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Microsoft Office 365 - cloud in business environment

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 Microsoft Office 365 – cloud in business environment

Aleksandar Skendzic*, Bozidar Kovacic **

*University of Applied Science, Gospic, Croatia
** University of Rijeka/Department of Informatics, Omladinska 14, Rijeka, Croatia
**Phone: (385) 51-345-064 Fax: (385) 51- 345 207 E-mail: askendzic@velegs-nikolatesla.hr, bkovacic@inf.uniri.hr,

Abstract - Cloud computing is based on the rent of Cloud computing today is defined so that it to an extent
architecture to perform various tasks, where all envelopes everything that we already do. The simplest
communications between a client and a computer in the definition says that cloud computing is a model within
"cloud" provides by the Internet. More prevalent types of computer science in which services are put up on the
services in the cloud are: a) Software as a service – SaS, b)
internet so that users can access them under certain
Platform as a service and c) Infrastructure as a Service - IAS.
The biggest advantage of cloud computing is the use of conditions. A bit more complex definition says that the
resources and services which are especially beneficial to cloud is a group of computers and computer software on
smaller companies that are just starting in business and can which services are installed which are then provided via the
avoid the purchase of expensive equipment to perform certain Internet while cloud computing consists of the cloud and
tasks. The most famous big IT corporations in the field are the services set on the cloud. Three types of services based
Google and Amazon. on the cloud concept are mentioned today2:
Microsoft Office 365 in combination with Microsoft
• Software as a service, SaS
Windows Azure platform ensures companies of all sizes high
productivity with low costs, saving time, money and free up • Platform as a service, PaS
valuable resources. Microsoft Office 365 is a combination of • Infrastructure as a service, IaS
familiar desktop tools such as Office 2010 with SaS defines that the user pays only for access and usage
communication networks and next-generation collaborative of the programs located on the remote computer. However
services like Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync it is not certain which forms of SaS are a cloud and which
Online. This article will show features of the new MS Office ones are not. It is a form of service providing in which the
365 platform based on the "cloud" concept as cost- provider of a certain service rents the computer
effectiveness in the same business domain. The same product
architecture and then puts his service on the rented
will be compared with the existing Google Apps competitor.
machines.
Keywords: cloud computing, SaS, Pas, IaS, MS Office 365, With PaS and IaS models users rent the architecture itself
Google Apps, Hyper Office. and they decide how to use it. In general the platform
model defines that the user develops and install their own
software into the cloud while in the infrastructure as
I. INTRODUCTION service model users rent a virtual computer which runs in
the cloud.
With the development of the Internet, its expansion and Cloud computing can additionally be divided into private
the access speed increase some tasks can now be done and public clouds. A private cloud is an infrastructure
remotely. The idea is that users can use their existing which a company gives to its own employees. The
equipment instead of investing in new technology and still advantage is the optimization of usage of the equipment; all
get a satisfying service. With his existing equipment the users are connected to the same infrastructure with their
user accesses the Internet and sends a request for a service own demands while control services ensure optimal
which is then replied to. This naturally costs money but for distribution of resources. Usually when someone speaks
some users it’s better than getting new equipment for a about cloud computing they refer to the public clouds. It is
business which is not their primary source of income. This a sort of cloud computing where everyone can access the
form of providing for services is called cloud computing infrastructure by paying for it. Although today cloud
and it’s based on renting computer resources and computing is seen as the solution of all issues within
architecture for performing various tasks, from simple computer science, the reality is that only some business and
services like writing a document to complex virtual technological scenarios can truly use its potential. The
machines1. scenarios differ from organization to organization and it’s

1 Mutavdžić, R., „Privatni ili javni oblak: pregled poslovnih scenarija i 2 Web source: Mreža, http://www.bug.hr/mreza/tekst/cloud/95395.aspx
odluke o uporabi Cloud Computinga (BIZ)“. COMBIS 2010.

