The connectivity between Microsoft 365 services and Office on premise provides your company with features that simplify working together. In this article you will read about which Microsoft 365 services you can access with Office on premise licenses and how they can benefit your company.
Which Office versions can connect to Microsoft 365 services?
You can connect to Microsoft 365 services only with perpetual Office licenses with a valid mainstream support. For example, if you have Microsoft Office 2019 or higher you can connect without any problems. This means that the connectivity to Microsoft 365 with Office 2016 would not be supported because the mainstream support end date runs out on October 10, 2023. Besides not being supported, older versions would not be able to access new Microsoft 365 services and their newest features. Microsoft does not offer a guarantee for the correct connectivity with older Office versions simply because they do not conduct tests with the older versions. This is also why multiple issues can occur, such as compromised performance and reliability.
Why use Microsoft 365 services with office on premise?
By using on-premise licenses to connect to Microsoft 365 services you create a hybrid environment. Hybrid solutions contribute to more smoothly transferring information and users to Microsoft 365. This facilitates the division of information by enabling to store one part of the users or data on-premise, and the other part in the cloud.
Consequently, on-premise licenses provide more control over your data, as you can store your information locally instead of in a cloud. This means you don’t have to worry about private or sensitive data being leaked. In addition, on-premise licenses offer a better way to control regulatory compliance. This way your organization has a complete control of its resources, services, and data. moreover, when purchasing on-premise you acquire the indefinite rights to the software. Since there’s only one point of purchase investing in on-premise is more financially beneficial in the long run compared to a subscription licensing model. Finally, Microsoft 365 on-premise provides an easy way to work remotely. The only thing you need is a working wi-fi and you can work with Microsoft 365’s cloud-based platform.
Read more about how to use Remote desktop with Office.
Which Microsoft 365 services can you access with Office on-premise?
The connectivity between Office on-premise and Microsoft 365 provides you access to Microsoft 365 services such as SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Exchange Online.
SharePoint Online lets you set up an intranet for yourself, your colleagues, and anyone else, so you can share a document and work on it at the same time. People within and outside the company can work together using SharePoint. This is a great way to combine the work of multiple individuals who are working remotely and transform it into a group-project.
Another Microsoft 365 service you can access with Office on-premise is OneDrive for Business. This service allows multiple users to work in the same file, regardless of their locations or devices. With OneDrive for Business you have all your data and documents stored in one place. Everyone who has rights can access the OneDrive at all times and locations. With OneDrive for Business you can benefit from exclusive features such as co-authoring, data restoration, and version control. These features would contribute to your effective time management and workflow.
A third Microsoft 365 service you can benefit from is Exchange Online. By combining the service with Exchange on-premise you create a hybrid environment in which you could store a part of you data locally and a part of your data in a cloud. In this case, Microsoft has invested a lot of time and resources to provide a secure service which does not compromise your security when choosing Exchange Online as an addition to your network.
Read more about why to use Office on-premise.
Requirements for connectivity to Microsoft 365 with Office on premise
Since November 1, 2021, you need to use certain versions of Outlook for Windows in order to connect to Microsoft 365 services, such as Exchange Online. This is due to the fact that older versions would not be able to access the services because of fundamental server changes. See below.
For example, if you use Outlook 2007 and 2010 you won’t be able to work with some of the next service changes:
- Microsoft 365 increases the security of its services by not relying on basic authentication anymore but rather implementing modern authentication protocols. These protocols also ensure that you can easily manage your data while complying with and controlling the necessary policies.
- Another service change in Microsoft 365 is the added support for the duplex protocol HTTP/2. This new addition reduces delays with the help of multiplexing and header compression. The added support for HTTP/2 improves request prioritizing, which in turn delivers data to the users in an optimized manner.
At this moment, these are the supported versions of Outlook:
- Outlook 2021 (supported until October 2026)
- Outlook 2019 (supported until October 2023)
- Outlook 2016 (supported until October 2023)
If you are a Mac user, you should pay attention to the Microsoft office version you’re using. In principle, you need to have at least Microsoft Office 2019 or higher. The reason for this is the mainstream support for Office 2016, which already expired on the 13th of October 2020.
With the following versions of Project you can connect to Microsoft 365 services:
- Project Standard 2021 and Project Professional 2021 (until October 2026)
- Project Standard 2019 and Project Professional 2019 (until October 2023)
- Project Standard 2016 and Project Professional 2016 (until October 2023)
With the following versions of Visio you can connect to Microsoft 365 services:
- Visio LTSC Standard 2021 and Visio LTSC Professional 2021 (until October 2026)
- Visio Standard 2019 and Visio Professional 2019 (until October 2023)
- Visio Standard 2016 and Visio Professional 2016 (until October 2023)
End of mainstream support and what does it mean?
Every software you can purchase at Softtrader has an end of mainstream support. This means that a software can still receive security updates and some bug fixes, however most new features that are included in the newer versions, will not be added to the older software anymore. This mainstream support usually lasts 5 years. During these 5 years new releases, updates, fixes, etc. will be provided by Microsoft. When the mainstream support ends, you can still rely on the extended support. The extended support lasts for 5 years as well and will only include security related updates.
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