Office 365 at a Glance

Artigo
12/30/2012

This is my roundup of Microsoft Office 365 at a glance. I’ve included a brief summary of the key services and features direct from the Microsoft Office 365 Service Descriptions, as well as a massive feature list of the Office 365 Services at the end of this post.

At the start of every year, I do an extreme roundup of the Microsoft platform. It helps me see the forest for the trees, understand the big bets, and make sense of the overall Microsoft platform. It also helps me anticipate growth, jobs, declines, etc. As part of the process, I try to share what I learn because I imagine a lot of people benefit from the ability to see the Microsoft platform at a glance.

With that in mind, let’s begin …

The main things you need to know to figure out Office 365 are:

Office 365 refers to the online services: Exchange Online, Lync Online, SharePoint Online, etc.
Don’t confuse Office 365 with the on-premises versions: Lync Server 2013, Exchange Server 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, etc. (Once you recognize this naming convention, then it’s a lot easier to parse what you find on Microsoft.com, MSDN, and TechNet.)
The key way to figure out what’s in Office 365 is to read the Microsoft Office 365 Service Descriptions.
Don’t confuse the Microsoft Office 365 Service Descriptions with the older Business Productivity Online Services Service Descriptions. (I fell for this. I was reading a Service Description for Exchange Online wondering why it seemed dated – it was.)
You can find feature comparisons between the on-premises versions and the online versions within the Microsoft Office 365 Service Description documents. For example, you can see Lync Server vs. Lync Online, Exchange Server vs. Exchange Online, SharePoint Server vs. SharePoint Online.

Office 365 Service Descriptions

The Office 365 Service Descriptions are the important documents for understanding what the Office 365 services actually are:

Microsoft Exchange Online Archiving Service Description
Microsoft Exchange Online Enterprise Service Description
Microsoft Lync Online for Enterprises Service Description
Microsoft Office Professional Plus Service Description
Microsoft Office Web Apps Service Description
Microsoft SharePoint Online for Enterprises Service Description
Office 365 Identity Service Description
Office 365 Mobility Solutions Service Description
Office 365 Security and Service Continuity Service Description
Office 365 Support for Apple Mac and iOS Devices
Office 365 Support Service Description

About Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 brings together cloud versions of its most trusted communications and collaboration products with the latest version desktop suite. Office 365 is designed to meet the needs of organizations of all sizes—from sole proprietors and small, mid-sized, and large businesses to government agencies to educational institutions—helping you save time, money, and free up valuable resources.
Key Office 365 benefits include:

Access to email, documents, contacts, and calendars on almost any smartphone or tablet.
Simple and secure collaboration with colleagues and business partners.
Seamless functioning with Microsoft Office and other programs.
Comprehensive solutions including desktop productivity applications, portals, extranets, instant messaging (IM), voice and video conferencing, web conferencing, email and voice mail.
Pay-as-you-go pricing options with a financially backed 99.9 percent uptime guarantee.
Office 365 includes the Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft SharePoint Online services.

Common Features Across Microsoft Office 365

Cloud services offered by Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises are designed to help meet the need for robust security, 24/7 reliability, and user productivity.
Each service is designed for reliability, availability, and performance with a financially backed service level agreement (SLA) for a guaranteed 99.9-percent scheduled uptime. Microsoft deploys patches, security updates, and back-end upgrades, helping to eliminate the time and effort organizations spend managing their servers.
Subscribers to Office Professional Plus benefit from a set of features that are common to all of the Microsoft business-class cloud services:

