Microsoft applauded the momentum of its Live@edu as 14 new Universities from around the world decided to embrace the Cloud-based email service for their students, faculty, staff and alumni. In excess of 200,000 students worldwide will now have potential access to the suite of online services that are integral components of Microsoft Live@edu. With Live@edu, the Redmond-based company is offering organizations in educational systems in markets around the world free access to no-charge communication and collaboration services.

“Our goal with Live@edu is to equip the next generation of leaders with a rich set of productivity and collaboration tools as they move from campus to business environments,” explained Takeshi Numoto, corporate vice president of the Office Product Management Group at Microsoft Corp. “It is exciting to see students, educators and IT administrators choosing Live@edu to enrich the learning experience and to prepare students for future success.”

Microsoft welcomes aboard Live@edu the Washington State University, the University of Sydney, Australia, the Alexandria University, Egypt, and no less than 11 universities in Sri Lanka. Via Live@edu, Microsoft offers Universities Cloud-based email, collaboration and storage services that are intimately connected with the company's on-premise solutions. In this regard, customers have access to Office Outlook Live, Office Live Workspace, Windows Live Messenger, and Windows Live SkyDrive.

“The Live@edu service met all our internal IT requirements and offers functionality that the university’s system could not compete with. Our students now have the advantage of a greatly increased mailbox capacity as well as the option to have an e-mail account for life,” revealed Bruce Meikle, chief information officer at the University of Sydney. “In addition to these student benefits, the IT department now has an easy-to-manage and scalable e-mail service that will help take the university into the future.”