What is Microsoft Office 365 suite?

The Microsoft Office 365 suite is a hosted, online version of the traditional installed version of Microsoft Office software. This online service is subscription-based and includes Office, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online and Microsoft Office Web Apps.

The advantage of the Microsoft Office 365 suite is that the cloud service is provided by Microsoft and, thus, eliminates a company's IT maintenance tasks, such as patching, and infrastructure support costs. For end users, the advantage is the ability to access Office 365 offerings using any device anywhere with an internet connection.

IT administrators access the Microsoft Office 365 suite from a web-based portal to set up new user accounts, control access to features and see the status of all Office 365 services and tools.

Office 365 features Office 365 features vary widely depending on the subscription plan. Microsoft designed subscription plans for home users, enterprise IT and everything in between. Here are some of the more common Office 365 features: Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Skype for Business, Access)

Exchange Online (email, calendar, tasks)

SharePoint Online (web portal for collaboration)

Yammer (enterprise social networking)

OneDrive for Business (cloud file storage)

Planner (project management)

Power BI (business intelligence)

Delve (social document discovery)

Video (a private video library)

Sway (a tool for creating reports, presentations and newsletters)