January 14, 2021 Understanding the difference between Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Introduction A recent change of the product name from Office 365 (O365) to Microsoft 365 (M365) has led many of us wonder about the differences between the two or if it is just the name change. In this blog, we will try to know the purpose behind renaming this brand. Let’s begin: Office 365 vs Microsoft 365 Office 365 Office 365 is a traditional cloud-based productivity suite that comprises apps and services to increase business productivity. It includes some common Microsoft applications such as Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Office 365 is further divided into two categories – 1) Office 365 Business and 2) Office 365 Enterprise. Each of these categories offers various plans. Based on your selected plan, you get subscriptions that include popular productivity applications such as Teams, Skype for Business, OneDrive, SharePoint, Yammer, Planner and more. Prices for Office 365 subscription plans range from $5 per user per month to $35 per user per month. You can even mix and match plans of your choice as per your business or industry requirements. Microsoft 365 Microsoft 365 encompasses Office 365, Windows 10 Enterprise, Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) and Machine Learning. Microsoft 365 is built to be a complete productivity suite with advanced protection against threats. Windows 10 has built-in BitLocker and Windows Defender Anti-Virus to prevent cyberattacks. It offers flexible deployment, update, and support options and provides a comprehensive identity management and mobile device management tools too to safeguard corporate data. Microsoft EMS has four components – Azure Active Directory Premium, Microsoft Intune, Azure Rights Management, and Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics to ensure safe collaboration with remote or distributed teams. To retain control on technical environment, it provides you services like single sign-on, secure access to company data from any device, document-level security, and constant security monitoring.Microsoft 365 uses intelligent cloud and machine learning. It ensures that your PC stays current with the latest Windows 10 capabilities using Desktop Analytics. Apparently, if your organization deals with highly confidential data, Microsoft 365 will be a reliable and cost-effective option for you. Furthermore, like Office 365, Microsoft 365 offers multiple plans under two categories – 1) Microsoft 365 Business and 2) Microsoft 365 Enterprise where prices start at $20 per user per month. After comparing Office 365 and Microsoft 365, we can easily figure out that Microsoft 365 encloses all existing services of Office 365 along with other innovative cloud-based productivity tools for greater business agility and empowerment. And predictably, Office 365 may have a steady elimination plan in future. Choosing which license is better for you There are three ways to decide which subscription – O365 or M365 is right for you. Firstly, if you already use all components separately, then it is worth it to buy combined Microsoft 365 license. Secondly, if you do not need all M365 services, then you should buy them separately as per your business needs.Thirdly, if you need everything in M365, then you must consult a Microsoft Partner to explore different buying options to offer you the best value. One of them is mix and match of licenses. Though, both, Office 365 and Microsoft 365 are iconic products, Microsoft 365 conforms to businesses that demand a matchless user productivity and have greater security concerns and compliance requirements such as in government and education sector. Microsoft 365 provides all necessary apps and services designed to create hyper productive environment and detect usage and performance of resources. Either way, the good news is, for seamless business workflows, you have opportunities to extend cloud applications such as MS Teams and infuse automation to streamline Office 365 or Microsoft 365 governance using a third-party software such as TeamsHub.io. Whatever license you may purchase, TeamsHub.io ensures that your collaboration platform unleashes superlative employee experience and unbreakable security without compromise. To know more about TeamsHub by Cyclotron visit https://teamshub.io or contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com
