October 13, 2020 Office 365 Compatibility Deadline
Almost all of our clients are currently using Office 365, at least for hosting their Email. An important date to note with regards to Office 365 compatiblity is October 13, 2020. As of that date, in order to connect to Office 365, including Email, OneDrive, SharePoint etc., your locally installed version of the Office suite (Word, Excel, Outlook etc.) must be Office 2016, Office 2019, or you must be on an Office 365 subscription which includes the downloadable office suite, such as Business Premium, Enterprise E3 or E5 Plan or Office 365 ProPlus.
The Office 365 subscription version of the Office suite automatically provides semi-annual feature updates, so you never have to “upgrade” your Office software again. Alternatively, the perpetual license of Office is paid for once, is installed on a single PC and has only the set features of that version.
If you are currently running a version of Office that pre-dates Office 2016, it needs to be a priority to get upgraded to 2019 or an appropriate Office 365 subscription before the October 2020 deadline. Don’t wait until the last minute.
January 14, 2020 Office 365 Compatibility Deadline
Another bundle of applications to be affected even sooner is Office 365 ProPlus. This is a subscription that includes the Office suite and OneDrive, but no email. A common reason for using this type of license is where Office needs to be installed on a Remote Desktop Server. It should be noted that effective January 14, 2020, Office ProPlus will no longer be supported on the following versions of Windows:
- Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2
- Windows 8.1, Windows 7 or older
If you are running a Remote Desktop Server on one of these Server operating systems or the Office 365 ProPlus suite on a Windows 8.1, Windows 7 or older PC or virtual machine, this will need your attention very soon.
Windows 7 Operating System Support Ending
We have been alerting our clients for some time now, to the imminent deadline of January 14, 2020, when Microsoft will end support for the Windows 7 operating system. End of support means there will be no more patches or updates, which often address new-found security issues. With the rampant evolution and increase in security breaches, keeping Windows 7 computers on your network past this date will be unwise.
If you need assistance planning your network upgrades, contact us for a free consultation.
