Although Microsoft is not necessarily windows 10 product key known as founders in any area today, no one can accuse them of not being alert to new computing trends and technologies. Their new cloud-based collaboration tool, Microsoft Office 365, looks to be a well-built rival for Google Apps.

Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Standards Suite has been on the market for some time, and the new generation represents a full commitment to the benefits of cloud computing in Office 365. The software as a service is now in beta, and sees Microsoft joining together the online versions of its products for communication and collaboration in an integrated, 'no updates necessary', examination.

A complete rundown of the functions and features to be available through Office 365 has not been outlined by Microsoft. However, IT and tech industry analysts say that the offering is showing a lot of potential.Michael Osterman, the Osterman Research president, said that "Conceptually, Office 365 is a great idea. From a functional perspective, integrating the online Office suite with hosted Exchange, SharePoint and Lync servers is going to be very useful".

Osterman noted that having a consistent desktop experience for users across fixed machines and cloud computing will be a major boon, especially with the mobile workforce revolution in full noise. This reduces training time for transitions to cloud-based operations and ultimately improves efficiency.