BlackBerry’s operating system was recently dealt blow by Facebook. Find out how this could be the final nail in the BB10 coffin.

The only reason this headline should surprise anyone is the fact that BlackBerry OS is actually still alive. End of story, right? Truth be told, most assumed BlackBerry’s operating system dead when the company decided to release a device running the Android platform. It seemed to be the only logical step forward for BlackBerry Limited. And yet, BB continues on.

Only now, they continue on without Whatsapp and Facebook support.

When pressed for the reason why they are pulling support, Facebook made their case quite simple, stating that 99.5 % of all smartphone sales are of the Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile platforms.

Makes sense.

What doesn’t make sense is the fact that the BlackBerry OS is still alive and kicking. Yes, I understand BlackBerry was the platform for business users for a very long time, but that time has come and gone and the only relevant platforms are obvious. In fact, even Windows Mobile is barely hanging on to any semblance of relevancy.

What can you expect

If you happen to be a BlackBerry user, you already knew that Whatsapp pulled the plug. Now you can count on the Facebook app functioning (sans updates) until the end of the year. Once 2016 passes, the app will cease to be available in any form.

My guess is, once the Facebook app no longer functions on the platform, the Grim Reaper will swoop into the offices of the BB10 developers and have a field day. Facebook holds a powerful sway over the ebb and flow of the consumer. No Facebook, no platform.

And you may be saying to yourself, “BB10 is a business-centric platform, there’s no need for a Facebook app”. That assumption is false for at least two reasons. First, businesses actually use Facebook as a form of marketing. Second, you’re assuming that business users do not spend any amount of time on Facebook. According to comScore, the average American citizen spends 40 minutes a day on the social network platform. Relatively speaking, that’s a significant amount of time (considering users tend to work on Facebook in a sort of “hit and run” style). And if you factor in the peak Facebook hours of 1 p.m. – 3 p.m., it’s clear that business users do spend time on Facebook.

BlackBerry’s reaction

Of this separation, BlackBerry said:

“We are extremely disappointed in their decision as we know so many users love these apps. We fought back to work with WhatsApp and Facebook to change their minds, but at this time, their decision stands,”

BlackBerry even started a Twitter campaign to change Facebook’s mind, with the hashtag #ILoveBB10Apps. I did a quick Twitter search for that hashtag and found the hashtag (somewhat) backfired on BlackBerry. Tweets ranging from angry users (one user asking how his BlackBerry device could be showing 0% battery, yet still be functioning), to the usual flood of memes and spam. Some users did proclaim they’d be sticking with BlackBerry by way of the PRIV (which, if we’re being honest, at that point you are as much in support of Android as you are BlackBerry). Of course, there were the BlackBerry faithful, extolling the values of BlackBerry 10 multitasking, security, and such to convince Facebook to not pull the plug.

The truth is in the numbers

You really shouldn’t need anything more than that telling number 99.5. That is beyond significant. We’ve watched new (and promising) platforms come and go, thanks to the might that is Android and iOS. Because BlackBerry has been around for a while, doesn’t give them a special hall pass to avoid the apple flavored robotic death hammer.

If BlackBerry wants to continue on, their only hope clearly lies in Android. The BlackBerry faithful will gladly continue on, with their physical keyboards and Android platform. Either that, or they can say goodbye to BlackBerry altogether, because Facebook pulling support could well be the killing blow to the little platform.

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Microsoft continues to build out Windows 10 – with a bumper crop of new features announced at its Build conference last week.

These enhancements will be pushed to to Windows 10 users over the coming months, with many arriving in summer when the OS will get a major upgrade dubbed the Windows 10 Anniversary Edition.

Here are the key upgrades heading to Windows 10.

The write stuff

Using a digital pen to write and scribble on the screen of Windows 10 PCs and tablets will get easier.

In a boost to devices that support such pens, such as the Microsoft’s Surface tablet, the OS’ new Windows Ink feature will allow users to jot down notes on the screen without unlocking the device.

Windows Ink will also allow users to write messages on sticky notes and, if appropriate, have them automatically translated into calendar appointments and reminders.