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necessary to carefully observe the advantages and III. COMMERCIAL CLOUD-BASED PACKAGE MICROSOFT
disadvantages of certain cloud models. Besides questions OFFICE 365
concerning technology, questions of completely different
nature are posed like elasticity, availability, sovereignty, Microsoft Office 365 is a large package of services which
safety, interoperability. During the transition to cloud consists of many products like Exchange Online,
computing users select the required software, platform and SharePoint Online and Lync online for cooperation and
infrastructure. Optimal selection means maximizing the communication. Also, Office Web Apps (OWA) enables
satisfaction of user needs with minimal costs. This paper users to view and edit documents based on desktop
refers to the SaS office tools segment, presented office versions of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint
suite Office 365 and compared with the same Google Apps and OneNote) by using the appropriate web viewer3.
by type of service and rates of use. II. Chapter defines the Conceptually, Office 365 is a solution primarily focused at
advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing. III. companies, organizations or institutions that have a high
Chapter presents Office 365 business suite and the need for internal communication and document sharing
comparison of Office 365 and Google Apps for Business is without the need for establishing complex infrastructures
presented in Chapter IV. The conclusion is presented in
based on Microsoft Exchange4 or Share Point5 server. It’s
Chapter V.
primarily intended for users of desktop Microsoft Office6
integrated software package for simple access to
II. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE CLOUD documents from any computer including mobile platforms
MODEL and for simple internal correspondence, voice and video-
chat options. There is Office desktop setup to workstation
The greatest advantage of cloud computing is usage when for managing required components and updates, or can be
the service is needed. Users don’t have to buy their own used Microsoft Office 2010 as well as Office 2007 with
equipment instead they pay for using the cloud. The users SP2. Web Apps allow different users to work on the
pay for the exact quantity of the service they need instead same document in the same time, with no
of prepaid renting or reservation of resources for a longer multiplications of same document or history versions
time period. Users can pay for using the system for a few problems. Office 365 diagram is shown in Figure 1. and
minutes or hours, decide how many resources they need the most important features of Office applications 365 are
and let go of the resources as soon as they are done with presented below.
them. This form of doing business is especially handy for
smaller firms which are just starting with their income, so
they can avoid getting expensive equipment for performing
certain tasks. This way of usage enables the owners of the
clouds to efficiently rent them and as needed distribute
resources to individual users based on the user’s needs and
priorities. It’s already been mentioned that cloud definition
carries with it many unclear areas. The greatest mystery is
to define what exactly is considered to be a cloud and it’s
generally determined by the size of the infrastructure of
which the cloud consists of. With great infrastructures
utilization and efficient distribution of resources is very
important for conducting good business. From the user’s
perspective an impression of unlimited resources used
whenever needed is formed. This is usually achieved by
virtualization and smart resource distribution.
Greatest disadvantages are availability and safety. Users Fig. 1. Office 365 diagram7
are requested to have their business depend on services
located on someone else’s infrastructure. If problems arise
and the infrastructure becomes unavailable it can cause 3 Web source:
great financial losses. Besides, the services themselves can PcWorld,http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/245633/10_mos
t_powerful_cloud_companies.html (05.01.2012.).
contain secret data which then also has to be appropriately 4 Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server,
secured when on the cloud. Te cloud provider has to form a
collaborative application product developed by Microsoft.
relationship based on trust with his clients, he has to insure 5 SharePoint is a web application platform developed by Microsoft. It is
that their data will be properly secured. If there is any typically associated with web content management and document
violation of safety or loss of data it can destroy the management systems, It is capable of being configured into a wide range
providers business. Same can happen if the service is of solution areas.
unreliable and too often out of function. Users won’t go to 6 Versions of Windows supported by Office 365 are: Windows XP with
a provider who can’t guarantee great reliability of the SP3, Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008.
Microsoft Office Web Apps Service Description.
cloud. Methodology, used for the comparison of the cloud http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=13602
systems, is based on available sources on the Internet and (05.01.2012.).
users' experience in working with the Office 365 business 7 Web source: http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-
suits and Google Apps for Business. enterprises/ff652539.aspx (05.01.2012.).

