Microsoft has launched the public beta of the highly-anticipated Office 365. There is a lot to like about the cloud-based suite, but one of the most compelling features of the service might just be the price.

Starting at $ 6 per seat per month, Office 365 is almost a no-brainer for small and medium companies. Organizations with fewer than 50 users typically don’t have a dedicated IT administrator, and lack both the skills and the budget to implement and maintain the infrastructure necessary to deliver what Office 365 does. For a paltry $ 72 per user per year, these companies get the benefit of Exchange e-mail, Lync instant messaging, SharePoint collaboration, and the Office Web Apps productivity suite.