Software Plus Services Roadmap

The Windows Azure platform will become commercially available in Jan. 2010, giving Microsoft a broad set of online services for developers, business customers, and consumers, and substantially completing the first stage of the company’s “software plus services” strategy. Nearly every important Microsoft enterprise server will have an associated online service, and while these services could replace on-premises software in some scenarios, the company will continue to emphasize how well they work with locally installed software. This report identifies Microsoft’s major online services and their competitors; explains their benefits, drawbacks, and relationship to other Microsoft products; and describes what’s known about future updates.

Goals of Software Plus Services

Introduced by Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie in early 2007, the term “software plus services” describes Microsoft’s approach to online services. In contrast with pure “software as a service” vendors, such as Google and Salesforce.com, that promote online services as potential replacements for on-premises software, Microsoft promotes a hybrid approach combining online services with on-premises software.