Support for Windows Ink in Microsoft Office, Maps, the Edge browser and other apps will allow users to draw, write and annotate using their pen. Windows Ink will make using the pen in Office more satisfying than it currently is, for example tidying up highlighted marks on documents so they neatly align with text.

Windows 10 will also gain the Ink Workspace, a hub for launching apps that support writing and sketching using the Surface Pen.

Ink everywhere

Support for drawing, writing and annotating using digital pens will likely come to many apps.

Microsoft says that support for Microsoft Ink will be easily added to Universal Windows Platform apps, requiring just two lines of XAML code.

Digital ruler

It sounds simple, but the new on-screen ruler should prove to be a useful addition for those who want to draw straight lines using a digital pen.

Smarter Cortana

The attraction of a virtual assistant is the simplicity with which they allow you to carry out tasks.

To ease the process of using Windows 10’s Cortana, the voice-controlled assistant will no longer require you to log into Windows, with users able to make a note, play music or set a reminder from the lock screen.

Cortana will also become more proactive and make suggestions based on a user’s past behaviour – offering to order lunch or to arrange transportation.

More apps will also be able to use Cortana to automatically complete tasks for users or to carry out actions based on context, such as the user’s current location or time of day.

Windows Hello comes to apps and the web

Windows 10 already lets you log into the OS using your face.

The anniversary edition will extend this biometric log-in to Windows apps and websites via Microsoft Edge. As with the OS, users will be able to authenticate their identity using a facial, iris or fingerprint scan.

Another new feature will allow users to unlock a PC running Windows 10 Enterprise Edition by tapping a Windows Hello-enabled phone, although Microsoft has said the feature will only be available on “select premium phones”.

Android app notifications on Windows 10

In future, notifications on Android devices will be able to show on Windows 10 PCs.

Any notification popping up on the Android notification panel can, via the Cortana Android app, also appear as a notification on a linked Windows 10 desktop.

Microsoft demoed the ability at its recent Build conference for developers.

Browser extensions

Microsoft’s Edge browser will soon gain support for extensions.

Extensions are small programs that can be downloaded to add new functionality to a browser, and are already found in Chrome, Firefox and other browsers today.

Support for extensions has already been added to Edge for those testing pre-release builds of Windows 10 under the Insider program.

The first extensions to be supported by Edge are Microsoft Translator, an extension that automatically translates pages in over 50 different languages, an extension to augment mouse gestures support, and a preview version of the Reddit Enhancement Suite.

Microsoft promises more extensions will be added later this year, including AdBlock, LastPass and Evernote.

Pinned browser tabs

Microsoft is also adding to Edge the ability to pin your favorite sites and web apps so they always have a tab open in the browser.

Updated Maps app

The Maps app has several new features, as well as UI and performance improvements.

Additions include one-tap access to search and directions, the ability to view multiple searches and directions at the same time, labels for search results on the map and turn-by-turn directions read by Cortana.

The improved app is available now to those testing Windows 10 under the Insider program.

Access Linux command-line tools in Windows

More one for developers, Microsoft is also bringing the ability to run the Bash shell to Windows.

The Bash shell is a command line interpreter that is available on many different Linux distributions, as well as Mac OS X.

The shell includes a host of tools that allow power users to carry out and orchestrate complex chains of commands.

Bash will be available via a Universal Windows Platform app, which will provide an image of the Linux distribution Ubuntu and run on the Windows 10 desktop.

Users will be able to use the Bash shell to download and install programs from the command line, as they do from inside Ubuntu. Microsoft says Ubuntu software will run as fast in the Windows app as it does natively, thanks to a software subsystem for handling Linux system calls.

Microsoft has described the app as offering a developer toolset. While it has access to the files on the Windows PC, the app only provides access to a command line — not a graphical desktop — and reportedly has limits on what it can be used for, such as not being able to run a server.

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Manage your saved passwords:

Windows regularly offers to save passwords on your behalf. When you connect to a server on your network with a username and password other than the one you logged in with, for example, you’re prompted to save the credentials for reuse. Likewise, Internet Explorer and Edge allow you to save passwords so you can enter them automatically when you return to that page.

