Microsoft Office 365 - SaaS Software as a Service, Office 2016, Microsoft extends Windows 7 for one year, Intel 6th Generation processors.

Office 2016 was released and Microsoft began rolling it out to end users on September 22nd. However due to the staggered roll out being used by Microsoft chance are you may not have received your upgrade yet.  I have an Office 365 Business plan (2 in fact) and still have not received my update.

Now if you installed a one-time purchase of Office 2013, you can't upgrade directly from within the Office 2013 software. You'll need to either purchase one of the Office 2016 suites of products, such as Office 2016 Home and Student, or purchase an Office 365 subscription.  Below is a graphic detailing the upgrade rollout for Office 365 subscribers, thanks to SuperSite for Windows.

Office 365 is Microsoft's subscription based version known as a SaaS offering, Software as a Service.



Rather than investing in the cost of hardware, software and labor, many companies are now pursuing purchasing their Software as a service.  The advantages are many.  The following products are available depending upon the subscription you purchase.

There are a few compelling arguments in favor of Office 365. Let’s take a look at three reasons Office 365 might be the right choice:

Office 2013 is impressive, but Office 365 is a better value in most cases.

1. Cost

Office 365 plans start at $5 per month for the Business Essentials plan. Small businesses can get access to Exchange, Fully installed Office applications Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and OneNote on up to 5 PCs or Macs per user, 50 GB mailbox for $12.50/user/month.

Office 365 subscription pricing.

2. Updates and Maintenance 

What else do you get with your Office 365 subscription? An IT department. Sure, you can set up your own Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Lync infrastructure. You can manage and maintain the desktop Microsoft Office software, and install the patches and updates every month yourself. How much will that cost?

Consider that implementing the same capabilities in-house requires servers, and network infrastructure, and IT personnel to install, manage, update, and maintain it all. Plus, you still have to buy and maintain the Office software itself.

With Office 365, Microsoft takes care of all the dirty work so you don’t have to. Updates, patches, and upgrades just happen in the background without you needing to worry about it. When the server crashes, its Microsoft’s problem. When a hard drive needs to be replaced, Microsoft will handle it. You get the benefits of using Office without any of the headaches of updating and maintaining it all.

3. Accessibility

Office 365 lives in the cloud. That means you have access to Word, Excel, Outlook, and other Microsoft Office tools from anywhere you can get a Web connection, and from virtually any device--Windows or Mac desktops and laptops, Android devices, iPhones, iPads, and other smartphones and tablets.

Office Web Apps provide basic features and functions for free.This isn’t quite the selling point it once was for a couple reasons. First, even with the desktop Office 2013 suite Microsoft is pushing users to save files to the cloud-based OneDrive, or to a SharePoint server by default. So, there’s no reason the data can’t be accessible regardless of whether you choose Office 2013 or Office 365.

The second reason it may not be all that compelling is that Office Web Apps are already available for free from the SkyDrive site. So, even without Office 365 users can create, view, and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files from the Web.

For businesses, though, SharePoint, Active Directory, and other elements of Office 365 that go beyond simply creating and editing Office documents still make Office 365 a better value.

Your mileage will vary of course. There are a number of factors involved in calculating the cost of purchasing, installing, configuring, updating, and maintaining Microsoft Office and the accompanying back-end services versus the ongoing subscription costs associated with Office 365. Office 365 is a solid service providing tremendous bang for the buck, though, so it won’t be easy to beat the value it brings to the table.

Part of a ZDNet Special Feature: PC Upgrade Redux: Can Windows 10 Help?

Microsoft gives OEMs a deadline: one year, then no more new Windows 7 PCs

New 6th Generation Intel based Workstations

Intel's newest 6th Generation processors complement Office 365 and the cloud perfectly.  They represent a tremendous leap in power and capability.

Driving Force now has 2 new 6th generation workstations available in Core i5 and top of line Core i7 available.