Quoted from this website which provides a lot of information about MS BPOS, now we should call it Office 365.

Last week Kurt DelBene, president, Microsoft Office Division, and Chris Capossela, senior vice president, Information Worker Product Management Group, announced the successor of BPOS, to be named Office 365. They also announced which products will be part of Office 365 and in which bundles Office 365 will be available. Basically Office 365 will contain the new versions of Exchange (2010), SharePoint (2010) and Office Communications (Lync 2010). Next to this the Office Web Apps and an Office Subscription will be added.

BPOS is currently used by 40 million paying users. In my opinion Office 365 will be such an attractive proposition to businesses of all sizes that it is to be expected the number of users will expand fast. Let me explain.

Using cloud solutions, which Office 365 is, has become a trend over the last months. Office 365 will appeal to businesses of all sizes which need best of breed productivity software but want to outsource the technical installation, maintenance and housing.

Office 365 consists of the new versions of the Microsoft productivity tools. Most employees use these tools on a daily basis. Their work lives in many cases evolve around these tools. Microsoft offering Exchange, SharePoint and Lync out of the cloud means customers can use their environments with the assurance it will be up and running 99.9% of the year and will constantly be updated with the latest features.

SharePoint Online 2010, which is based on SharePoint Server 2010, is one of the components available in Office 365. The current version of SharePoint Online is primarily aimed at teamsite and collaboration functionality. The new 2010 version however will basically be on par with the On Premise version of SharePoint. Almost all capabilities, including integration of custom developed components, will be available in the cloud. SharePoint 2010 will open up a whole new set of capabilities regarding all sorts of workloads for customers.

Exchange 2010 will change the way customers use e-mail. Currently Exchange Online already offers a 25GB mailbox. This 25GB mailbox will still be available in Office 365. Next to this however Microsoft will offer an unlimited storage capability for older e-mails which basically allows customers to archive all their mails automatically. Other enhancements like using Exchange Online 2010 as a voicemail platform and the upgrade of the Outlook Web App will complete the user experience.

Lync will replace Live Meeting and OCS Online. Lync is the new version of Office Communications Server and offers many new possibilities for Office 365 customers. Customers will now be able have audio, video meetings and will be able to host online conferences. Next to this customers will be able to connect their landlines to Lync which will enable them to call via Lync.

New to Office 365 is the inclusion of the Office Web Apps and Office Professional. Basically customers will be able to view and edit office documents online through the Web Apps. The subscription model for Office Professional will enable customers to implement Office Professional without having to actually buy the Office Professional version upfront.

For us, being the Worldwide Microsoft Online Services Partner of the Year, the Office 365 launch is exciting. Our customers currently are very active BPOS customers. Office 365 will truly enable them to take the next step in moving their business online. Office 365 enables customers to choose whether they want to work from their own On Premise solution or Online, managed and hosted by Microsoft.