Secure access: Each offering from Microsoft Office 365 is accessed through 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption. Anyone who intercepts a communication sees only encrypted text.
Intrusion monitoring: Microsoft continuously monitors the Office 365 systems for any unusual or suspicious activity. If Microsoft detects such activity, it investigates and responds appropriately. In the unlikely event that a significant incident occurs, the customer is notified.
Security audits: Microsoft regularly assesses the Office 365 infrastructure to ensure that the latest antivirus signatures and required security updates are installed, and that high-level configuration settings are in compliance with Microsoft security policies. For details, refer to the Security and Service Continuity for Enterprises Service Description.
High availability: Microsoft Office 365 services have a 99.9-percent scheduled uptime. If a customer’s service is affected, Office 365 offers financial remedies subject to the terms and conditions of the SLA. For details, refer to the Service Level Agreement for Microsoft Online Services.
Service continuity: Redundant network architecture is hosted at geographically dispersed Microsoft data centers to handle unscheduled service outages. Data centers act as backups for each other: If one fails, the affected customers are transferred to another data center with limited interruption of service.
Microsoft Online Services Portal: This easy-to-use website is the center for activities related to Microsoft Office 365. The portal provides services based on each organization’s specific needs. Prospective subscribers can use the portal to sign up for a free trial. End users accessing the portal can find online help, open Microsoft SharePoint site collections, and launch Microsoft Outlook® Web App. Administrators can manage users, administer services, download tools, and learn about service administration from online help.
Directory Synchronization tool: For subscribers with Active Directory® directory services deployed on-premises, this tool helps keep the on-premises Active Directory and the Microsoft Office 365 directory synchronized.
Remote administration: With Microsoft Windows PowerShell™, administrators can perform many tasks using a script or automated process. For example, tasks such as creating users, resetting passwords, assigning licenses, and obtaining service-use data can be fully automated.

Types of Identity in Office 365

Office 365 offers two types of identities:

Microsoft Online Services cloud IDs (Cloud Identity) : Users receive cloud credentials—separate from other desktop or corporate credentials—for signing into Office 365 services. The cloud ID password policy is stored in the cloud with the Office 365 service.
Federated IDs (Federated Identity) : In companies with on-premises Active Directory®, users can sign into Office 365 services using their Active Directory credentials. The corporate Active Directory authenticates the users, and stores and controls the password policy.

The type of identity affects the user experience, administrative requirements, deployment considerations, and capabilities using Office 365.

For more information about Office 365 Identity, please refer to the Office 365 Identity Service Description.

Microsoft Exchange Online

Microsoft Exchange Online is a hosted messaging solution that delivers the capabilities of Microsoft Exchange Server as a cloud-based service. It gives users rich and familiar access to email, calendar, contacts, and tasks across PCs, the web, and mobile devices. With Exchange Online, organizations can take advantage of sophisticated messaging capabilities without the operational burden of on-premises server software.
Exchange Online supports the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync® protocol. Exchange ActiveSync provides synchronization of mailbox data between mobile devices and Exchange Online, so users can access their email, calendar, contacts, and tasks on the go.
For more information about Exchange Online, please refer to the Microsoft Exchange Online Service Description.

Microsoft Lync Online

Microsoft Lync Online is a next-generation cloud communications service that connects people in new ways, anytime, from virtually anywhere. Lync Online provides intuitive communications capabilities across presence, instant messaging, audio/video calling and a rich online meeting experience including PC-audio, video and web conferencing. Transform your interactions with colleagues, customers and partners from today’s hit-and-miss communication to a more collaborative, engaging, and effective experience.

For more information about Lync Online, please refer to the Microsoft Lync Online Service Description.

Microsoft SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online gives you a central place to share documents and information with colleagues and customers. Designed to work with familiar Office applications, it’s easy to save documents directly to SharePoint and work together on proposals and projects in real-time because you have access to the documents and information you need from virtually anywhere.
SharePoint Online helps businesses of all sizes share team documents and track project milestones. You can manage important documents online so the latest versions are always at hand. You can also provide teams with access to critical information and documents when and where they need them, while controlling who can access, read, and share them.
SharePoint Online sites can render on many devices (including Web-enabled mobile phones) using a simplified text-only format. Like Exchange Online, SharePoint Online includes a standardized web-based administrative console that enables your IT administrator to easily manage and set up services for users.
For more information about SharePoint Online, please refer to the Microsoft SharePoint Online Service Description.

