Microsoft officially launched Skype for Business earlier today, coming out of a short technical preview on Windows 8 and 10. It will be offered to enterprise customers that previously used Lync or Lync Online, both of which will shut down in May.

The move was announced last year when Microsoft revealed Lync was moving to Skype. Previously, Lync was the portal for business for chat but Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella has a new plan involving every enterprise application under the "for business" banner.

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Skype for Business will feature the same consumer-interface but with enterprise level security and management features unavailable on the consumer version. That means regular Skype users at home will not be confused with a new system for communication.

That is an advantage to other business communications tools from IBM, HP and Cisco, all of which have user interfaces that differ widely. Having a consistent interface should interest customers although the same can be said for Facebook at Work and Google's business applications that may include GMeet soon.

Skype for Business will be available online, too, like Lync Online. It will fold into the Office 2013 or 365 package for business customers. Online customers will be able to switch between Lync and Skype's interface until May.

This is a necessary step if Microsoft is to be taken seriously in the business world. It already has Microsoft Azure, one of the best cloud platforms competing against IBM, Amazon Web Services and a few other household names but it needs services to compliment that cloud service.

Having Skype for Business should be a good stepping stone. It already has Office on almost every desktop computer related to a business account. Now it needs to promote its new services like OneDrive, Sway and Windows 10 to business customers.

Nadella has shown he wants to have software and services at the top of the list when it comes to prioritization, alongside the growth of the cloud business.

Hardware, entertainment and gaming are all but expendable from now on unless Nadella sees a purpose for those sub-categories that connects to the main focus of services and cloud.

TagsSkype, Skype for Business, Lync, video calling, messaging