Microsoft Online Services is

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

's hosted-

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

offering and is a component of their

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is con ...

strategy. Microsoft Online Services are hosted by Microsoft and sold with Microsoft partners. The suite includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Communications Online,

Microsoft Forefront Microsoft Forefront is a discontinued family of line-of-business security software by Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Forefront products are designed to help protect computer networks, network servers (such as Microsoft Exchange Server and Mic ...

, and

Microsoft Office Live Meeting Microsoft Office Live Meeting is a discontinued commercial subscription-based web conferencing service operated by Microsoft. Live Meeting included software installed on client PCs and used a central server for all clients to connect to. The service ...

. For businesses, the

approach enables organizations to access the capabilities of enterprise software through on-premises servers, as online services, or a combination of both, depending on specific business requirements. Services also provide the option to add complementary capabilities that enhance on-premises server software and simplify system management and maintenance.

Product Suite: Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS)

The Business Productivity Online Suite Standard represents the first of a growing portfolio of Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft Online Services are a component of the broader Microsoft

strategy that includes both Live and Online services.

Office 365

The successor of BPOS is

Office 365 Microsoft 365 is a product family of productivity software, collaboration and cloud-based services owned by Microsoft. It encompasses online services such as Outlook.com, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, programs formerly marketed under the name Mic ...

. Where BPOS is based on Exchange 2007 and MOSS 2007, Office 365 was originally built around the 2010 versions of Exchange and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and now the 2019 versions, since one of the benefits of Office 365 is that it is 'evergreen'. For Instant Messaging, plus audio and video conferencing, Office 365 provides Skype for Business (formerly Microsoft Lync). Apart from these communications and collaboration applications, Office 365 will also have Microsoft Office Professional Plus included, which is the regular Office pack. On top of that, online versions of

Word A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...

Excel ExCeL London (an abbreviation for Exhibition Centre London) is an exhibition centre, international convention centre and former hospital in the Custom House area of Newham, East London. It is situated on a site on the northern quay of the ...

and

PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoi ...

are provided. Microsoft opened the Beta phase for this service in Q4 of 2010, and the service went live June 28, 2011.

Support

Microsoft has established a specialized support department for its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), distinct from its standard Professional Support Services. The rationale for this separation is due to the varying types of support requests that may be made by customers. In contrast to the support requests for Microsoft products run on a company's infrastructure, such as when a support inquiry is made about mail-sending issues using Outlook and the customer's

Microsoft Exchange Server Microsoft Exchange Server is a mail server and calendaring server developed by Microsoft. It runs exclusively on Windows Server operating systems. The first version was called Exchange Server 4.0, to position it as the successor to the related ...

, the technical aspects of support requests for BPOS may differ significantly. Additionally, customer expectations are different, as outsourcing services to Microsoft is done to avoid problems. Thus, when issues arise, customers anticipate a rapid resolution by Microsoft. To meet these expectations, Microsoft has established dedicated BPOS and

support desks in the United States and Ireland for the

EMEA EMEA is a shorthand designation meaning Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The acronym is used by institutions and governments, as well as in marketing and business when referring to this region: it is a shorthand way of referencing the two ...

region. Hewlett-Packard (HP), Microsoft's primary support partner, has been engaged in identifying and training new Tier 1 and Tier 2 support engineers for this purpose. Currently, the EMEA support desk handles first-line and escalated BPOS cases and is expected to provide support for Office 365 cases after the product's launch in June 2011.

Cloud computing and BPOS

On March 4, 2010,

Steve Ballmer Steven Anthony Ballmer (; March 24, 1956) is an American business magnate and investor who served as the chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He is the current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Associ ...

gave a speech focused on

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...

commitment at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. Here is an excerpt from the

Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington st ...

, "The cloud fuels Microsoft and vice versa. 'About 75 percent of our folks are doing entirely cloud-based or entirely cloud inspired,' Ballmer said. 'A year from now that will be 90 percent.' This full embrace of the term cloud computing is new for Microsoft. Up until now, Microsoft was still pushing the term 'software as a service' to describe cloud software."

References

{{Cloud computing

Online Services An online service provider (OSP) can, for example, be an Internet service provider, an email provider, a news provider (press), an entertainment provider (music, movies), a search engine, an e-commerce site, an online banking site, a health site, ...