The cloud is the latest innovation in the information technology (IT) world. Companies are changing the way they use their technologies, migrating their workloads to the cloud to access new technologies, and optimizing their budgets to be more competitive in the market. These kinds of technologies have their own innovations and new features that are only available in the cloud, while others might, eventually, be available on premises at a later time.

Office 365 is a software as a service (SaaS) product, which means you don't need to worry about energy, data centers, hardware, redundancy, operating systems, security, or features updates. It is an enterprise solution available to organizations of all sizes, and one of its big advantages is that you only pay for what you want to use.

The difference between Office 365 Enterprise and Office 365 Home has to do with the difference between the requirements of enterprises and large organizations versus those of home users. Home users simply want to use the email system and simple editing tools, and be able to share documents and files. Organizations need security auditing and access to other types of information that the home users do not need.

What are the Office 365 plans? Plans are predefined mixes of products and features of Office 365 that you can use in your organization based on your needs.

This mix of products will consist of a combination of Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business, and other workloads and features, for example:

• Office 365 ProPlus or Essentials: Desktop productivity suite
• Exchange Online: Enterprise-class email solution
• SharePoint Online: Collaboration, repository, and file sharing
• Skype for Business: Online communication, including video and voice calls

These productivity tools have their own features and, combined with other products, they will have the integration that the end users need. Organizations need to keep their software and solutions updated to be competitive in the market, and they need to evaluate their IT costs based on what is needed and when. But with Office 365, these features are updated on a weekly or monthly basis to help organizations stay up to date without requiring big upgrade projects, such as those that are needed for on-premises systems.

While this book is based on a technology that is constantly changing, the core products and plans have not changed much since the beginning of Office 365. The Office 365 plans differ with respect to the Enterprise and Business plans according to the size and type of your organization.

At the time of writing this chapter, the plans are divided into six different groups:

• Home
• Small business
• Education
• Nonprofit
• Enterprise
• Firstline Workers

There are also individual services, such as the following:

• Business-class email, for information refer to https://products.office.com/en/exchange/exchange-online)
• File storage and sharing, for information refer to https://products.office.com/en/onedrive-for-business/online-cloud-storage)
• Online meetings, for information refer to https://products.office.com/en/skype-for-business/online-meetings)

One of the best ways to understand Office 365 is to start with the periodic table of Office 365, created by Matt Wade and Niels Gregers Johansen. To have access to the full-site experience of the periodic table of Office 365, go to http://jumpto365.com/.

This periodic table was created for potential customers and users to easily and quickly understand the products that make up Office 365, and to visualize the features combined in the areas of each workload.

Office 365 encompasses several workloads, and the periodic table of Office 365 shows these as being grouped in several areas:

• Presentations: The tools to give and show presentations are as follows:
  • Sway: Sway is an app in Office 365 that allows users to easily create dynamic presentations in a web format. It is the next-generation tool to create and share information. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/getting-started-with-sway-2076c468-63f4-4a89-ae5f-424796714a8a?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US.

• • PowerPoint Online: PowerPoint Online is the web version of PowerPoint, and is the light version of the desktop edition of PowerPoint. It can be installed on a PC or Mac. You can create presentations with images, transitions, and videos, among other features. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-a-presentation-in-powerpoint-online-21360025-7eef-4173-9d7c-08281d55f64a.

• Office Online: The tools to be more productive are as follows:
  • Word Online: Word Online is the web version of Word, and is the light version of the desktop release of Word. It can be installed on PC or Mac. You can create and edit documents with basic commands. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/video-what-is-word-aee9c7ff-f9c5-415f-80dc-103ad5e344d7?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US.

• • Excel Online: Excel online is the web version of Excel, and is the light version of the desktop edition of Excel. It can be installed on PC or Mac. You can create and edit spreadsheets with basic features. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/video-what-is-excel-842fb550-07cb-42d1-9a9f-c55789efed57?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US.

• • OneNote Online: OneNote Online is the web version of OneNote, and is the light version of the desktop edition of OneNote. It can be installed on PC or Mac. You can create and edit notes with basic commands. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/get-started-with-the-new-onenote-ab84fcc2-f845-41ac-9c29-89b0720c8eb3.

• • PowerPoint Online: PowerPoint Online is the web version of PowerPoint, and is the light version of the desktop edition of PowerPoint. It can be installed on a PC or Mac. You can create presentations with images, transitions, and videos among other features. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-a-presentation-in-powerpoint-online-21360025-7eef-4173-9d7c-08281d55f64a.

