Office 365 turns five: A major footprint, but lots to do before we hit cloud utopia

Grazed from EnterpriseAppsTech. Author: James Bourne.

This week has been a fascinating one for tech anniversaries. Nine years ago to this day, the first iPhone was released – a story of its own, of course – but perhaps as importantly for enterprise working, this week marks five years since the release of Office 365. From relatively humble beginnings as cloud versions of various Microsoft on-premises services in 2011, the product has become the “bedrock” of Microsoft’s corporate strategy, according to David Lavenda, co-founder and VP product strategy of harmon.ie, a Microsoft collaboration vendor.

“It has evolved over time into a comprehensive cloud platform,” Lavenda tells Enterprise AppsTech, noting functions such as its AI-influenced ‘network graph’ which ties up a lot of the suite and gives intelligence based on content and social interactions. This usage is documented in a report harmon.ie released this week on how Microsoft ecosystem partners are moving to the cloud…

The annual survey, the second of its kind, found that not only are partners more readily embracing Office 365, but Microsoft is encouraging partners to offer vertical solutions in industries as diverse as healthcare, law, and agriculture. According to survey respondents, access to the latest application versions (69%) is more important than cost (56%) as the main reason for customers adopting Office 365…

Read more from the source @ http://www.appstechnews.com/news/2016/jun/29/office-365-turns-five-major-footprint-lots-do-we-hit-cloud-utopia/