14 DAY TRIAL // Office 365 customers will get additional technologies once Microsoft wraps up the acquisition of Skype, Microsoft said. The Redmond company recently launched its Cloud productivity suite of services worldwide, but it appears that there’s plenty of room for Office 365 to grow.
This evolution will also cover Skype, which the software giant announced it was adding to its portfolio of technologies.
The software giant will pay no less than $8.5 billion for Skype, as revealed back in May 2011, with the company said to become a new Microsoft Division.
Microsoft’s plans for the future of Skype are not yet clear, but according to Kurt DelBene, president of Microsoft's Business division, who talked with Seattle Times, the solution will be integrated with Office 365.
As users might know, Office 365 is a new Cloud productivity offering from Microsoft packing together a range of services such as Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online and Office Web Apps.
Of course, with Skype being added to Office 365, the first question that needs asking is “What happens to Lync?”
Lync Online is designed to pretty much cover the unified communications needs of customers from small businesses to enterprises, providing a range of functionality that overlaps with Skype’s capabilities, including VoIP (voice over internet protocol), but also instant messaging, conferencing, etc.
There is one obvious advantage to acquiring Skype for Microsoft customers, and it has to do with the seamless integration between the technology and the Redmond company’s own UC solutions. "The ability to connect Lync users with Skype users is a huge opportunity for us," DelBene added.
However, at this point in time, DelBene did not offer any additional details about Skype’s integration into Office 365, and what exactly would such a move bring to the table for customers of the company’s Cloud productivity suite.