Those passwords are saved in a secure location that only you can open, using a well-hidden tool called Credential Manager.

You’ll find this option in Control Panel, under the User Accounts heading. In Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, it’s easier to just type credential in the search box and click Credential Manager at the top of the search results.

Separate icons at the top of the Credential Manager list let you view and manage saved Web credentials and Windows credentials. The Web Passwords list can’t be sorted and there’s no search option, so you’ll have to scroll through the list to find a specific entry. Click the down arrow to the right of any entry to see the saved username and password and click Remove if you don’t want that password stored. (The only way to change a saved password is to remove it and then save it by entering the new password in your web browser.)

The Windows Credentials screen offers Edit and Remove buttons for every entry, along with a handy option to back up and restore saved credentials. That’s a small timesaver when you’re setting up a new PC.

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In a new report from SolarWinds, 92% of companies say adopting cloud is critical to long-term success. But, most don’t think they’ll ever be fully cloud.

On March 29, IT management software provider SolarWinds released its annual report titled IT Trends Report 2016: The Hybrid IT Evolution, detailing some interesting trends around cloud adoption in the enterprise and the rise of hybrid IT.

First off, according to the results of the report, cloud adoption is a foregone conclusion for most businesses. The report found that 92% of the IT professionals who were surveyed said adopting cloud was important to long-term success in their business. Nearly 30% labeled it extremely important.

However, despite this widespread adoption, most organizations aren’t fully embracing the cloud within the whole of their organization. Joel Dolisy, CIO of SolarWinds, said that is because the cloud isn’t the best option for all workloads.

“The findings of this year’s study paint a clear picture: Cloud adoption is nearly ubiquitous, but it’s not now and will not in the foreseeable future be suitable for all workloads, and even if it were, very few if any companies would convert all of their existing applications to run in the cloud,” Dolisy said in a press release.

The data to support Dolisy’s statement came from the report as well. Only 43% of respondents said that half or more of their IT infrastructure will make it to the cloud over the next 3-5 years. And, 60% said it is unlikely that their entire infrastructure will ever be fully cloud-based. Additionally, 9% said they hadn’t migrated any piece of their infrastructure to the cloud.

Dolisy called the resulting dynamic hybrid IT, where an organization blends critical on-premises tools with cloud-based technologies. This affects IT as well, he said, because it shifts the dynamic of the corporate IT professional to one who can guarantee always-on performance regardless of where he or she is based. Additionally, these professionals need new skills and tools to effectively deploy and manage these environments.

Basically, the rise of this hybrid IT means that IT professionals are faced with two key tasks: Leveraging the cloud to increase efficiency and performance, while maintaining security of critical systems.

So, what are the benefits of this hybrid IT infrastructure? The SolarWinds report listed three in ranked order:

1. Infrastructure cost-reduction
2. Increased infrastructure flexibility/agility
3. Relieving internal IT personnel of day-to-day management of some infrastructure

However, there are some challenges to managing this type of infrastructure as well. Of the respondents, 62% listed security as the top challenge within these type of environments.

Then, of course, there are also inherent challenges to encouraging cloud adoption as well. SolarWinds pegged the top three barriers to overall cloud adoption (which, in turn, affects hybrid IT) as follows:

1. Security/compliance concerns
2. Legacy system support
3. Budget limitations

Nearly 70% have migrated their applications to the cloud, almost 50% have migrated their storage, and 33% have moved their databases.

So, how does this affect your organization? Well, new trends in infrastructure often require new skills to support them.

According to the survey, only 27% are convinced that their IT department has the skills needed to fully support a hybrid IT environment. To succeed in hybrid IT, respondents said they needed better monitoring tools, application migration support, distributed architectures, service-oriented architectures, and automation or vendor management tools.

Hybrid IT also require support from leadership as well. Of those surveyed, 56% felt that they had the support needed to do hybrid IT right.

“In short, IT is everywhere,” Dolisy said. “Effectively managing and monitoring the new environment—from on-premises to the cloud with multiplying endpoints—to be able to act when needed is more critical now than ever.”

