JANUARY
Microsoft partners upset over cuts to cloud commissions
Microsoft is preparing to slash the fees partners get from its Online Services Advisor Incentives program, and some partners are furious about the likelihood of making less money selling Office 365, Exchange Online and other cloud services. CRN US interviewed half-dozen or so North American partners: most of them were angry at the incentive changes, and by the fact that Microsoft is making them in the middle of its fiscal year with just 30 days' notice.
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FEBRUARY
How disties will battle for Office 365 dominance
Microsoft's three Office 365 distribution partners have revealed their plans to take the SaaS suite out to market. Office 365 Open licensing will come into effect on 2 April, marking not only the first time most resellers will be able to sell the tools without Telstra, but also the first opportunities for the disties to get behind it.
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MARCH
Office 365 hits snag in Australia
Microsoft has revealed that the Microsoft Online Portal for the sale of Office 365 won't be available for resellers by the anticipated launch date on 2 April. At the time of writing, there was no publicly available launch date for the portal, with a Microsoft blog post stating more information will be available "in coming weeks".
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MARCH
Microsoft reveals Office for iPad
Satya Nadella has used his debut Microsoft press conference to unveil Office for iPad. Like the company's apps for iPhone, Word, Excel and PowerPoint will be free, but only Office 365 subscribers will have the facility to edit documents. The apps effectively become readers for those who don't subscribe.
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APRIL
Microsoft reveals massive Qld Office 365 rollout
Adoption of Office 365 in Australia could see a significant boost with news that up to 149,000 public servants in Queensland could move onto the Office 365 hosted mail service. The Queensland Government has inked a new deal with Microsoft that could become the largest non-education Office 365 deployment seen in Australia across both the private and public sectors.
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MAY
Microsoft Azure open to resellers from August 1
Microsoft said it will let partners resell Azure cloud services through its Open Licensing program starting August 1, in what could be a bid to keep small and medium businesses from drifting to Amazon Web Services and Google. As things stand now, Microsoft customers have two choices: They can either buy Azure services directly from Microsoft or get them as part of an Enterprise Agreement. Under Open Licensing, Microsoft's huge base of partners will be able to buy Azure services from distributors and resell them to customers.
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JUNE
Microsoft shares Office 365 roadmap
Microsoft is now giving Office 365 customers an advance look at what's coming in future updates. On Thursday US time, Microsoft launched its Office 365 public roadmap for business customers, as part of its transition to continually adding new features to its cloud services instead of all at once.
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JULY
Microsoft reveals new Office 365 SMB plans
Microsoft will shake up its Office 365 small and medium business lineup this October, adding three new versions as it begins retiring three others in an effort to make it easier for customers to choose what they need. Microsoft will roll out three new plans - Office 365 Business, Office 365 Business Essentials and Office 365 Premium - on 1 October that will replace its Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business versions of Office 365, Kirk Gregersen, general manager of Microsoft's Office division, said in a blog post Wednesday US time.
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AUGUST
Delayed Office 365 portal finally gets Australian launch
A key plank in Microsoft's Office 365 sales strategy will debut on 29 August when Office 365 becomes available via the Microsoft Online Portal in Australia, following significant delays. The launch means SMBs with 250 PCs or less wanting monthly billing for Office 365 will be able to buy direct or via a reseller rather than having to purchase via Telstra.
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SEPTEMBER
Just four partners to join Office 365 support and billing scheme
Microsoft is calling for its partners to vie for just four spots in the newly announced Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) Program. These four CSPs will take a greater responsibility for support and billing of small to medium Office 365 customers, said Steve Miller, Microsoft Australia Office division business group director, who revealed the CSP strategy during a standing room-only session on the final day of Microsoft Australia Partner Conference.
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OCTOBER
Microsoft gives unlimited storage to Office 365 users
Microsoft began offering free unlimited cloud storage for Office 365 customers Monday US time, shaking up the market in a move that will reshape the cloud storage landscape, according to channel partners. "Today, storage limits just became a thing of the past with Office 365. Moving forward, all Office 365 customers will get unlimited OneDrive storage at no additional cost," said Chris Jones, corporate vice president, Windows Services, in a post unveiling the offer on Microsoft's OneDrive blog Monday. Pricing for Office 365 starts at US$6.99 per month.
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NOVEMBER
Microsoft sets features free on Office for iPad
Users of Microsoft's Office suite on Apple iPad will be able to create and edit documents for free instead of paying for a subscription, in a bid to capture more mobile users. The move is the latest, and one of the most dramatic, in Microsoft's new strategy of getting customers to use its services regardless of device or operating system, rather than lose them to free or cheap alternatives, especially Google Apps.
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DECEMBER
Office 365 to be hosted in Australia
Microsoft will go live with locally hosted Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online by the end of March 2015. The software-as-a-service applications will be hosted at Microsoft's two local data centres in Sydney and Melbourne, which launched in October to house Azure Australia.
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