Print - Microsoft Takes Another Baby Step Towards Online Services Future

Microsoft this week unveiled small a shift in its online strategy. Now, the services which are aimed at individuals and small businesses it offers will be marketed under the Live umbrella. These services include existing offerings such as Windows Live, Office Live, and Xbox Live. Meanwhile, a new group of enterprise-oriented offerings will also be offered. These will be marketed with the "Online" brand, Microsoft says, and will include such things as Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft Office SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Office Communications Online.

The company also announced a new Live offering, dubbed Office Live Workspaces, which provides a Web-based storage and collaboration space for users of Microsoft Office. The service doesn't offer any Web-based editing capabilities, unlike online office productivity services from Google and others, but rather requires users to continue using desktop-based Office applications. Office Live Workspaces is aimed at consumers, students, and small businesses, and is free. A beta version is available beginning today and the service will be expanded to others in the near future, Microsoft says.

According to the software giant, the new online services moves are a continuation of its wider "software + services" strategy, by which it will "synthesize" elements of its desktop and enterprise offerings with Web-based services. This strategy, Microsoft says, makes more sense than trying to move computing completely into the cloud as some of its competitors are attempting. "We believe these choices will provide businesses with the flexibility to choose the software and capabilities that best suit their business needs, whether hosted by Microsoft, on-premise with the customer, or hosted by a Microsoft partner," says Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's Business division.

"We believe that the future of technology at work will be a combination of local software on client PCs or on-premise servers, along with services available in the 'cloud,'" Raikes says. "Our approach is to give customers the choice, flexibility and power of both software plus services. Think of it as a continuum, ranging from pure software to pure services approaches. Most customers will be somewhere in the middle."

Microsoft Office System PowerPoint 2007 Live Workspaces Online. Now THAT'S marketing with buzzword! Seriously, though ... I think Microsoft's approach might be apt. I think it makes sense to integrate the 'cloud' concept with locally-managed software. This allows businesses to choose to what degree it will depend on cloud services while maintaining greater security with in-house software. Additionally, Internet service disruption wouldn't halt business activities.

@mwrisner - "This allows businesses to choose to what degree it will depend on cloud services while maintaining greater security with in-house software. Additionally, Internet service disruption wouldn't halt business activities." The main problem that I see with this is that most users will store a copy of every document locally and in the "cloud". What advantage does this create for the enterprise? --tayme

"Microsoft Office System PowerPoint 2007 Live Workspaces Online" ok, who wants to point out the numerous obvious errors with that statement? seriously though, how many collaboration options does this make it now? with servers available at very low prices thanks to Windows Small Business Server, and programs like HP's "Time Is Now" campaign, small-to-medium businesses should be looking in that direction. larger corporations should already have multiple Windows Server systems in place for centralized workstation management at the very least. the only realistic target audience for these services would be very small businesses that can't afford a server (<10 users, non-profit organizations, and organizations based around home-based workers - ie. private social workers). XP

@tayme -- the enterprise isn't storing their stuff in the cloud. They're storing it on their own in-house servers, or using a host such as "Microsoft Online" or one of numerous third-party ASPs. Anyways the benefit is when the cloud goes down, or your connection to the cloud goes down, you still have access to your document.

@Patriot - My point exactly. Regardless, users will still store multiple copies of documents. Most large enterprises are using a NetApp filer rather than a Windows file server for file storage because of the performance when attached to terabytes of data. If used correctly, you can monitor for unwanted file types, set quotas by user or department, and backup only a single copy of identicle files. Most, if not all, of this is also available if using Windows, but the Data-OnTap OS and WAFL filesystem outperform anything that MS has today. Snap mirroring and Snap Vault make file recovery and DR a "snap" as well...and no, I don't work for NetApp...I just have extensively used their products for a few years and believe in them. --tayme