Microsoft’s Star-Studded Lineup

Online Service Announced with Promo Option

Lane Shelton

When most people – myself included – hear “Microsoft cloud,” they associate that phrase with Office 365. It’s their flagship cloud offering, and it’s getting a great deal of attention these days. Our team blogs about it, records videos and podcasts about it, and we continue to talk to countless customers about what it might mean for their organization. I believe Office 365 is the brightest star in Microsoft’s sky, but just as the North Star helps make up Ursa Minor (affectionately the Little Dipper) Office 365 is just one star in Microsoft’s constellation of solutions. For more celestial guidance on your IT travels, read on.

For the record, I’ve always thought of Microsoft as less of a software company and more of a platform company. They build platforms that help us be more productive at home and at work. It goes like this: Office? Productivity platform. SharePoint? Collaboration platform. CRM? Relationship platform. Streets & Trips? (Hah – did you know they still make that?) GPS guru.

Microsoft builds a “thing”, and then we use that thing to do other things that are relevant to our work-lives and real-lives. Throughout their history, Microsoft has built platforms, and connected those platforms together in an attempt to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

That’s the same spirit behind what we call their “cloud stack” – Office 365 is definitely a big part of it. However, it really extends to CRM, SQL, BI, developer tools, infrastructure, and more. All of Microsoft’s platforms that leverage cloud technologies are coming together, evolving into a single platform that offers new ways to enhance your business.

Check out this video, and we’ll introduce you to some new stars, parts of Microsoft’s cloud stack that deserve just as much attention as the brightest light shining in the IT constellation.

If you’re thinking about Office 365, we recommend taking our Office 365 Online Readiness Assessment. This template was designed by our experts to answer your question: “Is my organization ready for Office 365″? Start Now!

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