Executive Summary

Contributing Analysts: Wes Miller, Don Retallack, Rob Sanfilippo, Andrew Snodgrass, Joshua Trupin

Office 365 delivers Microsoft-hosted services such as Exchange e-mail and on-premises software such as the Office suite under a subscription license. The services can help organizations reduce costs, add and remove capacity quickly, and improve uptime and security, while the software can reduce licensing costs and mitigate license compliance risks.

This report provides an overview of Office 365 and its likely evolution through 2016. The report focuses on services and software delivered by the Office 365 E1, E3, and E5 subscription plans.

The report will help current Office 365 customers prepare for upcoming features and assess the value of the features against any potential security or compliance risks. The report could also help Office 365 customers find alternatives for Office 365 features that Microsoft is likely to retire. Organizations considering adoption of Office 365 can use this report to predict what Office 365’s capabilities will be when their migrations are likely to begin.