Microsoft Office has been our collective go-to productivity software since its initial release back in the late 90s. With each iteration, Office has continued to evolve and grow to incorporate new features and new technologies. The latest version of Office through Office 365 is the prime example of this progress. It offers the best-in-class in desktop productivity as well as provides access to various cloud services.
As vendors continue to grow and evolve their products, there is eventually a point in time when older versions of a product cease to be supported, Microsoft is no exception to that practice. One such milestone is just around the corner for the Office product; Office 2010 is about to hit its end-of-support state. That does not mean it will abruptly cease to work, it just means that we are on our own if something happens and we need assistance. We will not have any support from Microsoft if a new bug or vulnerability is found.
Office 2010, like almost all Microsoft products, has a support lifecycle during which Microsoft provides bug fixes and security fixes. This lifecycle only lasts for a certain number of years from the date of initial release. For Office 2010, the support lifecycle is 10 years. When Office 2010 reaches its end of support on October 13, 2020, Microsoft will no longer support the product.
End of support means items such as: technical support for issues, bug fixes for issues that are discovered, and security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered. None of these will be available from Microsoft after October 13, 2020.
Life After Office 2010
The only real option at this point in time (if you still happen to be running Office 2010) is to upgrade to a later version. The two options are:
- A one-time purchase of Office 2019.
- Office 365
In my opinion, the most logical choice is to use Office 365 ProPlus or Business version. The Office 365 versions offer a handful of benefits over the one-time purchase. Here are a handful of key benefits (by no means a complete list):
- Updated more frequently (fixes and new features)
- Multiple installs (on up to 5 devices per user)
- Better integration with cloud services (collaboration is much easier)
- Lower buy-in cost
Outside of just examining the Office capabilities (between the two purchase options), Office 365 also incorporates all the other services which empowers Office even further (Email services, file sharing, file hosting, meetings, collaboration tools, and many more). If you have any questions of Office and/or Office 365, please contact the Sikich offices for further information.
