DIGITAL ORIGINAL
The Cloud Rolls in on
the Software Front
The way we buy software is in the process of
changing forever. By John Giles
loud computing is growing. Adobe's Creative Suite Cloud
program has more than a million users among designers
and printers. Now Microsoft is counting on Offce 365
to push software applications on the cloud into the general user population. If it is as widely accepted as Adobe's
Creative Suite, you can expect more software to be distributed as a
subscription model.
C
Subscriptions to Office for business
have been around since 2011, but adding
a home edition pushes cloud software
into the hands of the masses. The general
public has become familiar with subscriptions for entertainment software such a
Netflix for movies and Pandora for music,
but this is the first major software application available for the general public.
Pricing & Features
For $99.99 a year, a user can install
Office 365 on up to five PCs or Macs.
For a small business, Microsoft offers its
Small Business Premium for $149.99 a
year. It includes a 25-gigabyte Outlook
mailbox, plus the ability to host online
meetings and set up a public website with
no hosting fees.
Users will have more advantages with
the subscription version. You can freely
deactivate any of the five computers under
your subscription at any time through the
office.com website. This makes moving
the software from computer to computer
easier. If you are on the road, you can
access your account over the Web at
Office.com and it works just like the one
on your computer. Using it online doesn't
count against your five-computer limit.
Microsoft is also opening an Office Store
with free and paid apps.
People will still be able to buy a standalone version of Office, but it won't be
on discs anymore. Buyers will have to
download the software and it can only be
used on a single computer.
As always, the Mac version isn't updated as quickly as the PC version and
cloud subscribers will get the Office for
Mac 2011 version. Both versions will be
updated automatically as changes are
made to the software.
In addition, users will also get online
storage, so it will be easy to work on the
most updated file when moving from one
computer to another.
Industry experts are watching closely
to see how the public reacts to this
type of software distribution. For printing companies, it could mean an increase
in Publisher and Word files. Printers will
also see increased costs for maintaining
software because they can no longer hold
off on updating their software to the latest version.
Free Open Source Alternatives
With the new announcements from
Microsoft about its Office products, more
attention is being focused on free alternatives to the software. Open source office
For more information, visit MyPRINTResource.com/10008070
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QUICK PRINTING / May 2013
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