Microsoft has signed a US$9.8m four-year contract to supply Office 365 to the Environmental Protection Agency, scoring the company a huge win in the cloud.

The software giant will provide the software as a service, with the company paying a monthly fee for each employee which uses the cloud.

Around 25,000 employees are expected to use Office 365 in the deal, following recent contracts with Toyota (200,000 employees) and the government of Santa Clara County (15,000 employees).

CEO Steve Ballmer previously said the new Office on tablet will be an “uncompromised experience”, and not a “junior version” of the full PC edition.

Promising the new cloud service "will fully light up when paired with Windows 8", Office 365 sees obvious improvements to Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and Excel, but also a big change to Microsoft’s cloud service, SkyDrive according to Microsoft.

Through the SkyDrive service, documents can be stored online through default settings with a memory facility enabling users to pick up where they left on when on the move.

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