First look: Microsoft Office 2013

Customers who subscribe to an Office 365 bundle which includes Office 2013 will be able to download the desktop applications from the web. Microsoft has announced four new bundles. Home Premium has 20GB of storage and includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Access and Publisher. Small Business Premium adds InfoPath and Lync, for up to ten users. ProPlus is similar but covers up to twenty-five users. Enterprise Premium has the same applications, but adds archiving and legal hold support, as well as unlimited users.

When users download, there is an option to do so using click-to-run application virtualisation instead of a standard full install. This speeds deployment and should also reduce the potential application conflicts.