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A. Word web App Android, Blackberry and Iphone mobile devices. For
Word web App belongs to the category of text mobile devices in addition to POP39, Office 365 offers
processors. User interface corresponds to the desktop Exchange support in the form of ActiveSync10. Messages
version of Word 2010. Word Web App does not fit in the are saved to a central station which can be accessed using
What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) category of different platforms. Although Exchange Online is located
applications; text editing is performed without per page within the cloud instead of on the local server of the
display, without header and footer, without footnotes and company it possesses administration tools. New users are
without margins. Text written in Word Web App will keep added individually or in groups (using the .CSV11 file), in
its base formatting which means that text formatting will be accordance to the level of access and administration
kept if accessed with a desktop version of the application. clearance of the user. There are also certain tools for
The possibilities of text editing are very similar to Google transferring mailboxes from the client version of Outlook
Docs service with the exception of a larger fonts and styles to the online version.
base, grammar check (including Croatian language
support), but it lacks the option of viewing the number of F. SharePoint online
characters in the document. Microsoft Silverlight8 SharePoint is a server-based database application that
technology is used for documents display; the technology uses a Web user interface for users to access this primarily
enables a detail and viable display of documents on other file-storage mechanism with powerful collaboration tools
web viewers like Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Google built in and placed on SharePoint Server. Some of the
Chrome. The conversion to and printing in the PDF format features SharePoint online are: managing and sharing
are not supported. important documents, advance finding important
documents, protecting sensitive content with document-
B. Excel Web App level permissions, accessing important documents offline
Excel Web App fits into the category of table calculators. by using SharePoint Workspace, enabling real-time
The user interface is reminiscent of the desktop version of communication with colleagues from within SharePoint
MS Excel, but with simplified and more modest options. Online and controlling service provisioning, monitoring,
The SUM and AVERAGE group functions button is and reporting to simplify management through a single
lacking. Excel Web App displays the work sheet the same console. Sharepoint online gives online collaboration
way as the desktop version of the same tool. Pivot tables effectively.
and graph charts are supported. A big disadvantage is the
inability to print a document using the web viewer. G. Lynch online
Office 365 package also comes with a Lync Online
C. PowerPoint Web App service. Lync Online as a part of Office 365 package offers
PowerPoint Web App fits into the category of numerous communication options which are based on IM
applications for creating presentations. The user interface (instant messaging) communication among employees,
is minimalistic compared to the desktop version of the communication with people within Outlook 2010,
same application. There are no themes editing, transitions organizing online meetings and recording, sharing desktops
or effects editing tools. There is no option to move a frame with integrated options of Lync, viewing documents from
containing content, to change its size or to add any SharePoint, making distribution lists, sharing files and a
additional frames. PowerPoint Web App is a WYSIWYG great options for administration through a centralized
application; document display is identical to the desktop network access.
version of the same application. Microsoft Silverlight
technology is used for documents display. Displaying a
document made in PowerPoint Web App is made possible
IV. GOOGLE APPS FOR BUSINESS VS OFFICE 365
exclusively using “full“slides; black and white print with
removed background and grayscale tones is not supported. Google Apps is a service from Google providing
independently customizable versions of several Google
D. Outlook products under a custom domain name. It features several
Outlook fits into the category of e-mail client Web applications with similar functionality to traditional
applications. User interface is identical to the desktop office suites. Google Apps for Business, which offers
version of the application and it is also localized to enable additional e-mail storage, is available for an annual fee per
the usage of Croatian language. user account. Google Apps for Education, which is free,
combines features from the Standard and Premier editions.
E. Exchange online
The greatest advantage of exchange online is that 9 Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), is a common protocol for
corporation e-mail messages can be accessed via client receiving e-mail from the server on networks that use internet protocol.
version of Outlook, Outlook network version or using the 10 Microsoft ActiveSync is a protocol, which enables transfer of data
most popular mobile devices including Windows Phone 7, between PCs and mobile devices (GSM or Smartphone devices) and
handhelds.
11 A comma-separated values (CSV) file stores tabular data (numbers
8 Microsoft Silverlight is an add-on for web-viewers which enables the and text) in plain-text form. It is a simple file format that is widely
display of multimedia content like animations. supported by consumer, business, and scientific applications.

