From Office 365 to Microsoft 365

Microsoft released Office 365 in 2011, originally titled Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite or “BPOS”. This adaption forever changed the way businesses could use the Microsoft Office suite and greatly reduced the reliance on onsite servers, with a push towards SaaS.

Microsoft Office 365 provides a SaaS platform for Email, Email Archive, Skype for Business and provides a personal Cloud storage for users via OneDrive.

This change to a cloud-based model over the traditional on-premise servers removed the requirement to manage multiple servers such as Exchange, SharePoint and File servers.

From Office 365 to Microsoft 365

With 120 million companies now utilising this platform, over the past 7 years, Microsoft has further extended the Office 365 subscription value with new services such as Power BI, Advanced Threat Protection, Planner, Flow and Staff Hub. Since then, Microsoft has heavily built on its subscription model success, which now revolves around Microsoft 365.

Microsoft’s new offering extends their subscription services to cover three key requirements:

1. Get more done (Collaboration)
2. Build your Business (Customer Management)
3. Safeguard your business (Security and Management).

The first two segments (Collaboration and Customer Management) are part of the existing Microsoft Office 365 services, with the new Microsoft 365 subscription extending the offering of Safeguard your business, delivering more security and a subscription model for Windows 10 licensing.

So, what are the benefits of moving to Microsoft 365? We have outlined the pros and cons of the new subscription model for your business below.

Pros

1. Reduced TCO – Yes the subscription service increases overall costs on the licensing side, however hosting, hardware requirements for servers, and Project Services costs for configuration of like for like services over previous traditional server-based offerings are far less, due to the SaaS platforms and intuitive options that can be quickly selected.
2. Easy to setup – Just like Microsoft Office 365 manage your collaboration, Microsoft 365 manages your devices. With Microsoft Windows 10 licensing bundled with Microsoft Intune and Autopilot, this allows you to manage all device settings, applications, and security policies from the cloud. Coupled with OneDrive, if a user needs a new device, all settings, files and applications can be pushed down from the Cloud.
3. Increased security – more cloud services and more services online are creating greater attack opportunities and higher risks to companies of data loss, accidental data leakage or direct attacks. The recent changes in Australian law involving data breach notification also mean that companies now must advise when they have been compromised. This leads to poor business reputation, increased cybersecurity insurance costs and possible loss of revenues. Microsoft 365 provides four additional layers of security as part of even the Business subscription. Email, file data, password and device based provide multiple layers of security.

Cons

1. You need windows 10 – You may have computers that are still running new Windows 10 licensing but cannot take advantage of the Microsoft 365 features offered unless you buy the M365 licensing.
2. Pricing not on a service by service basis – Everything is bundled, if you prefer a different advanced spam filter or Antivirus you cannot remove these from the M365 pricing but you can choose not to use them.
3. Do you really need updates? – Some companies choose to stretch their old licensing, opting not to take new features and use their existing Windows OS or Microsoft Office suite that may be a few years old to get the job done. Just like Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft 365 is subscription based and you will need to look at the longer TCO of support, security and Productivity to work out if forgoing the latest releases is best for your business.

In most cases, businesses will find that the benefits of using Microsoft 365 outweigh the cons, so long as your budget can stretch to cover the subscription. If you’d like more information about the services offered by Microsoft 365, make sure to get in contact with us at A1 Technologies.

Julia Sinclair-Jones

Tech writer and ex-software developer with a penchant for travel, techno, and data. Spreading the word of secure, manageable, optimised IT solutions for everyone.