Outlook Web App

Outlook Web App is the webmail service part of Microsoft Exchange server and also serves as a webmail client Microsoft Office 365. Like some of other Microsoft products, Outlook Web App has recently been re – branded with the new name and prior to that was called Exchange web Connect and then Outlook Web Access.

Email Outlook Web App

The primary use of this web mail client by Microsoft, is to provide an easy means for users to connect their email accounts via a web browser, without having to install the program Microsoft Outlook. Outlook Web App or OWA has been equipped with the features for managing calendars, contacts, tasks, various types of documents and other mailbox content. While Microsoft Outlook also offers similar features and can be used in the offline mode, it is compulsory to have an internet connection to use OWA as the exchange server for users to work with features provided by Microsoft, that includes email, calendars, etc. OWA is also used as a part of Microsoft Office 365.

First launched with Exchange 2000, Outlook web App was offered with two options premium and Light – also referred as Lite, with the latter containing reduced functions. Until 2010, Outlook Web App was browser restricted and only supported Internet Explorer, but in the recent years the program has been upgraded and is fully functional with other browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari too.

Outlook web App has been constantly updated over the years and has renowned itself to serve as one of the most advanced web applications using Ajax technology. The competition is remarkably fierce with many other companies like Google hosting the similar service with its Google Apps suite and Yahoo with its Business mail option. Outlook web App has also managed to shine bright against the locally installed alternatives to Exchange server such as Zimbra, Kolab, Zarafa etc. While the Outlook Web App has proven to be extremely useful, it requires the network administrator’s permission to be enabled. Usually the web address of Outlook Web app is in the form https://<domainname>/OWA. eg: www.companyname.com/owa.