MIPRO 2012/DE 1749

A. Technology That’s 2 to 7 times more. Types of services that use the
Google Apps are using web browser for all actions doing cloud concept determines the price for the end user.
by user. Office 365 offers two different versions: basic” Advantages and disadvantages of Office 365, Google Apps
version of Office 365 accessible from a browser, but for and Hyper Office are presented in the table 1. The
“serious work” customer need the professional version, increasing presence of smartphone devices supporting the
which necessitates the use of a Windows fat client, natively causes cloud service for mobile devices as one of the most
running Office 2010 and Outlook 2010. important criteria when choosing an office suite. Table 2.
presents supported cloud services for mobile devices.
B. Instance sollution
Table 1. Comparison of the popular cloud services – GENERAL
Google Apps are based on one-instance solution while
Office 365 Web Apps are based on multi-instance solution
GENERAL
(as shown in figure 2.). Benefits of a multi-tenant (one-
Microsoft Office 365 Google Apps for Hyper Office
instance) solution: Business
• One instance for all customers; Advantages
• All users use the same version of the software • Includes Gmail,
• Designed with a
(mostly up-to-date); • Ideal for elaborate one of the best
laser focus towards
• New version of the software is immediately enterprise needs email clients
SMB needs
around
available to all customers.
• SharePoint Online • Seamlessly
Office 365 is not multi-tenant service because it offers two may be used to • Low cost leader
integrated since it
different versions: create custom • Single-instance was designed as a
• Version S, for ‘Standard’, dedicated to small and applications single solution
medium sized organizations;
• Customer support
• Version D, for ‘Dedicated’ as multi-instance,
(for all users/all
single-tenant version for large organizations. Each issues) is ideal for
client will have their own instance of Office 365 SMBs without in
with dedicated servers and files. house IT
Disadvantages
• Ad-hoc • Is seen as more a • Lacks online
integration as consumer authoring
components are oriented product capabilities
also stand alone repackaged for
products businesses • Lacks web
(Sharepoint conferencing
Online, • Poorly integrated
Exchange with multiple
Online) interfaced as
• Can be complex components are
for some users stand alone
• Multi-instance products in
(„basic“ version, consumer market
„porfessional (Gmail, Sites,
Fig. 2. Instance solutions. Office 365 vs. Google Apps.
(Plan A,B,C) - Groups etc.)
hard to make
C. Colaboration decision
• Professional
Any content created with Google Apps — text, picture, version depends
presentation, blog, wiki, video — is natively shareable on desktop
while Office 365 Web Apps are depending on SharePoint Office
online service which is only included by the professional applications
version of Office 365. Office 365 for document sharing
service use SharePoint Online while Google Apps shares Table 3. analyses the costs of desktop and cloud solutions
documents by using their own tool by default (Google for end users on monthly and annual basis. Corporate
Docs). Finally, for more effective collaboration in Office solutions with annual maintenance plan are analyzed and
365 is necessary to know SharePoint tools. require additional fees. Assuming the negligible costs in
transition to cloud computing, estimate the cost of using
D. Budgets MS Office 365, Microsoft Office 2010 Desktop and
Google Apps for Business is given in Table 3.
For using Office 365 service we need to know what
version do we need. Customers have to make difficult
decisions: which users will have the ‘right’ to the premium
and expensive solution, who will have to settle for the basic
version? The cost of solutions are also different.
With Google Apps for Business (Flexible plan), it’s cost
no more than $5/month/person. In comparison, business
versions of Office 365 cost from $10 to $27/month/person.

