Business Applications and Services

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

The current versions (branded 2013) of the Office suite, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Lync Server, and related products, were made available to volume licensing customers on Dec. 2012. The wave also includes a major update to the Microsoft-hosted Office 365 services, which began rolling out to customers with an update to the Office Web Apps in Nov. 2012. New customers who signed up beginning in late Feb. 2013 immediately received services based on the 2013 versions, while existing customers will continue to be upgraded during 2013. (See the sidebar “Office 365“.)

The 2013 wave also delivers several application versions that are eligible for Microsoft product support on Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012. (See the illustration “Application Versions Supported on Recent Platforms“.)

Office Suite

The Office suite, Microsoft’s most widely used client application for business, enables document editing, data access and manipulation, e-mail, presentations, and collaboration. It ships in multiple editions that include combinations of the following applications:

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