Office 365 Launches Microsoft Against Google

[Guest]

There has been nothing natural about the launch of Microsoft's cloud office suite.

Office 365 Launches Microsoft Against Google : Read more

 

[aljosha]

As you mention, there is really no compelling reason to switch from a local office product to a cloud version (instead of some specific use cases). It could be that the limited marketing for Office 365 is due to the fact that microsoft doesn't want to convince the user to switch to the cloud (and so possible to googles alternative). It seems to me that they just want to be ready and have an anwser to google apps just in case...

 

[aljosha]

As you mention, there is really no compelling reason to switch from a local office product to a cloud version (instead of some specific use cases). It could be that the limited marketing for Office 365 is due to the fact that microsoft doesn't want to convince the user to switch to the cloud (and so possible to googles alternative). It seems to me that they just want to be ready and have an anwser to google apps just in case...

 

[reggieray]

Both can just go away, I'll stick with Open Office, thank you very much.

 

[fyend]

[citation][nom]aljosha[/nom]As you mention, there is really no compelling reason to switch from a local office product to a cloud version (instead of some specific use cases)[/citation]

One reason I've heard is from companies that only have a few hundred employees or less that its cheaper than having a dedicated Exchange admin (you know how companies are in uber cheap mode right now) i.e. fire a person making $80k+ a year and go hosted for way less and no longer need to deal with backups, licensing, server purchasing, that IT staff salary, vpn setups or ISA server to give users access to email or shared docs outside the office. There are actually a ton of compelling reasons to ditch local email servers and switch to Google or MS or another hosted solution for many companies.

 

[braindonor75]

Support! Support! Support!
Anyone that has used Google apps for their business likely knows how terrible their customer service is. The same people that have to deal with that are the same ones that make the decisions of which hosting provider to go with. Match that with the already familiar Office apps IT is supporting and Office 365 starts to look very attractive vs. Google apps.

 

[drwho1]

I personally will never use any "cloud" computing, I like my personal files safe on my own computer, if I need any backup.... there are tons of ways to do that on the privacy of my own PC.

 

[reggieray]

[citation][nom]drwho1[/nom]I personally will never use any "cloud" computing, I like my personal files safe on my own computer, if I need any backup.... there are tons of ways to do that on the privacy of my own PC.[/citation]
Ditto, I'm with you brother.

 

[juanc]

Real deal is MS got big, because it always allowed piracy more than others. So everyone had a copy of Office. That's how it works. If EVERYONE has office, and you don't, you are dead. So you get forced to buy it too. Office 97 is OK, why would I want 2003/2007/2010? Because if you don't, you can't open those files that come to you. Or they get garbled like a PowerPoint presentation in OpenOffice "un"Impress... so you go out there and buy office.

 

[juanc]

How bad you can't edit. Office 365 might not be "done" yet. It will auto-market, as you'll open and edit Word files in Hotmail...

Remember how MSN Messenger got big... by being put as Windows Messenger in XP. The DeFacto was ICQ, which in fact was miles away... had everything. MSN was PLAIN just had a new tone... but it got big and shaded ICQ like the ID4 mothership

 

[11796pcs]

[citation][nom]juanc[/nom]Real deal is MS got big, because it always allowed piracy more than others. So everyone had a copy of Office. That's how it works. If EVERYONE has office, and you don't, you are dead. So you get forced to buy it too. Office 97 is OK, why would I want 2003/2007/2010? Because if you don't, you can't open those files that come to you. Or they get garbled like a PowerPoint presentation in OpenOffice "un"Impress... so you go out there and buy office.[/citation]
http/www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=3#overview
That link is a compatibility pack for 2003 users to open 2007 documents. I would have to do a bit of searching but I know I found a pack that works with 1997 as well a few months ago. And I've never had any problems opening documents in OpenOffice. As far as all of this cloud 365/Docs crap goes I don't think it's ever going to catch on. People are just too comfortable just using their e-mail accounts to zip documents around the web and then open them up with their local copy of Office. That's the way it's always been done and the way people are comfortable doing things. We don't need cloud services and consumers aren't going to pop all of their files onto servers that seem to be getting hacked more frequently every day. Let's face it, Facebook is the cloud for people's pictures and videos- what Google and MSFT should be doing is finding a way to make an awesome program that makes working with Facebook faster and easier for users.

 

[dark_lord69]

As more cr4p gets pushed into the cloud we will all have less and less bandwidth to use...
Also...
lets say you have 20,000 employees and you plan on using office 2010 for 5 years.
Lets assume you paid retail prices since most large companies foolishly DON'T shop for lower prices.
20,000 X $200 = 4 Million for 5 years (OR more if desired)
OR
Office 365
20,000 X $6 = $120,000 per month
120,000 X 12 = 1.44 Million per year
1.44 X 5 = $7,200,000 for 5 years
1.44 X 4 = $5,760,000 for 4 years
1.44 X 3 = $4,320,000 for 3 years (this is STILL more than the retail price and most vendors will give you a price lower than retail meaning you would be better off buying office 2010 and keeping it for at least 3 years. The only way it would be worth the price is if you made good use of the additional features that are offered.)

 

[jhansonxi]

What we have been told today is that the software can keep Office document formatting as it is, while Google Docs screws it up.

Thanks again to closed file formats (and open ones with undocumented binary blobs).

 

[Guest]

I'm a little confused. People are complaining about boot up times and clunky, bloated software that takes ages to load up and slow to use. So, to get better productivity, you add more RAM, get faster hard disks, even upgrade to SSDs. Now, by going to the cloud, you have to sign in, launch the online app, wait for all the icons and graphics to load.. Aren't we going backwards??

 

[palladin9479]

we assume that cloud services will be playing a major role in our lives - and if we assume that cloud services will replace locally installed software at some point

Awfully big assumptions there. Especially seeing how recent hacker groups just demonstrated their still capable of raining companies parades. How long was PSN down, how many customers were cut off from "the cloud"? Would -you- trust -your data- to a company running their servers -some where- by -some one-, when you know neither bits of information. How much is your data worth to you? How much is it worth to a private interest? How much money are you willing to shell out to retrieve data held hostage? How much will you lose should your competitors acquire your data?

You see, all these interesting questions crop up when the concept of remote data storage comes into play. And people that is all Cloud -whatever- is, remote data storage. It's not safe, never will be.

 

[eddieroolz]

I can certainly see the appeal in having a Microsoft Office experience on the web, especially for rigid workplaces that allow only the Office suite of productivity software.

I would not write this off yet just because of Google's prevalence.

 

[fir_ser]

I don’t see any use for these web applications especially when having slow bandwidth and limited download.

 

[someoneelse]

Everytime I see cloud computing I think corporate espionage/ massive data hack. when I think convenice I think email or usb thumb drive the file.

 

[joan_wong]

For me, I prefer Office 365 always, especially after the recent release of office 365.
So in this battle, as a faithful user, I am on the side of Office 365, Microsoft’s next generation productivity service.Office 365 is the culmination of more than 20 years of experience delivering world class productivity solutions to people and businesses of all sizes. It brings together Office, SharePoint, Exchange, and Lync in an always-up-to-date cloud service.

For more information,visit www.365advisor.com