Office Professional Plus

The capabilities of Office Professional Plus can be summarized as: Use Office Anywhere, Work Together, and Bring Ideas to Life.
With Office Professional Plus, users get the latest version of the Microsoft Office applications, seamlessly connected and delivered with cloud services, so they can access their documents, email, and calendars from virtually any device. Office Professional Plus includes the new Office Web Apps—online companions to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel®, Microsoft PowerPoint®, and Microsoft OneNote®—which let users review and make minor edits to documents directly from a browser.
The flexible pay-as-you-go, per-user licensing of Office Professional Plus is available as part of Office 365 and provides companies with purchasing flexibility; in addition, robust management and deployment tools give companies the IT control to adapt to evolving business needs.

For more information about Office Professional Plus, please refer to the Microsoft Office Professional Plus Service Description.

Microsoft Office Web Apps

Microsoft® Office Web Apps is the online companion to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel®, Microsoft PowerPoint®, and Microsoft OneNote® applications that helps users access documents from almost anywhere. Users can view, share, and work on documents online with other users across personal computers, mobile devices, and the web.
Office Web Apps is available to users through Microsoft SharePoint® Online, which is part of Microsoft Office 365. Office Web Apps is also available as a part of Microsoft Windows Live™ and also to business customers through Microsoft Office 2010 volume licensing, Office 365, and document management solutions based on Microsoft SharePoint 2010 products.
This document focuses on using Office Web Apps as a part of SharePoint Online.

For more information about Microsoft Office Web Apps, please refer to the Microsoft Office Web Apps Service Description.

Office 365 Suite Subscription Plans

Friendly Name	Plan	Size Max	Items
Hosted Email	Exchange Online	50,000+	Complete integration with Outlook* and web access to email, calendars, and contacts Cloud-based email using your own domain name Shared calendars Configurable anti-spam filtering Active Directory synchronization 25GB user mailboxes and ability to send attachments up to 25 MB Live 24 x 7 IT-level phone support
Small Business	Plan P1	50	Cloud-based email using your own domain name Shared calendars Instant messaging, PC-to-PC calling, and video conferencing Web-based viewing and editing of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files Team site for sharing files Public website Anti-malware and anti-spam filtering Microsoft community support
MIDSIZE BUSINESS & ENTERPRISE	Plan E1	50,000+	Everything in Small Business, P1, plus: Active Directory synchronization Configurable anti-spam filtering SharePoint intranet supporting up to 300 site collections Live 24 x 7 IT-level phone support Please note: with E
MIDSIZE BUSINESS & ENTERPRISE	Plan E3	50,000+	Everything in E1, plus: Office Professional Plus 2010 desktop version subscription (for up to 5 devices per user) Email archiving and unlimited email storage Hosted voicemail support Connection to line-of-business applications Dashboards with Excel Services

For more information on the Office 365 Suite Subscription Plans, see the Office 365 Suite Subscription Plans page and the Office 365 Plan Advisor Tool.

Features at a Glance for Microsoft Office 365

This is a roundup of Office 365 services at a glance, organized by product. It’s the balcony view. By scanning the list, you can get a quick sense of the services. Then read the actual Office 365 Service Descriptions to find out more.