The 3 big takeaways for readers

1. Hybrid IT, a mix of cloud and on-premises solutions, is growing as the prevailing trend in IT architecture. Almost all respondents said cloud was critical to future growth, but many felt that their organization would never be fully cloud.

2. Hybrid IT can offer cost reduction, increased agility, and management relief. But, it also brings security challenges, issues with legacy systems, and budget challenges.

3. If your organization is engaging hybrid IT, your IT professionals need the proper tools and skills to stay on top of it. Look into monitoring, different architectures, and automation to help support your staff.

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Tracking and reporting activity in Office 365 using the built-in admin tools is about to get much better. Here’s what the revamped admin center has to offer.

Gathering usage information about Microsoft Office 365 in an enterprise is limited by the available admin tools. To make matters worse, as Microsoft adds new applications to Office 365, the ability to track if, and how, users were consuming the new features has been even more difficult. But with the rollout of the new Office 365 admin center in March 2016, those limitations are quickly disappearing.

Reporting

At first glance, you may think the main activity for any Office 365 admin is adding and subtracting employees from the active roster. But a good admin should be doing much more.

As the number of applications in Office 365 has grown substantially in recent years, the need to track all Office 365 activity has also grown. This need to track activity is especially important in larger enterprises where mishandled resources can raise overall costs significantly.

For example, knowing how many employees actually use Yammer on a weekly basis, and when, could help admins predict when resources will be taxed the most. Or tracking how users are actually using collaboration tools like Skype and Delve may lead an admin to conclude that more training on those applications is needed because the apps are underutilized. These are the sort of questions the new Office 365 admin center is looking to answer.

By simplifying the interface and creating ready-to-use dashboards, Microsoft is trying to streamline the reporting process. Tracking email activity and other peak usage data is just a few clicks away. And as the new Office 365 admin center is rolled out, there will also be tools admins can use to create custom reports.

Speaking from personal experience, the new admin dashboard interface is a welcome improvement. Navigation in the new admin center closely matches the familiar navigation system of other Office 365 apps. The previous admin center, with its heavy use of linked text, looked almost tacked on as an afterthought.

Rollout

The new Office 365 admin center is rolling out in the United States right now and will be the default reporting experience very soon. The new center will roll out to other parts of the world in April 2016.

If you’re not ready for the change, you can roll back to the old admin system during this introductory phase. On the other hand, if you’re anxious for a change, you can click the Get A Sneak Peek link at the top of the old Office 365 admin center to force the installation of the new system.

Bottom line

For most users, administering Office 365 is someone else’s responsibility, but that does not diminish its importance to an enterprise.

A good admin should be able to track what activity is taking place within Office 365 and, more important, what activity is not taking place. Knowing who uses what applications for how long, and when, is essential information. Armed with that knowledge, administrators can determine how to better allocate resources and where new training for users may be required.

With the rollout of the new Office 365 admin center, Microsoft is using feedback received from its customers to create tools and dashboards that it hopes will make the tracking of vital activity data in Office 365 an easily achieved reality.

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iOS 9.3 offers several features that might appeal to business-oriented Apple users.

Apple introduced a new version of iOS on Monday. The update includes several new features, including updates to CarPlay and HealthKit, as well as a feature to make it easier for iPads to be used in schools for educational purposes. There are several other new features which are particularly appealing to the business-oriented user.

Here are 3 new features business users should check out.

Night Shift

The proliferation of devices like tablets and smartphones means that some sort of screen is never far away. For many, looking at a screen is the first and last thing they do in the morning and evening.

The problem with that is screens emit blue light, which reduces the amount of melatonin produced in the body. Melatonin is a chemical that helps people fall asleep. The light emitted from smartphones can also cause eye strain, which carries symptoms like headaches and blurred vision.

With this latest version of iOS 9, Apple introduced Night Shift, a feature that automatically adjusts the colors of your display at night. You can schedule times for it to go into effect, manually turn it on and off, and adjust colors on a scale of less warm to more warm.

You can access Night Shift through Settings | Display & Brightness, or through the menu that swipes up from the bottom of the device’s screen.

