Matt Evans is a writer on the Access team.
If you test out Access apps, but are waiting to use them in a production environment, you can now move full speed ahead.
What does general availability mean? Customers can now create, share, and use Access apps with full confidence and the same level of guaranteed availability as the rest of Office 365. Access apps have been part of Office 365 subscriptions since Office 365 General Availability was announced in February 2013. Until now, Access apps were in preview and weren’t supported under the Office 365 service-level agreement (SLA) and compliance standards.
General availability brings several benefits:
- Access apps are covered by the standard Office 365 SLA and compliance level.
- Access app creators can now sell their apps in the SharePoint Store.
- Access apps are available to all users, including Office 365 subscriptions where the administrator has disabled preview features since Access apps are no longer in preview.
For information about getting started with Access apps, see Manage data in Access apps in the Office 365 Business Learning Center. Also check out Access apps for developers for information about creating Access apps for SharePoint.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Which Office 365 customers benefit from general availability of Access apps?
A: Access apps are now generally available for Office 365 Small Business, Midsize, Enterprise, and Education customers. Office 365 Government customers are still in preview.
Q: What are Access apps compared to SharePoint apps?
A: SharePoint apps, officially known as Apps for SharePoint, are self-contained pieces of functionality that extend the capabilities of a SharePoint website. Users find and download these apps from the SharePoint Store or from their organization’s private App Catalog and install them on their SharePoint sites. Access apps are web database apps designed in Access and hosted in SharePoint.
– Matt Evans