Microsoft unveiled a Office 365 free service offering for students, teachers and faculty,

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Microsoft unveiled a  Office 365 free service offering for students, teachers and faculty.

The new service was designed to deliver the familiarity of Office — Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, and combine it with Microsoft Lync, SharePoint and Exchange, which results in the delivery of a great solution for communication and collaboration.

A series of leading schools and universities are already set to pick the new Office 365 for education service, Microsoft announced. 


Among them, the company counts Dartmouth College, which will move about 13,500 faculty, student and staff mailboxes to the cloud.

In addition, Cornell University announced plans to bring around 7,000 faculty and staff to Office 365 in the fall of 2012.

Gonzaga University will also take advantage of what SharePoint Online and Lync Online have to offer. 8,000 students and 1,200 faculty and staff will benefit from Office 365.

Additionally, Microsoft announced that the Catholic International Education Office, the Scottish government for education and the All India Council for Technical Education are also committing to the use of Office 365 for education.

Overall, these new customers to the service ensure that 12.5 million more students all around thee world will have Office 365 for education.

“Getting the world’s best technology in the hands of our students and teachers is critical to improving educational outcomes and making sure students are prepared for college and career,” said Anthony Salcito, vice president of Worldwide Education for Microsoft.

“With schools’ ever-tightening budgets, Office 365 for education enables them to deliver new and innovative technology in the cloud that will modernize teaching and learning practices, at no cost.”

Considering the fact that students, faculty and teachers need tools to enable them connect and work with other people on various projects, Office 365 for education provides them with shared workspaces, synchronized notebooks, instant messaging, and audio- and videoconferencing capabilities.

Some of the special features that Office 365 for education has to offer include:

Classrooms without walls. PC or tablet, online or offline, Office 365 for education helps people stay in touch, easily share resources, jointly develop and use curricula, and communicate in ways that work for them.

Prepare students for the workforce. Office 365 includes familiar Office tools that connect with the way people work today: in social groups.

Privacy and security. The service delivers a secure, school-managed environment that keeps student information safe. Microsoft has a comprehensive approach to cloud privacy and security in the industry, and in the past year Office 365 has added support for the most rigorous global and regional standards, including ISO 27001, SAS70 Type II, EU Safe Harbor, EU Model Clauses, the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the U.S. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and more. 

HP and Microsoft Deliver Global Communications and Collaboration Solutions via the Cloud .

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Press Release:

HP and Microsoft Deliver Global Communications and Collaboration Solutions via the Cloud.

Public and private cloud services to provide IT efficiency and flexibility for enterprises and governments.

PALO ALTO, Calif., and REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 8, 2011

---

HP Enterprise Services and Microsoft Corp. today announced a global, four-year initiative to deliver Microsoft’s leading communications and collaboration applications via global private and public cloud services.

Under the agreement, HP and Microsoft will offer private and public cloud solutions designed to help organizations rapidly scale new users, shift IT resources from maintenance to innovation and change IT from a capital to operating expense. The solutions include:

• Private cloud: HP Enterprise Cloud Services–Messaging, HP Enterprise Cloud Services–Collaboration and HP Enterprise Cloud Services–Real-Time Collaboration deliver Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 productivity applications as a service from HP data centers around the world.
• Public cloud: Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft’s Office collaboration and productivity tools, will be delivered by Microsoft through the cloud.
• Hybrid solution: HP will resell Microsoft Office 365 with HP Enterprise Cloud Services–Messaging, HP Enterprise Cloud Services–Collaboration and HP Enterprise Cloud Services–Real-Time Collaboration.⁽¹⁾

HP and Microsoft engineering resources will collaborate to deploy, support and enhance the new solutions. The solutions will launch globally, with initial availability this month in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“Large organizations, particularly those in regulated industries like financial services and public sector, have demanding functionality and service level requirements,” said Brandt Faatz, vice president, Workplace Services, HP Enterprise Services. “HP and Microsoft help meet these needs with a flexible range of global, cost-efficient, cloud-based productivity solutions running on the latest technology.”

“Microsoft is committed to putting the unique and ever-evolving needs of customers at the core of cloud innovation," said Mark Hill, vice president, Enterprise Partner Group, Microsoft. “This alliance with HP not only broadens Microsoft’s geographic reach, it gives customers maximum flexibility to choose a cloud computing solution that meets their organization’s specialized messaging and collaboration needs.”

HP and Microsoft have delivered technical innovation together for more than 25 years. They offer joint solutions that help organizations around the world improve services through the use of innovative technologies. More information about the HP and Microsoft alliance is available at http://h10134.www1.hp.com/insights/alliances/microsoft/.

The new solutions enable organizations in their pursuit of an Instant-On Enterprise. In a world of continuous connectivity, the Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

---

⁽¹⁾ HP Enterprise Cloud Services–Messaging, HP Enterprise Cloud Services–Collaboration and HP Enterprise Cloud Services–Real-Time Collaboration for some end users, and Microsoft Office 365 for others.

---