Password-protected Notes

Notes is iOS’ app for taking, well, notes. iOS 9.3 updates it by allowing users a layer of security. Now, users can lock their notes using either a password or the Touch ID, which makes the app that much more useful.

In order to lock a note, tap the button in the top right corner (the one you might use if you were going to email the note) and then tap Lock Note. When prompted, enter a password, confirm it, and decide if you want to enable the Touch ID. A lock button will appear at the top of the note and in the future if you want to open it, enter the password or use the Touch ID.

More personalized News

The News app now offers more personalization for users, and on a range of topics and publications. So for example, you can select a topic like mobile apps or internet privacy. You can access news by opening the News app, or by swiping right from your main screen.

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Get the inside story on how your PC is managing power:

 

One of the most powerful diagnostic tools in Windows doesn’t have a graphical interface.

The Powercfg command, which is available only from a command line, allows you to manage, save, and export power settings. But its best trick is the ability to produce a detailed report of energy usage on your PC, including clues about devices or services that are preventing your system from going to sleep when it should.

To produce the energy report, open an administrative Command Prompt window. (From Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, right-click Start and then click Command Prompt (Admin).)

At the command prompt, type cd %temp% and then press Enter to switch to the Temp folder, where your report will be saved.

Enter the command powercfg /energy to begin generating the report. The process monitors your system for 60 seconds and then analyzes the results, saving the report as a document called energy-report.html in the current folder.

To open that report in your default browser, just enter the command start energy-report.html.

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The hackers used “ransomware” to lock the hospital out of its own medical records.

Not all kidnappers grab your loved ones.

A growing online threat – ransomware – essentially abducts your computer system, putting data and services off-limits to users and demanding a payment to restore access.

“We are seeing more cases of this – sometimes almost on a daily basis,” said New Jersey State Police Capt. Steve Jones. “And we’re not seeing all of it, because people may be too embarrassed or don’t believe it can be helped.”

Ransomware viruses are a plague. Once infected — installed to your computer by a website you’ve visited, a rogue email attachment or link, or instant message — your computer will lock up. With names like CryptoWall, these types of viruses may create a popup window or Web page warning you that you’ve broken some law and have to pay a fine, anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars, according to the FBI.

These scams threaten to encrypt your files forever or destroy them unless a ransom is paid, according to the FBI.

Once paid, your computer is unlocked or a code is sent to unlock the machine, authorities said.

Between April 2014 and June 2015, the FBI received 992 CryptoWall-related complaints with victims reporting a loss of more than $18 million.

The state’s top cybersecurity unit recently launched an online effort to help people guard against ransomware.

“For many organizations, preventing ransomware entirely is nearly impossible,” says the New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC), which introduced a Ransomware Threat Profile page at its website in February.

But it notes individuals and companies can take measures to prevent infections and to limit their impact.

Although ransomware can lock up laptops and desktop computers, the risk is particularly great for data-dependent organizations like hospitals and accounting firms, said Jones, the State Police spokesman.

So far, at least three hospitals have been hit nationwide – in California, Kentucky and the Washington, D.C., area. South Jersey hospitals are well aware of the menace.

“It’s a big concern. It’s something that has really spiked,” said Tom Handlon, chief information security officer for Kennedy Health, which operates three acute-care hospitals in South Jersey.

Handlon gave no details, but said Kennedy seeks to protect itself through protective measures inside its computer system and by promoting safe conduct by employees.
“We’re monitoring it constantly and updating as we go along,” he said. “We are really educating the staff and our entire organization that we are a target.”

A similar view came from Tom Rubino, spokesman for Cooper University Healthcare System in Camden.

“We have tracked the recent wave of ransomware attacks that have targeted hospitals across the nation,” Rubino said. He said Cooper’s IT security team “is proactively taking measures to prevent ransomware infection of our computer systems.”

“Additionally, as a critical component for preventing all computer viruses, we are increasing our employee education efforts.”

A key precaution is to back up your computer’s contents on a frequent basis, Jones said. “But you’ve got to keep the backup drives disconnected,” he warned. “Otherwise, the ransomware can migrate to the backups.”

