What is Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based subscription model that lets you use services based on the subscription that you have procured from Microsoft. Microsoft 365 is also called Software as a Service (SaaS). Software as a service is a software licensing and delivery model where services are provided on the basis of the subscription and the software (Office 365 Suite) is licensed on a subscription basis.

Before we deep dive in Microsoft 365, let’s understand why an organization needs Microsoft 365 or Office 365 services.

On-premises environment

Let’s assume Office365Concepts wants to start a business entity and hired few employees to start with. We issued laptops to these users so that they can start their work.

But to login to the machine, they need a username and password. Now, if this is a small organization, administrators can create windows profiles on each computer and users can login.

But let’s say, if we have more than 100 users, creating windows profiles for each user on each machine is not feasible. So in this scenario, we need to deploy Active Directory. Because Active Directory is a centralized database from where you can manage all the users. Now to deploy Active Directory, we need hardware (CPU, RAM, Hard Disk). Once we have hardware, we need Windows Server operating system.

But providing a user account and a password is not enough for the users. Because using a username and password they can only login to the machine. These users also need a mailbox to send and receive emails. They need calendars to book meetings with each other. So to fulfill this requirement, this organization needs an email solution. For example, Exchange Server.

So now we have Active Directory (to manage users) and Exchange Server (for emails and calendars). But if this is a big organization, we might need a storage server (SQL Server) where we can store the data.

So if we go little back to this article, to deploy Active Directory we need hardware first. Once we have hardware, we need Windows Server OS.

To deploy Exchange Server, we need hardware. On top of hardware, we need to install Windows Server OS. And on top of Windows Server OS, we need to install Exchange Server.

So in every deployment, there is a cost involved. (Hardware, Operating System, Exchange Server, SQL).

Why not on-premises?

This is a hot topic nowadays if you should choose on-premises or not.

If you want to stay with on-premises environment, consider these points.

You are responsible for Hardware cost.
You are response for Operating System cost.
You are responsible for applications cost.
You are responsible for the maintenance of Hardware, Software and Operating System.
You will be responsible for the security of infrastructure (firewall).
You will pay electricity bills for the power consumed by these servers.

What is Microsoft 365

So what is Microsoft 365?

According to Microsoft, if you Microsoft cloud services, you do not have to pay for Hardware, Software, Operating System cost, electricity bills for the power consumed by the servers, you are not responsible to install applications or to secure them.

You just need to pay certain amount to Microsoft (monthly, quarterly or annually) and use services as per the amount you have paid. That means, you need to purchase a subscription from Microsoft and you can use services those are included within that subscription.

Features of Microsoft 365

Collaboration Made Easy: One of the most significant benefits of M365 is its ability to facilitate collaboration. M365 allows teams to collaborate on documents and projects in real time, regardless of their physical location. This means that your team can collaborate on projects from different parts of the world, saving time and money on travel. M365 also allows team members to easily share files with one another, eliminating the need for cumbersome email attachments. This can aid in streamlining workflows and increasing productivity for all.

Access from Anywhere: Another benefit of M365 is that it is a cloud-based solution, which means that users can access their applications and files from any location with an internet connection. This is especially useful for companies with remote employees or those who travel frequently. Users can access their files and applications on any device, including smartphones and tablets, with M365. This allows team members to stay connected and work on projects regardless of where they are. Administrators can monitor and manage complete M365 services from any location using a single device.

Real-time Collaboration: It enables teams to meet and work on documents and projects in real time. This means that multiple team members can work on the same document at the same time, and any changes made by one team member are automatically updated for the benefit of all other team members to see. By eliminating the need for back-and-forth email communication about document changes, this can help to reduce errors and save time. It also enables teams to work more efficiently by allowing them to complete tasks in a more timely fashion.

Improved Communication: M365 has several tools that can help you improve communication within your organization. Microsoft Teams, for instance, is a collaboration tool that allows team members to chat, share files, and collaborate on projects together. Teams can be organized in the platform by department, project, or any other criterion that is appropriate for your company. This can help to improve communication and keep everyone on the same page. Other communication tools, M365 offers includes video conferencing, and instant messaging, which can help to simplify communications among team members and across the organization leading to improved productivity.

M365 Office Suite: M365 Office suite is a hosted, online version of the traditional installed version of Microsoft Office software. 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.

Automatic Updates: One of the best aspects of M365 is that it is a cloud-based solution, which means that Microsoft updates the software for you automatically. This eliminates the need for you to manually update your software or install patches. Instead, Microsoft handles all of this maintenance for you. This ensures that your software is always current, secure, and has the most up-to-date features and functionality – which is a plus for any organization’s network infrastructure.

Scalability: With M365 you can easily add more users and applications to your subscription as your company grows. This can assist in ensuring that your company always has the tools and resources it requires to remain productive and competitive. Furthermore, M365 is a subscription-based service, so you only pay for what you use. This can help to reduce the costs of software licensing and maintenance.

Improved Security: The platform includes several security features that can help protect your business from cyber threats. For example, multi-factor authentication, which asks users to provide two forms of identification before they can access their account, is a highly suggested first level of cyber defense for any company. This can help to prevent unauthorized access to your organization’s sensitive data. Furthermore, M365 includes advanced threat protection, which aids in the detection and blocking of suspicious email attachments and links. This can assist in protecting your organization from phishing attacks and other cyber threats.

More Control over Mail Flow: Today, email is one of the most popular methods of digital communication. Microsoft Exchange Online (a cloud-based messaging platform) delivers emails, calendar, contacts, and tasks. Users with an Exchange Online license can connect to Exchange Online through Outlook desktop, Outlook on the web and Outlook mobile app to access their emails. Administrators can control the mail flow for their organizations as per their business requirements. Administrators can use Exchange Online Protection (EOP) that is a free cloud-based email filtering solution to protect their emails.

Secure Cloud Storage: M365 lets users to store their documents on a secure cloud storage. Easily store, access, and discover your individual and shared work files in Microsoft 365, including Microsoft Teams, from all your devices. Your offline edits will automatically sync next time you connect. Administrators can easily determine how much storage space their employees are using by visiting the storage metrics page.

Manage corporate and personal devices: Enterprise Mobility + Security (a mobility management and security platform) helps protect and secure your organization and devices. Using Microsoft Endpoint Manager, administrators can enroll and manage corporate-owned or personally owned devices to Microsoft Intune. No matter if you have windows devices in on-premises. Microsoft Intune lets admins to enroll and manage on-premises devices.

Microsoft 365 vs Office 365

Microsoft first introduced Office 365. Office 365 includes services like, Office 365 suite (Word, Excel, Outlook), SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Microsoft teams, OneDrive for Business.

But later, Microsoft added few more services within Office 365 like, Windows operating system and Mobility & Security solution (to manage and secure devices) and named it as Microsoft 365.

So in nutshell, Microsoft 365 includes all the the services of Office 365 (depending on the subscription) but provides few services like Windows operating system and Mobility & Security.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that every organization benefits from being able to easily develop, collaborate, and communicate seamlessly. Organizations become more agile and are better able to compete in their industry when they have access to productivity tools that make it easier for workers to do their jobs from anywhere. The productivity suite Microsoft offers in its M365 is one of the the best productivity and collaboration platforms you can use in your business as it not only provides a productivity boost to your teams but also improves their real-time collaboration, while reducing your costs and supporting greater data security and increased workplace efficiency.

Happy Learning!

Interested in learning Mobility & Security? Follow our highly recommended series of Microsoft Intune.