Microsoft Office 365 Launches Public Beta

There are a variety of stories coming out today regarding the availability of the Microsoft Office 365 cloud service public beta, including this one on PCMag.com and the official news release on Microsoft.com here. The beta is available to 38 markets and in 17 languages.

Office 365 brings the familiar experience of Microsoft Office together with SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online as a cloud service which will always be up-to-date for customers. You can read about some of the customers that have already been testing the early beta in the news release.

Another part of the announcement today was the Office 365 Marketplace, which is a simple way for customers to find apps and services when they want to customize and extend Office 365. The Marketplace is live already and has over 100 apps and 400 professional services available from a community of 16,000 Microsoft cloud partners.

There’s a variety of information and the link to join the beta on the Office 365 site, as well as blog entries like this one on Top 10 Q&A’s, available on the Office 365 Community site.

For information on the other offerings Microsoft has available for cloud computing, check out the Cloud Power site. If you have questions or comments, please post them here and I’ll work to respond as quickly as possible.

Thanks for your time - larry