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Table 2. Comparison of the popular cloud services – GENERAL we can say that cloud business suits offer acceptable
solution with high level of collaboration, sharing services,
MOBILITY for less price.
Microsoft Google Apps Hyper Office
Office 365 for Business Office 365 Sollution costs (Average)
Phones iPhone, iPhone, iPhone,
Supported 140
BlackBerry, BlackBerry12, BlackBerry,
120
Android, Android, Nokia, Android, Nokia,
Nokia, Windows Windows 100

Windows Mobile Mobile 80

USD $
Year
Mobile s 60 Month
Features push email, push email, push 40
push email,
Supported push calendars, push 20
push calendars,
calendars, contacts,
push contacts, 0
push 1 Year TCO/User 3 Year TCO/User 5 Year TCO/User
push tasks
contacts, Year/Month
push tasks
Protocols ActiveSync ActiveSync,
ActiveSync, Fig. 3 Average costs of Office 365 business solution
Supported SyncML13
SyncML, Email
to SMS
Office 2010 solution costs (Average)

Table 2. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Office 365 vs Office 7000

2010 (desktop) vs Google Apps for Business based on 100 users. 6000
5000
Office 365 solution (basic &
USD $
4000 Year
professional) (Average14) 3000 Month
2000
Year Month 1000
0
1 Year TCO/User $ 120 $ 10 1 Year TCO/User 3 Year TCO/User 5 Year TCO/User
Year/Month
3 Year TCO/User $ 120 $ 10 Fig. 2. Knowledge matrix
5 Year TCO/User $ 120 $ 10
Fig. 4. Average costs of Office 2010 desktop business
Office 2010 solution (Average)
Year Month solution
Office 2010 solution costs (Average)

1 Year TCO/User $ 5.817 $ 485 7000

6000
3 Year TCO/User $ 2.220 $ 185 5000
USD $

4000 Year
5 Year TCO/User $ 2.580 $ 215 3000 Month

Google Apps for Business 2000

1000
solution Flexible15 plan (Average16) 0
1 Year TCO/User 3 Year TCO/User 5 Year TCO/User
Year Month Year/Month

1 Year TCO/User $ 60 $ 5
Fig. 5. Average costs of Google Apps for Business
3 Year TCO/User $ 60 $ 5

5 Year TCO/User $ 60 $ 5
VI. CONCLUSION
Figure 3., 4. and 5. are showing total average costs of
each business suite (Costs do not include deployment and Definition of cloud computing says that the cloud is a
migration expenses.). Notice that the most expensive group of computers and computer software on which
solution is desktop version of Office 2010. In conclusion services are installed which are then provided via the
Internet while cloud computing consists of the cloud and
12 Requires Blackberry Enterprise Server implementation the services set on the cloud. It seems an ideal model but It
has more advantages but also disadvantages. The greatest
13 Only supports contacts for SyncML advantage of cloud computing is usage when the service is
14 These results are shown by office 365 calculator needed. And the greatest disadvantages are availability and
(http://officeonlineinthecloud.com/). This results are based on 100 users safety. Modern cloud architecture gives as many
and the averages for 100 users. This TCO model is very general. Costs do commercial business suit tools like Microsoft Office 365,
not include Deployment and Migration costs, as these will be roughly the
Google Apps, Hyper Office which can be effectively used
same for either deployment. For a fully detailed TCO model, please apply
directly to Microsoft. in business environment. In this paper we have compared
15 These results are based on Google Apps for Business (Flexible plan two powerful office business tools. The comparison was
without contract) based on Internet articles (official web sites) and user’s
16 These results are taken by offical google site experience. Google Apps for Business vs. Office 365
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/messaging_value.html business suit was compared in final expenses meaning.
(13.2.2012.)

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5633/10_most_powerful_cloud_companies.html
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