What is Microsoft 365? Breaking Down Microsoft’s New Bundle

This morning kicked off Microsoft’s Inspire conference, a week long showcase of Microsoft’s impact in the enterprise space and the strides its taking in the coming year to increase its dominance.

As CEO Satya Nadella took the stage and began his keynote, it became clear that Microsoft would be keeping to its mission of enabling people to do more by offering more complete service offerings for creating secure, online workspaces.

This came with the reveal of the company’s newest service offering: Microsoft 365. Taking from the cloud based Office’s naming scheme, this new subscription service bundles together the three pillars of the Microsoft business ecosystem: Office 365, Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), and Windows 10 Enterprise.

Each of these services represents a critical component of the modern, digital workplace. Office 365 provides a platform for collaborating on documents and messaging, EMS provides a framework for managing users and protecting data, and Windows 10 enterprise provides secure operating system or accessing company information. See below for a full list of the features included in the new bundle:

Office 365

  • Exchange Email
  • SharePoint Online Document Management
  • Skype for Business Messaging
  • Office 2016 Apps

EMS

  • Identity Management
  • Mobile Device Management
  • Rights and Permissions
  • Threat Analytics

Windows 10

  • Most current version of operating system
  • Anti-virus
  • Drive encryption

Releasing August 2nd, there will be two variations of the bundle available, Microsoft 365 Business and Microsoft 365 Enterprise. Like the current dichotomy between Microsoft’s Business and Enterprise plans for Office 365, the base plan will include all the essential features of the three services included (email, files, anti-virus), while the Enterprise plans make use of machine learning, automation and analytics to greatly increase the efficiency and effectiveness.

Pricing is expected to offer better value than the three services priced out separately. Microsoft 365 Business, for example, will cost $20.00 per user per month, while purchasing separately would cost close to $30. Pricing details for the Enterprise plans have not been released yet, but can be expected to fall somewhere between $30.00 and $60.00 depending upon the enterprise plan included.

With four days to go on the Inspire conference, the week is likely to be ripe with new announcements on how Microsoft is simplifying steps businesses can take to improve their productivity and security. If Microsoft 365 is any indicator, the company will continue to offer more value to businesses around the world.

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