Microsoft announced that it will start hosting Office 365 locally in its Sydney and Melbourne data centres by the end of March 2015.
Yes, you heard that right. Say goodbye to all your data sovereignty fears – Microsoft has assured us that your data will not leave Australia.
Tim Sheedy, Forrester principal analyst, believes this move will ease the fears of Australian organisations and I certainly agree. This move will particularly benefit nonprofit organisations and businesses in the financial industry, since they have traditionally had a lot of concerns about where there data is stored.
According to John Case, corporate vice-president of Microsoft’s Office Division, local hosting will also provide faster speeds for Australian users, promising lower latency and better performance.
No more lagging while using Office 365 Word? Yes, please.
Let’s review all the benefits of Office 365 being hosted in Australia.
Benefits for Australian organisations
- Improved latency: You can access applications and store data more quickly.
- Improved data sovereignty: No data will leave Australia.
- Geographically diverse redundant backup: If there’s a problem in Sydney, Office 365 can flip it to Melbourne.
Advantages of Office 365
So what’s so good about Office 365? Why don’t you just stick to your existing licenses for Office?
Office 365 offers Australian organisations a number of benefits:
- No need for servers: Throw away your servers and pass on the responsibility to Microsoft (or your IT service provider).
- Reduced support costs: With everything being in the cloud, IT support will be streamlined and more efficient, reducing your costs.
- Mobility: Take Office 365 everywhere you go – access on the go via mobile and tablet devices and access important files while working from home or at a clients site.
- Improved uptime: Office 365 has impeccable uptime records, so as long as your internet connection is working, your Office 365 will be, too.
- Seamless Integration: Connect with other Microsoft applications including the new Skype for Business, scheduled for release in 2015.
How to upgrade to Office 365 Australia
Upgrading to the locally-hosted Office 365 will happen automatically via Microsoft, but if you want to leave your data in the Singapore data centre, you will be given the option.
Pricing for locally-hosted Office 365
I predicted that pricing will remain the same for Australian users. Plans currently start from $5.61 per user, per year for the Business Essentials package. See full pricing below:
If you are an Australian nonprofit, you will still be eligible for free or discounted pricing. See the nonprofit pricing here.
Next steps
We applaud Microsoft’s move. R & G Technologies specialises in helping organisations make the move to the cloud. By moving to the cloud with Office 365, you can improve office productivity, enable better collaboration and empower employees to benefit from increased mobility.
Interested in learning more about this announcement?