• File storage and collaboration: The way that you storage and collaborate are as follows:
  
  • SharePoint Online: SharePoint Online is a web-based collaboration platform that is designed to be the place where teams work together in your organization. It can be used to create intranets and extranets, and can be used to share your work with other people and take your collaboration to the next level. You can read more at https://products.office.com/en-us/sharepoint/sharepoint-online-collaboration-software.
  • OneDrive for Business: OneDrive for Business is a cloud storage service delivered by Microsoft that is part of Office 365, and is built on the top of SharePoint. With OneDrive for Business, you can store all your files, and share and access them from anywhere. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/what-is-onedrive-for-business-187f90af-056f-47c0-9656-cc0ddca7fdc2.
  • Delve: Delve is a search and discovery experience provided by Office 365 that gives you a view and a central place to discover content and people in your organization, with insights powered by Microsoft Graph. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/what-is-office-delve-1315665a-c6af-4409-a28d-49f8916878ca.
• Business application platform: The applications that you can leverage to the next level of automation are as follows:
  • PowerApps: PowerApps is a no-code tool to create next-generation business applications that can connect your Office 365 services to your system's data in a fast and easy way. You can read more at https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/.
  • Flow: Flow is the new generation of cloud-based workflow engines created to automate business processes and help you with your daily repetitive tasks. You can read more at https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/.
  • Power BI: Power BI is a powerful data-visualization and exploration tool that can connect to multiple data sources and easily generate dynamic and great-looking dashboards. You can read more at https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/.
• Outlook: The tool to work on your daily basis are as follows:
  
  • Mail: Mail is the email service of Office 365 that is based on Exchange Server provided as a service by Microsoft. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/mail-in-outlook-web-app-ed7b1cb9-ef40-4fbd-a302-278cc7f4dcf5.
  • Calendar: Calendar is the part of your mailbox in which you manage your schedule. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/calendar-in-outlook-web-app-5219c457-d1fe-4c2f-9032-1a816b88e936.
  • People: People is the part of your mailbox where you manage your contacts. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/people-overview-outlook-web-app-5fe173cf-e620-4f62-9bf6-da5041f651bf?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US.
  • Tasks: Tasks is the place within your mailbox where you can create and manage tasks. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/getting-started-in-outlook-web-app-0062c7be-f8e3-486e-8b14-5c1f793ceefd.
• Project management: The way that you have to manage your projects are:
  • Planner: Planner is a simple and visually based work-management tool that comes as part of Office 365. It allows you to create plans, assign tasks to your team, and view these tasks in a Kanban board. You can read more at https://products.office.com/en-us/business/task-management-software.
  • Project Online: Project Online is a central management tool that you can use to manage complex projects and your project portfolio. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/get-started-with-project-online-e3e5f64f-ada5-4f9d-a578-130b2d4e5f11.
• Chat and conferencing: The tools to collaborate more efficiently are as follows:
  • Skype for Business: Skype for Business is the enterprise unified communication tool, with support for chat, audio and video calls, conferencing, and online meetings. You can read more at https://www.skype.com/en/business/.
  • Teams: Teams is the next-generation, team-collaboration tool that takes the place of the Hub to coordinate teamwork. It leverages content from SharePoint, email, chat, and other tools to work seamlessly, according to your daily needs. You can read more at https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software.
• Small business applications: The small business applications are as follows:
  • Bookings: Bookings is a simple, self-service scheduling application designed for small and medium businesses, with native integration with your calendar and availability. You can read more at https://products.office.com/en/business/scheduling-and-booking-app.
  • StaffHub: StaffHub is a simple shift- and schedule-management tool designed for firstline workers. It helps to manage teams that work in shifts and facilitates communication between team members and managers. You can read more at https://staffhub.office.com/.
• Employee profiles: The way you search the people to collaborate are:
  • Delve: Delve is a search and discovery experience provided by Office 365 that gives you a central place to view and discover content and people in your organization, with insights powered by Microsoft Graph. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/what-is-office-delve-1315665a-c6af-4409-a28d-49f8916878ca.
  • People: People is the part of your mailbox where you manage your contacts. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/people-overview-outlook-web-app-5fe173cf-e620-4f62-9bf6-da5041f651bf?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US.
• Forms: This is where you can do some forms:
  • Forms: Forms is a new tool for creating simple forms and polls, and allows you to collect feedback from your organization's employees or customers. You can read more at https://forms.office.com/.
  • PowerApps: PowerApps is a no-code tool to create next-generation business applications that can connect your Office 365 services to your systems data in a fast and easy way. You can read more at https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/.
• Task management: The daily task management tools to collaborate daily are as follows:
  • Tasks: Tasks is the place within your mailbox where you can create and manage tasks. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/getting-started-in-outlook-web-app-0062c7be-f8e3-486e-8b14-5c1f793ceefd.
  • To-Do: This is a task-management tool that is focused on the individual. It comes with a mobile companion app and integrates with Outlook. You can read more at https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-to-do-list-app.
  • Planner: Planner is a simple work-management tool that is part of Office 365, and allows you to create plans, assign tasks to your team, and view these tasks in a Kanban board. You can read more at https://products.office.com/en-us/business/task-management-software.
• Social networking: This is where you can share to the organization using a wide network:
  • Newsfeed: Newsfeed is a simplified social experience based on SharePoint that provides light social features to your intranet. You can read more at https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/what-items-appear-in-your-newsfeed-bd3d9268-0408-4ad4-bc51-2e4ec5406e16.
  • Yammer: Yammer is a secure social network for your organization that provides many powerful collaboration features not only for internal users, but also for collaboration with users external to your organization. You can read more at https://products.office.com/en/yammer/yammer-overview.

