Microsoft China announced in Shanghai that its Office 365 cloud service, which is operated by 21Vianet, is officially available in China.

Office 365 technology leverages more than 20 years of Microsoft's experience providing the familiar Office productivity solutions including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote and Outlook to enterprises and institutions of all sizes.

The applications are all connected to Microsoft's collaboration services, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online. The cloud-based Office 365 enables users to store, manage and collaborate on documents across devices, while giving companies a high level of security and control to protect critical corporate data.

Microsoft Office 365 can now provide fully-operational services to all paying customers in China. Combined with the previous general release of Microsoft Azure services, this new development further solidifies Microsoft as the first international company to offer a comprehensive commercial suite of public cloud services in China. Office 365 is Microsoft's fastest-growing commercial product ever and 20,000 customers have already tried Microsoft Office 365 services in China since its public preview in August 2013, including private enterprises, government organizations, and education institutions. In addition, many large enterprises and government organizations have signed up for the services as paying customers including the Shanghai, Wenzhou and Xi'an city governments.

According to Microsoft China, for businesses and organizations who wish to purchase the Office 365, there are a range of tiered pricing options available. The service is also available at an early bird discount with commercial and government customers having access to a general availability price promotion until May 31, 2014.

For individual users, they can subscribe the Office 365 personal edition for an annual fee of CNY399. The subscribed service can be used on one PC and one tablet.