Microsoft Office 365 could derail Google Apps in India, specifically for SMEs

It seems that Office 365 suite, which includes Exchange, SharePoint and Lync, coupled with Office applications as a cloud service, is becoming a hit with the SMEs in India.  Although a late entrant, it is giving Google a real run for its money on the Google Apps. Businesses adopting Microsoft’s offerings may wish to implement some kind of end user experience monitoring in order to visually map service status for a specific user.

It seems that at least Microsoft has gotten its pricing model correct for this offering.  Enough to appeal to large enterprises as well as SMEs with 1000 employees.

The per-user-per-month subscription model provides great value for SMBs, many of which do not have an IT infrastructure in place. Office 365 offers a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee with a financially backed SLA (service level agreement). The service offerings range from US$2 to $24 per user per month, depending on the options the customer wants. Microsoft recently announced SMBs can avail a 90-day free trial offer with up to 10 users through the month of February. In addition, SMBs that purchase and activate a copy of Microsoft Office Home & Business 2010 or Professional 2010, will receive a 90-day trial of Office 365 Small Business Premium for up to five users.

Personally, I really liked Google Apps offering.  But if MSFT is offering all these things, at that kinda price then it is surely well worth it!

Have you tried the Office 365 suite?