Office 365 terminology clarified
Microsoft used to have a realy great approach to product naming – think of Windows, Outlook, Word, Exchange, etc. – but recently, their naming imagination has disappeared into a confusing mess of extended terminology, which to make things even harder, Microsoft have been changing frequently. Wouldn’t you like some of the Office 365 terminology clarified? I know I would…
So, here is a little summary of some key points;
… “for business”
Microsoft’s approach has recently been to use the same name as a consumer product, and just add “for business” after it. Mostly, these products have similar capabilities and similar look and feel, but are hosted or authenticated differently;
| OneDrive ‘consumer’ | OneDrive for Business – “O4B” |
| Free, limited to 5GB, cloud based file storage Needs a “Microsoft” account Client is built into Windows 10 Client for mobiles can upload photos | Part of a user’s Office 365 subscription Default 1TB (1000GB), can be 5TB or more A “private” SharePoint storage area Logs in with an Office 365 subscription account Client is part of Office 365, but can be downloaded |
| Skype ‘consumer’ | Skype for Business – “S4B” |
| Free for chat and 1-to-1 video Needs a “Microsoft” account “Modern” client is built into Windows 10 “Desktop” client is also available Can use a headset, or USB phone | Part of a user’s Office 365 subscription Logs in with an Office 365 subscription account Client is part of Office 365, but can be downloaded Can be part of a company phone system, but sometimes can not be connected to the PABX “Soft phone” (computer client with headphones) “Hard phone” (phone handset logged in to S4B) |
Office 365 ProPlus Vs Office 2016
The biggest confusion by far is with the Office suite. Office 365 can include Office or can be without Office, but it is still Office 365 if it includes Office or not. You can install Office on your computer, or use Office on your mobile, without having an Office 365 subscription. You can install Office 365 Pro Plus, but you cannot buy Office 365 ProPlus alone, it has to be a part of the Office 365 suite. Office 2016 is not Office 365, but if you have all but the most basic Office 365 subscription, you can install Office 365 ProPlus – which includes Word 2016 and Excel 2016 etc.. Office 365 is a web-based system, except for Office 365 ProPlus, which is installed on your computer, but if you want to edit a Word document held in Office 365 SharePoint, you can use Word Online, but that’s not the same as Word 2016 – but Word 2016 is the same as in Office 365 ProPlus.
Confused yet? Well, thanks Microsoft – clear as mud.
So, let me try to explain. Office 365 is a subscription license – so keep that in your head. A license within the Office 365 web based portal is assigned to a user login (commonly using an email address), and individual products can be switched on and off for that user. The license for a user will last for a year, and if the Office 365 “OneDrive for Business” option is enabled, the user can access their 1TB of storage. If the license is switched off, the O4B client will no longer be able to connect to their OneDrive for Business. Got that? I hope so.
So, within the Office 365 subscription, if a license for Office 365 ProPlus is enabled for that user, that user can go to Portal.Office.com, log in, and then download and install Office on their computer, using a process called “click to run” – a tool that ensures the software is downloaded and installed, and kept up to date. This contains the same binaries / executables / programs as Office 2016 (the icons in your start menu have ‘2016’ after them)
edit July 2018, Microsoft have changed the splash screen and icons for Office installations to no longer say 2016). The Office 365 ProPlus applications on your computer all look, feel, act and operate as if they were Office 2016.
The difference is really the license. Office 365 ProPlus will continue to update the Office installation, as long as the user has a license assigned to them. Individual Office (2016) applications will check that they have a valid user license every 30 days, and if it cannot validate the user, then it will disable Office 365 Pro Plus on the user’s computer.
Office 2016 is available as a perpetual computer license. This means that you buy Office 2016 for installation on one computer – and you can keep using Office 2016 “forever”, no matter who logs in to that computer.
So, Office is not Office, unless it is Office. Clearer now?
