Live and Online services.

The successor of BPOS is Office 365. Where BPOS is based on Exchange 2007 and MOSS 2007, Office 365 was originally built around the 2010 versions of Exchange and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and now the 2016 versions, since one of the benefits of Office 365 is that it is 'evergreen'. For Instant Messaging, plus audio & video conferencing, Office 365 provides Skype for Business (formerly Microsoft Lync).

Apart from these communications and collaboration applications, Office 365 will also have Microsoft Office Professional Plus included, which is the regular Office pack. On top of that online versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint are provided

Microsoft opened the Beta phase for this service in Q4 of 2010 and the service went live June 28, 2011

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