Microsoft 365


Microsoft 365 is a line of subscription services offered by Microsoft. The brand was launched on July 10, 2017 for a superset of Office 365 with Windows 10 Enterprise licenses and other cloud-based security and device management products.
On April 21, 2020, Microsoft rebranded the Office 365 plans oriented towards consumer and small business markets as Microsoft 365, to emphasize their current inclusion of products and services beyond the core Microsoft Office software family.

History

The brand was first introduced at Microsoft Inspire in July 2017 as an enterprise subscription product, succeeding the "Secure Productive Enterprise" services released in 2016. They combine Windows 10 Enterprise with Office 365 Business Premium, and the Enterprise Mobility + Security suite, which include Advanced Threat Analytics, Azure Active Directory, Azure Information Protection, Cloud App Security, and Windows Intune. Microsoft 365 is sold via Microsoft and its cloud services reseller network.

Consumer and business launch

On March 30, 2020, Microsoft unveiled a consumer-oriented subscription product under the Microsoft 365 brand for release on April 21, which succeed the existing consumer plans of Office 365. It is a superset of the existing Office 365 products and benefits positioned towards "life", productivity, and families, including the Microsoft Office suite, 1 TB of additional OneDrive storage and access to OneDrive Personal Vault, and 60 minutes of Skype calls per month. Under the brand, Microsoft will also add access to its collaboration platform Teams, and a premium tier of Microsoft Family Safety. Microsoft also announced plans to offer trial offers of third-party services for Microsoft 365 subscribers, with companies such as Adobe, Blinkist, CreativeLive, Experian, and Headspace having partnered. The services will be sold in "Personal" and "Home" versions, at the same price as their Office 365 counterparts.
Office 365 for small- and medium-sized businesses were also renamed Microsoft 365, including Office 365 Business and ProPlus becoming "Microsoft 365 Apps for business" and "Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise", Office 365 Business Essentials becoming "Microsoft 365 Business Basic", and Office 365 Business Premium becoming "Microsoft 365 Business Standard". The Office 365 brand remains in use for its enterprise, education, healthcare, and governmental plans. Microsoft stated that "over the last several years, our cloud productivity offering has grown well beyond what people traditionally think of as 'Office'”, citing examples such as Forms, Planner, Stream, and Teams.

Plans

Consumer

Aimed at mainstream consumers, both plans offer access to Microsoft Office applications, with access to additional online-based services and premium creative content, 1 TB of OneDrive storage with Advanced Security, 60 minutes of Skype international calls per month, and partner offers.