Oct 19, 2010 16:01 GMT  ·  By

Office 365 is a marriage between the Office suite and a range of Cloud offerings from Microsoft, designed to deliver a new and innovative integrated productivity service, which aims to redefine the role that the Cloud plays for businesses around the world.

With Office 365, Microsoft opens up Cloud productivity to companies of all shapes and sizes, from businesses with just a single employee to corporations, with the promise that they will all benefit from the same enterprise-class offerings.

In a sense, bits and pieces of Office 365 are already available to customers worldwide. However, the Redmond company has put the pieces of the productivity and Cloud puzzle together into a single comprehensive offering which includes the Office desktop software together with the Office Web Apps, in combination with the hosted versions of SharePoint, Exchange and Lync.

And with Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online coming together, Office 365 will replace the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), Office Live Small Business and Live@edu.

It is important to note that Microsoft already has plans in place to expand Office 2011 in the coming year, with the addition of Dynamics CRM Online to the services that are already a part of the productivity suite.

But BPOS, Office Live Small Business and Live@edu will all continue to be available, however, customers will get them through Office 365, as opposite to standalone Cloud offerings.

“Office 365 is the best of everything we know about productivity, all in a single cloud service,” revealed Kurt DelBene, president of the Office Division at Microsoft.

“With Office 365, your local bakery can get enterprise-caliber software and services for the first time, while a multinational pharmaceutical company can reduce costs and more easily stay current with the latest innovations. People can focus on their business, while we and our partners take care of the technology.”

Office 365 will go live in 2011, reveals Chris Capossela, Senior Vice President, Information Worker Product Management Group.

For the time being, early adopters in no less than 13 countries will be able to test drive the new Cloud productivity offering from Microsoft.

Office 365 Beta will be released later today for customers in Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom and United States, and will be available via www.office365.com.

Microsoft is preparing at least two flavors of Office 365, for when the Cloud offering will hit general availability in 2011.

There will be an Office 365 for small businesses with less than 25 employees, for the price of for $6 or 5.25 Euros per user, per month.

But also an Office 365 for enterprise which will cost from as little as $2 or 1.75 euros per user, per month, to no more than $24 or 22.75 euros per user, per month, depending on the services required. Volume discounts will apply, Capossela revealed.

At the same time, and in line with the new payment model associated with Cloud services, Office Professional Plus will also be available to customers on a subscription basis.