Microsoft launch Office 365 public beta

Microsoft have announced the availability of the full public beta of Office 365, Redmond's cloud based enterprise productivity suite that puts Office, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online into a single subscription package.

Six months ago Microsoft rolled out the first limited beta of Office 365, and now they are releasing the public beta about six months before the retail version should ship in the final launch.

There are two different schemes being offered for potential customers. The Plan E3 which is designed for larger IT based organisations and Plan P1 which is suited for smaller businesses and companies with 25 or fewer employees with no IT support. Office 365 is geared as a replacement for Office Live Small Business.

A new extra in the public beta is Office 365 Marketplace. As the name suggests, this is an ‘app store' for Office 365 partner apps and services. There will be 400 professional services and 100 applications available when it goes live later today.

Sign-ups for the Office365 public beta take place at at Office365.com, and 38 global regions are open to participate: United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom.

KitGuru says: you can find out more over here.

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