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As the official release of new version of the Office suite approaches, Microsoft (News - Alert) is not resting on its laurels when it comes to making sure as many people as possible have access to the robust portfolio. 

The technology giant revealed in a post on its website that it had forged an agreement with 21Vianet so that clients in China would have the ability to use Office 365 and Microsoft Azure. These users will also be able to store random data in data centers across the country. The Office 365 provider is touted as offering the best of both worlds by allowing customers in China to store their Office 365 data either inside or outside the country.

Microsoft has forged quite the lucrative contract with 21Vianet that will also allow it to offer Office 365 to the Chinese government. All of these agreements are fairly substantial for Microsoft because it seems to indicate that the company is trying a new approach in the Communist country. With long standing problems and obstacles related to piracy in the country, because Office 365 is cloud-based it could prove harder to duplicate and take over for a pirate’s own uses. Along this vein, Microsoft also revealed earlier this week that it will not be offering Windows 8 in physical form. Instead, the company said it will only be offering up devices that have it pre-installed or it will allow users to download the program off of the Microsoft website.