Microsoft is stepping up its commitment to the cloud by launching the new Office 365, a service combining Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online with the cloud.

Kurt DelBane, president of Microsoft’s office division, announced at a San Francisco press event that Office 365 is a subscription service that integrates cloud-based syncing, collaboration and accessibility to businesses and organizations worldwide. So long as a device supports ActiveSync, customers can access their e-mail, calendars, team websites and office web apps from anywhere. The inclusion of Lync also means that Office 365 has videoconferencing capabilities.

There are two editions of Office 365. Office 365 for Small Businesses is designed for organizations of one to 25 people. It’s a pre-built package that includes Office Web Apps, Lync, e-mail sync and more. It doesn’t require IT support on the user’s end and will cost $6 per user per month.

The second version is Office 365 for Enterprises. Unlike the small business version, the enterprise edition can be customized based on an organization’s needs. It can be customized so different teams have different access levels to Office 365’s features. The enterprise edition comes with everything in the small business version, plus single sign-in, Office Pro Plus (via subscription), internal social networking tools, voice mail in the inbox, and more. It costs anywhere between $2 to $27 per user per month, depending on which features the company chooses to utilize.

The beta will be available to a few thousand organizations starting today; its full launch will occur sometime next year in 40 countries. Sometime in late 2011, Office 365 will add Microsoft Dynamics CRM to its suite of products.

DelBane said that the company believes the cloud is as radical of an innovation as the graphical user interface. Office 365 just makes sense though; the rising demand for enterprise-level cloud apps like Dropbox (Dropbox) and Box.net (Box.net) is due to its ability to help teams collaborate and coordinate their efforts.

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