Microsoft aims to offer IT directors a hosting option to
lower the cost of running Microsoft server products and give
end-users online access to Office documents - something that is
already available onGoogle's Appsplatform.
The company's strategy is to provide online services to
complement its existing software products, starting with
Office Live Workspace, a collaborative workplace, and
Microsoft Online, a hosting service. The hosted service covers
three Microsoft server products.
Industry experts are reporting demand among businesses for
end-users to be able to share documents over the internet in a
controlled manner.
Dale Vile, managing director of analyst firm Freeform Dynamics,
said, "We are seeing a growing need for collaboration among
businesses, particularly among small and mid-sized companies."
Easier collaboration
Microsoft is the latest company to provide this type of
functionality. The
Live Workspace product provides a way for end-users in
businesses to collaborate more easily on shared documents, compared
with e-mail-based collaboration.
Richard Edwards, senior analyst at Butler Group, said 60% of
users use e-mail for collaboration, which potentially results in
confusion since users may see multiple versions of the same
document.
IT directors may question where these products fit into
Microsoft's strategy, given that there are already many ways to
share documents, such as using Microsoft's Sharepoint product or
giving users
virtual private network access.
Darren Strange, senior product manager at Microsoft, said, "Live
Workspace is designed for personal use. People will use it in
business to share their personal documents."
Microsoft plans to offer enterprise users three approaches to
running its software:
● The traditional implementation where the business installs and
manages the software
● Via services hosted by Microsoft partners
● Through Online Services, where hosting is run in Microsoft's
own datacentres.
Strange said the company had no plans yet to provide online
versions of its Microsoft Office applications.
Rise of online applications
Online applications is a growing area. Last month saw the
addition of Google Presentations to Google Apps, enabling Google to
offer business users a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation
application. The presentations product allows users to collaborate
on creating presentation slides, and it can be used to share a
presentation with several users.
Adobe has also been developing online applications. It is
planning to buy Virtual Ubiquity, the start-up that developed the
Buzzword online word processor. Significantly, Buzzword uses Adobe
Flash, which means it is able to combine the full graphical user
interface of a product suite such as MS Office with the online
collaboration features of Google Apps.
Adobe plans to invest in Buzzword, integrating the application
with Adobe's existing online document collaboration services. These
include Create Adobe PDF Online for creating PDF files, and Adobe
Document Center, which helps users retain control of documents and
track their usage.
David Bradshaw, principal analyst at Ovum, said, "With Adobe and
Google, there are now two serious online rivals to Microsoft
Office."
As a result, Microsoft may be pressured into reducing the cost
of licensing MS Office, or even splitting the product to make it
cost-effective for businesses to purchase the individual
components.
Bradshaw said Adobe's Buzzword acquisition would provide a
richer user interface, unlike the simpler browser-based graphical
user interface on Google Apps.
New breed of software
Applications such as Buzzword represent a new breed of software
that merge browser-based computing with traditional PC software.
The benefit is that users do not need to be online to run the
software or access files, but documents can be made available and
shared over the internet.
Bradshaw said he expected Google to offer such capabilities in
its Apps online suite using a technology called Gear, which is
based on Ajax, a programming interface used to build interactive
websites.
Microsoft and Google may seem very different in terms of their
approaches to online services, but they have a common goal to
attract users who want access to documents from the web.
Bob Tarzey, service director, at analyst firm Quocirca, said,
"Both Microsoft and Google are developing a portfolio of online
tools." Where they differ is that Microsoft's approach relies on MS
Office being installed on desktop PCs, while Google relies on
browser-based access to online documents.
Some businesses may be concerned that their data resides in a
Microsoft or Google datacentre. For such users, Microsoft will
continue to sell the standard Microsoft Office package, which is
its second biggest revenue stream, after Windows.
Tarzey said Google could offer an appliance server, rather like
its Enterprise Search appliance, allowing users to install a
physical box on-premise which could then run Google Apps and store
all user documents. With such an appliance, Tarzey said Google
could offer users a truly viable alternative to Microsoft
Office.