TMCnews Featured Article

Office 365 is a cloud-based solution that can be utilized by companies all over the world to ramp up efficiency and streamline all business operations in addition to improving collaboration amongst geographically separated divisions of any organization.

This week, TMCnet highlighted the difference between on-premises and cloud-based versions of Office 365. Cloud-based offerings refer to a cost-effective alternative to traditional on-premises IT solutions that can be accessed at any time and from anywhere with a reliable Internet connection. When utilizing Office 365 in the cloud, companies in all industries can significantly cut costs as additional hardware that once was required can now be eliminated as well as software and IT administration expenses.

However, some of the benefits of using an on-premises product are that the hardware belongs to you, it is easier to integrate into external systems, changes can be made to the infrastructure as soon as you make a decision and you know where all of your vital data is housed. Yet, some of the disadvantages include because the hardware is yours if anything goes wrong it is then your IT teams responsibility to fix it right away, and it is extremely expensive to get this system up and running due to the elements that your firm must initially purchase such as hardware and licenses.

In other news, the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, a university known for its business curriculum, implemented Microsoft (News - Alert) Office 365 for Education, with the goal of enabling its student’s to continue to see success in a world filled to the brim with next-generation technologies.

At the institute of higher learning, currently there are more than 4,700 students within the bachelor's degree programs who previously had no access to a program that could enhance collaboration, making it tough on students on faculty alike.

"Today's students are mobile, flexible and impatient," said Vincent Fievez, lecturer in IT at EPHEC, in a statement. "We wanted to use technology to communicate and interact with our students in new ways -- and Microsoft Office 365 for education is the perfect solution."

Closing out the week, an increasingly popular trend is colleges and universities moving away from U-Mail, an online platform, and to Office 365. 

The University of California Santa Barbara leveraged the U-Mail platform for quite some time and ultimately decided to adopt Office 365 as it enables users to access an array of programs from anywhere with an Internet connection at any time.

According to the university, “Office 365 is a secure electronic mailing platform hosted by Microsoft. It features a 25 GB email account, calendars, Office Web Apps, instant messaging and file sharing, among others.”

Be sure to check back each and every week to the Office 365 community for all of the latest news in the space!