In summary, this periodic table will help you understand the services and tools that are included in Office 365.

In Office 365 Home, there are four plans:

• Office 365 Home
• Office 365 Personal
• Office Home & Student 2016 for PC
• Office Home & Business 2016

These plans have the following features:

• Office 365 Home:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business
• Office 365 Personal:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business
• Office 365 Home & Student:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
• Office 365 Home & Business:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices

To view all the latest features, go to https://products.office.com/en/office-365-home.

In Office 365 Business, there are three plans:

• Office 365 Business
• Office 365 Business Premium
• Office 365 Business Essentials

The main features of these plans are as follows:

• Office 365 Business:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business
• Office 365 Business Premium:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
  • 50 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business
• Office 365 Business Essentials:
  • 50 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business

To view the latest features, go to https://products.office.com/en/business/office-365-business.

In Office 365 Education, there are two plans:

• Office 365 for Education (100% free)
• Office 365 Education E5

The main features of these plans are as follows:

• Office 365 for Education (100% free):
  • Office on the web
  • 50 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business
• Office 365 Education E5:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
  • 100 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business

To view the latest features, go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/office/default.aspx.

In Office 365 Nonprofit, there are five plans:

• Office 365 Nonprofit Business Essentials
• Office 365 Nonprofit Business Premium
• Office 365 Nonprofit E1
• Office 365 Nonprofit E3
• Office 365 Nonprofit E5

The main features of these plans are as follows:

• Office 365 Nonprofit Business Essentials:
  • Office on the web
  • 50 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business

• Office 365 Nonprofit Business Premium:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
  • 50 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business
• Office 365 Nonprofit E1:
  • Office on the web
  • 50 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business
• Office 365 Nonprofit E3:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
  • 100 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business
• Office 365 Nonprofit E5:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
  • 100 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business

To view the latest features, go to https://products.office.com/en/nonprofit/office-365-nonprofit-plans-and-pricing?tab=1.

In Office 365 Enterprise, there are four plans:

• Office 365 ProPlus
• Office 365 Enterprise E1
• Office 365 Enterprise E3
• Office 365 Enterprise E5

The main features of these plans are as follows:

• Office 365 ProPlus:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
• Office 365 Enterprise E1:
  • Office on the web
  • 50 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business
• Office 365 Enterprise E3:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
  • 100 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business
• Office 365 Enterprise E5:
  • Office installed on PC, Mac, or mobile devices
  • 100 GB of mailbox
  • 1 TB of OneDrive for Business
  • Advanced security
  • Analytics (My Analytics)
  • Advanced voice features Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN)

To view the latest features, go to https://products.office.com/en/business/compare-more-office-365-for-business-plans.

In Office 365 Firstline there is, currently, only one plan:

• Office 365 F1

In this plan, the main features are:

• Office on the web
• 2 GB of mailbox
• 2 GB of OneDrive for Business

To view the latest features, go to https://products.office.com/en-us/business/enterprise-firstline-workers.

