Office 365 Software and Services

Office 365 plans deliver services for e-mail, collaboration, communication, search, and other functions with features to aid compliance, management, and security. The diagram summarizes Office 365 software and services delivered in the E1 and E3 plans for enterprises as of July 2015. It also shows major components of E5, a new plan that should be available by the end of 2015.

Office 365 services allow organizations to outsource e-mail hosting and other functions to Microsoft, freeing up IT personnel and avoiding costs associated with server hardware acquisition, hardware and software management, electricity, and other data center—related expenses. The Office 365 ProPlus suite and its Per-User licensing model reduce licensing costs and simplify license compliance for many large organizations. Office 365 competes with a variety of enterprise hosted services, including Google Apps, online storage services such as Dropbox, and hosted e-mail and collaboration services from Rackspace and other vendors.