Important: To get the latest features/updates, it is recommended that you install the ProPlus/Office 365 Subscription version of Office/Outlook. The Professional Plus/Volume License version is only receiving security and other necessary updates.
Although by definition a cloud offering is available to anyone with an Internet connection, there are a few other requirements that must be observed should you choose to use Microsoft Office 365. In particular, you must be located in a supported country and must have supported software and a high-speed Internet connection.
Geographic requirements of Office 365
Microsoft has released Office 365 to a specific set of initial countries and will roll it out to the rest of the world in the future. Following are the supported countries and the data center location that serves each country.
United States Data Center | Singapore Data Center | Ireland Data Center |
---|---|---|
Canada | Australia | Austria |
Costa Rica | Hong Kong | Belgium |
Columbia | India | Cyprus |
Mexico | Japan | Czech Republic |
Peru | Malaysia | Denmark |
Puerto Rico | New Zealand | Finland |
Trinidad and Tobago | Singapore | France |
United States | Germany | |
Greece | ||
Hungary | ||
Ireland | ||
Israel | ||
Italy | ||
Luxembourg | ||
Netherlands | ||
Norway | ||
Poland | ||
Portugal | ||
Romania | ||
Spain | ||
Sweden | ||
Switzerland | ||
United Kingdom |
Software requirements of Office 365
To get the most out of Office 365, it is best to use Windows 7 with Office 2010 and the latest Internet Explorer browser. Doing this gives you the fully integrated experience. Office 365 does, however, support various software configurations.
Operating Systems | Web Browsers | Office Clients |
---|---|---|
Windows XP SP3 | Internet Explorer 7 + | Office 2007 SP2 |
Windows Vista SP2 | Firefox 3 + | Office 2010 |
Windows 7 | Safari 4 + | Office 2008 for Mac |
Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) | Chrome 3 + | Office 2011 for Mac |
Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) | Lync 2010 | |
Windows Server 2003 | ||
Windows Server 2008 |
A key feature of Office 365 provides the ability for your business’s Active Directory instance to sync with your Office 365 account. To achieve this integration, however, your Active Directory domain must be a single forest.
![Explorer Explorer](http://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/use-internet-explorer-on-mac-610x343.jpg)
Internet access requirements of Office 365
Because the Office 365 software lives in a Microsoft data center and is accessed over the Internet, having high-speed Internet access available on a regular basis is important.
For some of the components of Office 365, such as the Outlook Web App, high-speed Internet access is not required, but as a general rule, you want to make sure that your users have a pleasant experience and that equals a high-speed Internet connection when dealing with the cloud.
Because Office 365 can be accessed from any computer anywhere in the world with an Internet connection, you have no control over the network connectivity.
The good news, however, is that the types of things your users will do from on the road are check e-mail, edit documents in the browser, or download a quick document from the SharePoint site — tasks that work fine with slower connection speeds (with the exception of downloading documents).
Most users, however, understand that the speed of their Internet connection directly relates to the speed a document will download and will not blame the Office 365 service for a slow download.
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There are many points of contact with Office 365, and depending on which computer you are using to access the cloud services, you will want to make sure that your web browser is supported. Following is a summary of the browser requirements for the Office Web Apps, Outlook Web App, and SharePoint Online.
Office Web Apps | Outlook Web App | SharePoint Online |
---|---|---|
Internet Explorer 7 + (on Windows) | Internet Explorer 7 + (on Windows) | Internet Explorer 7 + (32-bit) |
Firefox 3.5 + (on Windows, Mac, or Linux) | Firefox 3.0.1 + (on Windows, Mac, or Linux) | Internet Explorer 7 + (64-bit) [with some limitations] |
Safari 4 + (on Mac) | Chrome 3.0.195.27 + (on Windows) | Firefox 3.6 + [with some limitations] |
Safari 3.1 + (on Mac) | Safari 4.04 + [with some limitations] |
A light version of Outlook Web App exists if you happen to find yourself using or borrowing a computer that does not meet the minimum requirements for the full-featured experience.
The light version also loads much faster and is useful if you are temporarily using a very slow Internet connection. Even though the light version is not as feature rich as the full version, it accomplishes the basic tasks of e-mail very well.
For a detailed list of the limitations per browser when working with SharePoint, check out this Microsoft TechNet article.