This summary is intended to provide you with a better understanding of the fact that the plans that Microsoft has created are always based on the type and size of your organization.
It is possible to combine plans in the enterprise that fit your needs based on your experience of these kinds of products. However, it is advised that you contact a gold productivity partner to help you select which plans best fit your organization.
You can also see that the Office 365 service descriptions provide additional details about each plan. For more information you can refer to https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office-365-service-descriptions.aspx.

For specific information about the plans pricing and features regarding specific business types, see the following web pages:

• Business: Office 365 Business plans and pricing (https://products.office.com/en-in/compare-all-microsoft-office-products?tab=2)
• Education: Office 365 Education plans and pricing (https://products.office.com/en-IN/academic/compare-office-365-education-plans#)
• U.S. Government: Office 365 U.S. Government plans (https://products.office.com/en-IN/government/compare-office-365-government-plans)
• Nonprofit: Office 365 Nonprofit plans and pricing (https://products.office.com/en-IN/nonprofit/office-365-nonprofit-plans-and-pricing?tab=1)
• Office 365 Germany: Office 365 Germany plans (https://products.office.com/en/business/office-365-germany)

Many of the Office 365 business plans have add-ons that you can buy for your subscription. An add-on offers added functionality to the subscription. For more information, you can see the specific add-ons that are available for different versions of Office 365 for Business at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/buy-or-edit-an-add-on-for-office-365-for-business-4e7b57d6-b93b-457d-aecd-0ea58bff07a6?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US.

The following table is a summary of features across business subscriptions:

Office 365's licensing is based on the type of organization you have. Office 365 is Microsoft's productivity solution in the cloud. It is sold as suites that are available for every organization, regardless of their size. Depending on the suite, Office 365 can include the full downloadable Office client, also available as a set of web-based applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and so on), business-class email, file sharing, meeting and communications solutions, and an internal collaboration social network—all while helping to keep data private and protected from potential threats. Office 365 provides users with simple management IT solutions, grants them access to the productivity solution from anywhere, and comes with a financially backed service level agreement.

Office 365 provides the ability for organizations to add and remove licenses, and enterprises are billed on an annual or monthly basis, depending on the type of subscription and the way that you purchased them from our partner.

For companies with enterprise agreements or similar contracts with Microsoft, Office 365 can also be licensed in volume. For more information on this, refer to the licensing guide at: http://docplayer.net/17893150-Office-365-licensing-brief.html.

The previously mentioned Office 365 suites are a collection of online services that, when purchased together, give customers what we call a suite discount. Customers who do not need or want to buy full suites can purchase individual services as separate products. Note that some of these online services have technical dependencies on others. For example, Exchange Online Protection (EOP) provides an added level of security to the Exchange Online and/or Exchange server services; customers can't use EOP if they don't have either Exchange Online or Exchange server deployed.

For more information on the technical dependencies, refer to https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office-365-service-descriptions.aspx.

As more and more organizations move to the cloud, Office 365 is continuing to grow in popularity. With this growth comes a variety of new terms that users and organizations need to understand. The following is a list of common Office 365 terms that you should familiarize yourself with as you explore this new world:

