End of Support for Microsoft Outlook 2007 – Upgrade to Office 365

End of Support for Microsoft Outlook 2007 – Upgrade to Office 365

None of us like change and as long as certain software continues to work for our business then why not hold on to it? Well unfortunately there comes a time where every great tool reaches the end of its life. That being said, 10 years since its release, Microsoft Office 2007 is no longer supported since the 10th October 2017. So let’s quickly review what that means for your business and options for upgrading, such as to Office 365.

End of life for Outlook 2007

When any Microsoft software reaches its end of life it effectively becomes a useless product. That means that after the 10th October 2017, your Office 2007 will no longer receive any updates or security patches. Along with this, Microsoft won’t provide any support for questions or update the online documentation.

Although this isn’t as serious as using an unsupported operating system, it still leaves you open to problems. Malware can find its way onto your devices via any Office exploits. As Microsoft is no longer providing security patches, it means hackers can analyse software vulnerabilities with no worry of them being fixed. So if you’re still using Office 2007, it leaves you open to attacks because the software is no longer secure.

This being the case, we’re recommending that our customers take a look at the options to upgrade sooner rather than later.

So what are your upgrade options?

Here at Advance computers systems, we’re recommending that you upgrade to one of the following options:

• Outlook 2016 – this is Microsoft’s most recent version of Outlook for managing calendar, contacts and emails.

• Microsoft Office 365 Pro Plus or Business – integrating the Office 2016 software which includes (Word, Excel, PowerPoint & Outlook), Office 365 Business also includes OneDrive for Business and Office 365 Pro Plus also has additional features to offer.

• Office 365 Enterprise E3 or Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium – moving away from a hosted exchange service over to the Microsoft 365 platform gives users a different and new Outlook experience. Along with the full version of Microsoft Office applications & services, including OneDrive for Business, Exchange Online, Skype for Business and SharePoint online.

It doesn’t really make much sense to upgrade to Office 2010, since that won’t be supported for too much longer either. You could buy Office 2013 outright if you was looking to save money as this has similar features to Office 2016.

If you’d like to have the top cutting-edge version of Office however, then be sure to look into upgrading to Office 365 in York. With this, you’re guaranteed to always have the most up to date version of Office for a set cost. If you’re interested in Office 365 in Hull or York, click here for more information.

So while an Office upgrade may not be as important as a Windows update, it’s still crucial that you don’t have insecure versions of the program on any of your business devices. A weak link like this could easily become targeted by hackers, so don’t gamble with the security of your company. For more information about the Outlook 2007 end of life and which options for upgrade are best for your business, contact us on 01904 691 311 or click here.