Officially launched just six months ago, Microsoft (News - Alert) Office 365 is starting to gain some traction in the higher education space. The cloud-based Google Apps alternative is in the process of being deployed at five new colleges and universities, Sig Behrens, Microsoft general manager for U.S. education, noted in a blog post.

Those ditching their on-premises productivity solutions for cloud-based options include the University of Nebraska, Tulane University, the University of Texas at San Antonio, Kentucky Community Technical College System and the University of New Mexico.

Depending upon the specific suite, Office 365 for Education brings all of the company's productivity and collaboration solutions under one roof, and makes them accessible from anywhere with a Web connection. Office 365 for Education includes hosted alternatives to Microsoft’s famed suite of desktop apps – including Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync – as well UC services like IM, presence and conferencing.

Microsoft offers three plans that are free for students – with individual user fees for faculty and staff – and two more advanced packages that require colleges to pitch in either $2 or $2.50 per student. The higher end packages include Office Pro Plus, advanced archive capabilities and voice.

Behrens credits the initial success of Office 365 for Education to the growing need for "always on" accessibility along with the software suite's security, privacy and compliance features.

"Addressing accessibility is not only an important human challenge; it is also one that for many of our customers can carry significant legal penalties if not dealt with appropriately," he wrote. "No provider, including Microsoft, will ever be perfect as far as accessibility is concerned, but Microsoft has a long track record of investments in the provision of enabling technologies across our product set."

On the security side, Behrens claims that Office 365 is the only "major" cloud vendor to meet HIPAA requirements and the only provider to offer business associate agreements as part of the service terms.

Although we haven't seen any specific numbers, Office 365 seems to be receiving mostly positive feedback. That's good news for Microsoft considering there was some negative chatter surrounding its public beta product, which contained more than a glitch or two.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Carrie Schmelkin