• Microsoft Office 365: Microsoft Office 365 is a suite of productivity tools and services that can be used both online and through desktop versions. Microsoft Office 365 includes many productivity programs, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SharePoint, and OneNote among others. It can be used like a brand or just Office 365.
• Microsoft 365: Microsoft 365 is a packaged offering of Windows, Office 365, and security products.
• OneNote: Microsoft OneNote is an application that helps you to take and share notes, and supports multiple users editing at the same time. Users can use it to take both handwritten and typed notes, audio, drawings, and screenshots.
• OneDrive for Business: OneDrive for Business allows users to store, modify, sync, and share files collaboratively in real time. OneDrive is a fully cloud-based service.
• Sway: Sway is a digital storytelling tool that helps to create new types of presentation or personal stories.
• SharePoint: SharePoint allows organizations to create websites to store, share, and organize information from almost any device. With SharePoint, all of an organization's important data can be accessed from any web browser and with any device.
• Outlook: Microsoft Outlook is the business email client that is part of the Office 365 suite. Outlook can also refer to a webmail client, Outlook Web Access (OWA), which can be used to access email through a web browser.
• Excel: Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet tool that offers organizations the ability to access and analyze many types of data.
• PowerPoint: Microsoft PowerPoint is a program that helps to create presentations. Users integrate data from other Office programs directly into their presentations for presenting and sharing, and to share knowledge.
• Skype for Business: Skype for Business is an enterprise product that is used for messaging, voice calling, and video calling. Skype for Business has tools that help organizations to communicate in an easy way. The following are some of these tools:
  • Skype Meeting Broadcast: Skype Meeting Broadcast is a platform that helps organizations to broadcast and host online meetings to large audiences of up to 10,000 attendees
  • PSTN Conferencing: PSTN Conferencing is a feature that allows users to dial into a meeting from a physical phone as opposed to a mobile device or PC
  • Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling: Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling allows people in your organization the ability to connect to the existing PSTN
• Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams is a new way of coworking, and is quickly becoming the next generation of digital workplaces. It combines multiple Office 365 products, and exposes them so that they can be accessed in a central place. Some examples of these products are Skype for Business, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Planner, among others.
• Yammer: Yammer is a private social network for your organization. Yammer helps your organization to connect and share information, and can be configured to have groups outside of your organization.
• Office Online: Office Online is a suite of full, web-based versions of Word, Excel, OneNote, and PowerPoint. It helps the users to work with documents from any device using a browser.
• Microsoft Stream: Microsoft Stream is a new cloud-based video service that uses the power of intelligent enterprise video to enable knowledge sharing, easier communication, and connectivity in a secure enterprise environment. Microsoft Stream is the successor to Office 365 Video, built on Azure Media Services. It allows playback at scale across any device.
• Azure Rights Management Services (Azure RMS): Azure RMS is an information-security solution to help organizations protect their data where the content resides.
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP): DLP in Office 365 allows the management and monitoring of and response to sensitive information within your organization through content analysis.
• Delve: Office Delve helps the users of your organization to reach and collaborate more in a way that can view what is happening within your organization and across Office 365.
• Azure AD Connect: Azure AD Connect helps your organization to synchronize its on-premises identities to Office 365.
• PowerShell: PowerShell is another tool that helps organizations to automate and perform several tasks. It allows administrators to write PowerShell scripts to create users, create external contacts, and change user attributes.
• Admin delegation: Using admin delegation in Office 365, organizations can assign some or all of Office 365's admin tasks to other users or to a Microsoft Cloud Partner.
• Hybrid identity: If our organization includes both cloud and on-premises infrastructure, hybrid identity management provides a method to integrate both environments. With Azure AD Connect, you can synchronize users, groups, contacts, and passwords to Office 365.
• Exchange Online: Exchange Online is a hosted email messaging solution of Office 365 cloud-based services.
• Tenant: The word tenant refers to an Office 365 cloud area specific to your organization.
• Tenant name: The tenant name is your domain name, such as yourdomain.onmicrosoft.com. It is set up when you subscribe to Office 365 and it cannot be changed. When you create your tenant, the wizard that creates your Office 365 subscription asks for your organization's name. If it is available, it can be used. Now, with Office 365, within many organizations worldwide you may have to choose a different name, such as yourdomaincorp.onmicrosoft.com because some other organization in another country may have chosen that name already.

• Screenshots and examples: The screenshots, examples, and instructions described in this book are based on Office 365 with the 2016 versions of the software in a tenant that has the first release option active, which might include features that are previews of the final release before this book's publication date. Given the constant evolution of Office 365, your Office 365 may not match some of the instructions or screenshots in this book. This book will have regular updates to address the changes to this new world.
• Trust Center: This is a portal in which Microsoft shows, with great transparency, a lot of information about security and privacy. In this portal, you can see which products and services within your location have which certifications. You can access it at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/trustcenter/cloudservices/office365. The Office 365 Trust Center is the portal that aggregates all updated privacy and security issues related to Office 365 in just one location. The Trust Center has three pillars:

• • Privacy
  • Security
  • Compliance

In this portal, you will have access to recommended resources, documents, blogs, white papers, and the service trust platform.

In this chapter, you learned about the main Office 365 products that are used in organizations, the Office 365 plans that best fit most companies and which benefits Microsoft has to give your organization, a summary of licensing that Microsoft uses for organizations and how it will cover your support, and finally, terminology to help you in this book to learn or to go over certain points or products that your organization already has or will have in the near future.

You now have more information on what can be used in Office 365, and this chapter has helped you understand the foundations of Office 365.

In the next chapter, you will learn the fundamentals of Office 365 to help you implement Office 365 in your organization successfully.