Category	Items
Office 365	Secure access Intrusion monitoring Security audits High availability Service continuity Microsoft Online Services Portal Directory Synchronization tool Remote administration
Exchange Online	Service Features Mailbox size (1 GB for Exchange Online Kiosk user, 25 GB for Exchange Online (Plan 1) user, unlimited for Exchange Online (Plan 2) user) Message size limits (max attachment size - 25 MB) Recipient limits (1,500 recipients/day) Message rate limits (30 messages/minute) Deleted item recovery (14 Days) Deleted mailbox recovery (30 Days) Client Access Outlook 2010 Outlook 2007 Outlook 2003 (POP or IMAP only) Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTPS) Outlook Cached Mode Outlook Online Mode Autodiscover (for Outlook and mobile) Outlook Web App (Internet Explorer 7+, Safari+, Firefox, Chrome) Outlook Web App light experience (Almost any browser) Outlook Web App: Vanity URL (Customer can set up a redirect) Outlook Web App: session time-out (Default: 6 hours, Configurable up to 24 hours) WebReady document viewing Instant messaging and presence connected to web email client Macintosh support (Outlook for Mac 2011, Entourage 2008 Web Services edition) IMAP POP Mobility Windows Phone 7 devices Windows Mobile devices (Windows Mobile 6.0+) Other Exchange ActiveSync devices (such as iPhone) Remote device wipe Customize Exchange ActiveSync security policies and settings, including PIN/password lock Disable Exchange ActiveSync access Mobile device allow/block/quarantine Over-the-air-update for Outlook Mobile Mobile SMS sync (through Exchange ActiveSync) SMS (text messaging) notifications Blackberery (via Blackberry Enterprise Server) Blackberry (via Blackberry Internet Service) Email/Inbox "Send on behalf of" and "send as" Shared mailboxes Server-side email forwarding Inbox rules Tasks Conversation view and actions (such as ignore conversation) MailTips and MailTips customization Connected accounts (aggregate mail from multiple external email accounts) Contacts/Directory Personal contacts Personal distribution groups Shared distribution groups (in Global Address List) Restricted distribution groups Dynamic distribution groups Moderated distribution groups Moderated distribution groups Self-service distribution groups Global Address List Hide users from Global Address List Offline Address Book External contacts (in Global Address List) Calendar Out-of-office auto-replies Cross-premises calendar free/busy (mix of on-premises/cloud users) Federated calendar sharing Publish or subscribe to calendar through iCal Side-by-side calendar view in web client Resource mailboxes (for example, for conference rooms or equipment) Outlook 201 Room Finder Unified Messaging, FAX Interoperability with on-premises voicemail systems Exchange Unified Messaging (hosted voicemail) Security Anti-spam (AS) (Forefront Online Protection for Exchange) Antivirus (AV) (Forefront Protection for Exchange) Safe and blocked senders (configurable at the organization level) Opportunistic TLS for inbound/outbound email Forced TLS for inbound/outbound email S/MIME (Yes, with limitations, No Outlook Web App support) PGP Compliance/Archiving Disclaimers Transport rules Personal archive Retention policies Journal messages to external or on-premises archive Multi-mailbox search (eDiscovery) Legal hold Rolling legal hold Administration Administration through a Web-based interface (Exchange Control Panel) Forefront Online Protection for Exchange Administration Center access Administration through command line shell (PowerShell) Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Message Tracking Usage Reporting (Some data can be extracted using PowerShell) Auditing Application Access/Customization Application connectivity through web services SMTP relay Outlook Web App Web Parts Outlook add-ins and Outlook MAPI Other Global Address List synchronization from on-premises directory (Active Directory) (One-way through the Directory Synchronization tool)
Lync Online	IM/presence and Lync-to-Lync calls 1-to-1 and multiparty IM/presence Address book search Dl expansion (DLX) File transfer Lync-to-Lync audio/video calls Lync-to-Lync high definition video Presence and click-to-Lync from Office Apps Interactive contacts card in Office 2010 Lync external connectivity (federation and Public IM connectivity) IM/presence/audio/video federation with other OSC/Lync Server/Lync Online organizations IM/presence/audio/video with Windows Live Messenger Meetings (audio/video/web conferencing) Meeting attendee capacity (250) Desktop sharing Application sharing White boarding and annotations PowerPoint upload for online presentations Polling Ad-hoc multiparty PC-based audio-video Unauthenticated attendee in Lync Web App Lync attendee client Scheduled conferences (using Outlook plug-in) Outlook delegation for scheduling meetings Support for RoundTable device Lobby Interoperability with certified partners for dial-in audio conferencing (ACP) Phone-dial-out from scheduled meetings via third-party dial-in conferencing service Client-side recording and playback Backstage/Content Preview for presenters Mute all attendees Mute individual attendees Unmute all attendees Unmute individual attendees In-meeting attendee permission controls Voice and telephony Lync-to-phone (calls with landlines and mobile phones) Call hold/retrieve Dial-out from ad-hoc Lync meetings Advanced call controls (transfer, forward, simul-ring) Access to Exchange Online voicemail Team call Delegation (boss-admin) for Voice Client support Lync 2010 Lync Web App for participating in scheduled meetings Lync 2010 Attendee client (joniing meeting) Lync 2010 Mobile client IM and media encryuption IM filtering Exchange/SharePoint interoperability Presence interoperability with Exchange and SharePoint on-premises Presence interoperability with Exchange Online and SharePoint Online Third-party API support Client-side APIs
SharePoint Online	Communities Ask Me About Blogs Colleague Suggestions Colleagues Network Discussions Enterprise Wikis Keyword Suggestions Memberships My Site My Content My Site My Newsfeed My Site My Profile Notes Board Organization Browser Photos and Presence Ratings Recent Activities Status Updates Tag Clouds Tag Profiles Tags Tags and Notes Tool Wikis Client Object Model (OM) Event Receivers Language Integrated Query (LINQ) for SharePoint Solution Packages REST and ATOM Data Feeds Ribbon and Dialog Framework Silverlight Web Part Worklow Models Access Services Browse-Based Customizations Business Data Connectivity Service External Data Column Business Data Web Parts External Lists SharePoint Designer 2010 Forms: Out-of-Box workflows and customization through SharePoint Designer 2010 InfoPath Forms Services Sandboxed Solutions Workflow Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Developer Tools Windows 7 Support Workflow Support Workflow Templates SharePoint Service Architecture Content In-Place Legal Holds Document Sets Metadata-driven Navigation Multi-Stage Disposition Rich Media Management Shared Content Types Support for Accessibility Standards Content Organizer Unique Document IDs Managed Metadata Service Insights Excel Services Visio Services Calculated KPIs Search Best Bets Extensible Search Scale Duplicate Detection Metadata-Driven Refinement Mobile Search Experience People and Expertise Search Phonetics and Nickname Search Recently Authored Content Search Scopes Single Site Collection Search Site Search Click-Through Relevancy View in Browser Basic Sorting Sites SharePoint Lists Web Parts Improved Governance Large List Scalability and Management Multi-Lingual User Interface (MUI) Permissions Management Quota Templates Secure Store Service Connections to Microsoft Office Clients Public Website (One per tenant) Audience Targeting RSS Feeds Cross-Browser Support External sharing SharePoint Ribbon Mobile Connectivity Office Web Apps integration SharePoint Workspace 2010 Out-of-the-Box Web Parts Scalability Template Accessibility Configuration Wizards
Office Professional Plus	Microsoft Access Microsoft Excel Microsoft InfoPath Microsoft Lync Microsoft OneNote Microsoft Outlook Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Publisher Microsoft SharePoint Workspace Microsoft Word
Office Web Apps	Word Web App Print Find Zoom Navigation Open in Word Edit in Web App Save View in Web App Clipboard Undo and Redo Font Formatting Paragraph Formatting Bullets and Numbering Styles Proofing Tools Tables Pictures Hyperlinks Placeholders Excel Web App Refresh Data Find Navigation Open in Excel Edit in Web App Sort and Filter Data Save or Download a Copy Co-authoring Save Clipboard Undo and Redo Formula Bar Font and Cell Formatting Alignment Number Formatting Functions Tables Edit Worksheet Structure Hyperlinks PowerPoint Web App View and Copy Slide Notes Run Slide Show Navigation Broadcast Slide Show Outline View Open in PowerPoint Edit in Web App Save View and Edit Slide Notes View in Web App Clipboard Undo and Redo Create and Manage Slides Font Formatting Alignment, Bullets, and Numbering Pictures SmartArt Hyperlinks OneNote Web App Show Authors View Previous Page Versions Navigation Open in OneNote Edit in Web App Save View in Web App Co-authoring for Shared Notebooks Clipboard Undo and Redo Font Formatting Paragraph Formatting Bullets and Numbering Styles Tags Proofing Tools Create and Manage Pages and Sections View and Restore Page Versions Pictures Tables Hyperlinks Placeholders

Comments

Anonymous
December 30, 2012
Great consolidated summary, JD. Happy New Year. Imran
Anonymous
December 30, 2012
@ Imran -- Thank you -- it took way, way longer than I expected, but it was worth it in the end. Happy New Year to you and yours! JD
Anonymous
January 08, 2013
Hi, JD. Can i translate this post into Russian?
Anonymous
January 08, 2013
@ Alexander -- Yes, please do -- just attribute back.

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