The State Police in March 2015 investigated a hacking incident that disabled much of the computer system for the Swedesboro-Woolwich school system. In that case, a hacker demanded more than $125,000 in the form of a digital currency called bitcoins.

The district, which did not pay the ransom, had to wipe clean its email servers and cafeteria lunch-ordering system to rid itself of ransomware. Only a handful of classroom computers were infected.

Hackers exploited a gap in the district’s computer security system and a vendor’s “weak” passport to take over the computer system, Michael Procopio, Educational Information and Resource Center’s director of technology, said at the time. EIRC experts helped the district restore its system.

The district’s hacker was believed to have struck from abroad – a familiar pattern, according to the State Police.

“Many of these messages and attacks are coming through foreign servers,” Jones said. “The countries that house these servers are not often countries that have a real open relationship with law enforcement.”

Tools have been available to help decrypt older versions of ransomware, said Dave Weinstein, New Jersey’s director of cybersecurity.

“At this point, the strain has morphed to the point where there is no releasing your files,” said Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s office. “The lock these cybercriminals put on your files is foolproof at this point.”

Unless you’ve backed up your computer prior to the infection, Della Fave said, “The only way you would get your files back is to pay.”

“Ransomware is working” for cyberthieves, said Ben Johnson, chief security strategist at Carbon Black Inc., a  computer security firm in Waltham, Massachusetts. “People are paying.”

In the last few weeks, cybercriminals have come up with some new twists, he said. For instance, one version encrypts files more quickly after someone opens up a malware-filled Microsoft Word document or some other attachment.

Other versions encrypt the computer at its most basic level so it can’t even power on, or use the computer’s own system administration tools to infect itself, he said.

The best course of action is to make sure you don’t get the virus. “You must be super careful what you click on,” Della Fave said.

Here’s what you should do, according to Johnson and the Ocean County prosecutor’s office:

Office 365 provides the productivity tools required by a modern enterprise workforce. This guide covers key details, including available applications, system requirements, and subscription options.

For just about any enterprise of any size, the productivity of its modern workforce revolves around the basic office suite of email, calendar, word processor, and spreadsheet. But as the enterprise workforce has become more mobile, the basic productivity toolset has had to adapt and change to match new requirements. This is why Microsoft updated Office 365 to be a mobile collaborative platform ready to get work done wherever and whenever it happens.

Microsoft Office 365 is the de facto productivity suite for many enterprises and it is the suite all the other competitors are measured against. So as a leader in information technology for your enterprise, it’s in your best interest to know everything there is to know about Office 365. To help you achieve that goal, TechRepublic compiled the most important details and related resources on Microsoft Office 365 into this “living” guide, which we’ll periodically update as new information becomes available.

Executive summary

What is it? Microsoft Office 365 provides users with the basic productivity applications necessary to get work done in the modern enterprise. It includes applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, and OneDrive, just to name a few.

Why does it matter? As the standard for productivity suites, competing products are generally measured against applications from the Office 365 suite.

Who does it affect? In the modern mobile-centric enterprise, Office 365 provides the tools used to get work done. This makes Office 365 important to just about every working individual.

When is it available? The latest version of Microsoft Office 365 is available right now. The current subscription includes Office 2016 applications.

How do you get it? Enterprises can purchase a subscription to Office 365 via the Microsoft website. Subscriptions range from $8/user/month to $35/user/month.

What is it?

Microsoft Office 365 is a subscription service that provides users with the basic productivity applications necessary to get work done in the modern enterprise. Productivity applications include, but are not limited to, a word processor, a spreadsheet, an email client, a calendar, and a presentation application.

As an example, a Business Premium subscription to Office 365 ($12.50 per person per month) includes these applications:

Word: This app sets the standard for word processors and is available with Office 365 for both Business and Premium. If users in your enterprise need to create documents, this is the tool they will use.

Excel: The spreadsheet has been the workhorse for basic data analysis since its invention back in the previous century. Excel is the current standard-bearer and comes with Office 365 for Business and Premium.

