Online Business Services Aim at Broad Market

Microsoft-hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint, Communications Server, and other servers will be made available to customers of all sizes through partners and through Microsoft’s volume channel later in 2008. The offering amends an earlier announcement in which Microsoft offered hosted servers only to customers with more than 5,000 seats. The services will help Microsoft compete with online applications and services offered by competitors, and could help Microsoft tap a much higher share of the largest single component of corporate IT spending, the cost of managing and maintaining software. However, current hosting partners could find themselves in stiff competition with Microsoft.

What’s on Offer?

Microsoft has offered hosted services through partners since the mid-1990s, but has been experimenting with offering hosted services directly since 2005, when it revealed that it was hosting Exchange, SharePoint, and Live Communications servers, as well as managing desktops, for Energizer Holdings.