Microsoft Corp. announced a new platform for the business users of its Office 365 subscriptions service. It is called Office 365 Video and it will be launched sooner than you think.
Introducing Office 365 Video
Office 365 Video is a business platform for posting, sharing and discovering and watching video content. In the most basic terms, it is like a YouTube, but for business, more like Vimeo. Therefore, it will not be available with all Office 365 subscription plans. For instance, it will not roll out for Office 365 SKU subscribers or for Office 365 Dedicated plans. Instead, it will focus on enterprise users (subscriptions E1, E2, E3, E4), as well as Academic plans (A2, A3 and A4). Also, Microsoft plans to make the platform available with government subscriptions in the near future.
According to, Mark Kashman, senior product manager in the Office 365 group, initially, the new service will become available only for Office 365 First Release users. All other consumers will get it in the first weeks of 2015.
Microsoft promises that Office 365 Video will offer very smooth streaming. That is because the service will automatically optimize each video for the particular device on which it is being watched. That includes PCs, tablets and smartphones. In addition, the platform will also take into consideration the user’s web speed and adjust the video’s quality depending on that.
How does it work?
Users who want to upload a video need to simply drag it from their device and drop it on Office 365 Video. The service supports various video files and it will optimize them automatically. Consumers can add a description and a title for the video. The uploaded video content can then be easily shared among company employees or discovered by them via enterprise search.
Businesses can also set their own usage permissions for Office 365 Video. For example, the channel owner or manager can disable the upload activity of some employees and allow them only to search, share and watch videos.
In addition, Microsoft Corp. stated that its latest service is very secure. That was due to the fact that everything is encrypted and it is available only to authorized employees.
Also, Microsoft shared that it is already working on new features for Office 365 Video, even though the streaming service is available for a limited number of consumers. They will make the platform more mobile-friendly and will also allow companies to embed the videos on elsewhere on the web.
How much will it cost?
Office 365 Video is described by Microsoft Corp. as a free additional service to its enterprise, academic and government subscription plans. However, companies may have some additional storage costs, since the video content they upload will be measured against the company’s SharePoint Online storage pool. Therefore, the true cost of the service is yet to be determined.