Outlook: Office 365’s solution for managing email and an appointment calendar is called Outlook. The app has been around for many years and its busy interface tends to be either loved or hated by users. It’s available with both the Business and Premium subscriptions.

PowerPoint: Communicating information to a group of individuals at a meeting often involves a presentation. Office 365’s PowerPoint allows users to create, display, and disseminate information in formats ranging from the basic slide to animation to video.

Publisher: Sometimes communicating information to a broader audience requires something more permanent and more formal than a presentation at a meeting. The Publisher app in Office 365 provides users with the tools they need to publish professional-looking newsletters, brochures, and booklets.

OneNote: As the workforce has become more mobile, the need to capture information on the go has become increasingly important. Applications like OneNote allow users to take notes on any device and then retrieve those notes from any other device. It’s your basic productivity cloud app.

OneDrive: The other basic and fundamental cloud-based application is storage. With each Office 365 Business subscription, Microsoft provides users with up to 1TB of cloud storage in the form of an application called OneDrive for Business.

SharePoint: A subscription to Office 365 Business Premium also provides an enterprise with a few applications for backend infrastructure management. SharePoint, for example, can be used to host intranet websites for the enterprise. It also can be used to host smaller sites designed for smaller teams or divisions. The permissions for these sites can be designated by the users themselves or by appointed administrators.

Exchange: Each Office 365 for Business subscription includes an Exchange Server, which handles all the email management duties. By default, each user is granted 50GB of storage for email. Maintenance of the Exchange Server is generally handled at the administrator level.

Collaboration tools: Along with the typical productivity applications, Office 365 includes many collaboration tools—like Delve, Skype, Yammer, and Sway. These tools allow users to communicate, brainstorm ideas, share documents, and have video meetings while on the go.

Power BI: One of the most powerful tools any enterprise can have, regardless of size, is reliable business intelligence gathering applications. Office 365 for Business, through its Power BI application, provides enterprises with a set of tools for collecting, sorting, and presenting business intelligence data.

Infrastructure: All Office 365 subscriptions include a reliability guarantee of 99.9% uptime. In addition, permissions for internal access control are handled by administrators designated by the enterprise using tools supplied by Active Directory. Each Office 365 subscription includes five layers of security and proactive monitoring to help safeguard your data.

System requirements

• CPU: 1GHz or faster
• Memory: 2GB RAM
• Hard drive: 3GB of available space (6GB for Mac)
• Display: 1280 X 800 screen resolution
• Operating system: PC-Windows 7, 8, or 10. Mac-Mac OS X 10.10
• Connectivity: Internet connection

Why does it matter?

Collaboration and communication are the key components of productivity in the modern enterprise, and productivity is the lifeblood of the enterprise. Microsoft Office 365 provides the tools necessary to bring collaboration and communication—and by extension, productivity—to each individual in an enterprise.

For many companies, Office 365 is the de facto standard for productivity software. The performance of all competing products is generally measured against applications from the Office 365 suite.

Who does it affect?

Just about every knowledge worker in every enterprise is required to have an email account and a calendar application. Beyond that, most individuals in an enterprise will need to use, at least once in a while, a word processor. And a significant number of individuals in an enterprise will also find themselves needing to use presentation software or a spreadsheet at some point in their career.

These are the productivity tools of any enterprise. These are the tools used to get work done. That means Office 365 is important to just about every working individual.

When is it available?

Microsoft Office 365 is available right now. The current subscription includes applications updated to the Office 2016 versions. Of course, the key to the subscription model is that each user will always be using the most current and most secure version of each application because each application is continuously updated.

How do you get it?

Enterprises with fewer than 300 users can purchase a subscription to Office 365 and download the appropriate applications via the Microsoft website. The Premium version costs $12.50 per user per month ($150/year). There are also versions of Office 365 available for individuals ($69.99/year) and households ($99.99/year).

For large enterprises, unlimited user versions of Office 365 are available, ranging from $12 per person per month to $35 per person per month. Each subscription caters to a particular type of enterprise. More expensive enterprise versions of Office 365 add features like voicemail, compliance auditing, rights management, encryption, and Advanced Threat Protection.

Have questions?

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