Provision of the IT and server infrastructure

With Exchange Online, Office365 can run entirely in the Microsoft Cloud and thus on Microsoft servers. This saves small and medium-sized companies investing in the acquisition, support, maintenance and renewal of their own server park and corresponding server services (hardware, software, storage, network components and personnel) with Microsoft Development Services.



Guaranteed IT security

All Office365 data is backed up and protected with comprehensive risk management, automatic updates and multiple data backups. Microsoft thus guarantees companies a (financially secure) extremely high level of reliability and availability of 99.9% - this is much more secure than most companies can manage with their own servers! All company data and accounts from Europe are also only hosted in European data centers. Since the beginning of 2017, the Microsoft Cloud Germany has also been available as a special cloud service for the often strict data protection and compliance requirements in the German market. Also read our article on Microsoft's Cloud Germany "Storage location Office 365: German companies are now benefiting from Microsoft's cloud storage in Germany . For data protection in Microsoft 365, we also recommend our article " Data protection and GDPR in Microsoft 365 "

Access to the data from anywhere

Another advantage of Microsoft 365 is location-independent working with devices of your choice. Real-time synchronization between PC, Mac, smartphone and tablet makes this possible. This is particularly practical for mobile use at the customer's site, on business trips, for collaboration in decentralized teams or the connection of home office workstations. Microsoft Teams can also be used to hold HD video meetings and conferences with up to 250 participants. In addition, there are other handy collaboration tools with benefits for team collaboration and group communication with Al Rafay SharePoint Consulting.

Always the latest Office versions

With the Office365 subscription for companies, the current program versions of Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word as well as Exchange, SharePoint and Teams are always available to you on all device classes. As a result, the previously complex, internal company migration processes when changing to a newer program version are no longer necessary.

Renting instead of buying is cheaper, more flexible and easily scalable

The investment costs are lower for SaaS and IaaS solutions than for a purchased product. At the same time, companies can deduct the Office365 subscription costs in full and not just as a percentage from their taxes. Another big advantage: New workstations and users can be easily, flexibly and needs-based booked with an additional license and just as easily deactivated again. This makes the integration of external workers, for example, including the assignment of individual access rules, extremely easy.

Office365 Disadvantages - You should know this in advance

The automatic updates can lead to incompatibilities

The Office365 web applications are constantly updated so that you are always working with the latest version. However, this can not only bring advantages, but also disadvantages, for example if the latest applications are suddenly no longer compatible with the other programs (eg DATEV) or the hardware (eg printer).

Poor internet connection hinders work

Location-independent mobile working is desirable, but only works as a pure cloud solution with a good internet connection. If you don't have a good network at a location, you can't use the Office365 web applications either - and accordingly you can't work with them either. In contrast, the hybrid cloud solution OneDrive has the great advantage that it also enables reliable offline processing of data and automatic synchronization. As soon as you have a good internet connection again, your data will be synchronized. You can also read our blog post “ Windows OneDrive – everything to do with Microsoft’s cloud service