Windows, Office To Go 'Live'
CRN | Microsoft, Windows, live software | Windows, Office To Go 'Live': "Microsoft last week restarted its march down the road to hosted software applications and collaboration.
Unveiling Microsoft’s “live software” vision, Microsoft Chairman Gates previewed Windows Live and Office Live last week in San Francisco and pledged that virtually all of Microsoft’s software ultimately will be offered off a server or as a service. Its initial offerings target consumers and very small businesses without IT staff and typically without even a server.
Windows Live is an advertising-supported service that lets users customize their own home pages with search content, RSS feeds, workspaces, applications and a new AJAX-based e-mail system called Live Mail; and Live Messenger, an updated version of Microsoft’s MSN Messenger. The free service is not designed to replace the Redmond, Wash.-based company’s MSN.com, which will continue to feature programmed content.
Office Live, previewed by Microsoft General Manager of Information Worker Services Rajesh Jha, is a set of free and subscription-based services for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
The base-level Office Live lets small businesses sign up for a free domain registration and a free Web site, plus up to five Live Mail accounts with up to 2 Mbytes of storage and free online collaboration to enable ad hoc file sharing a la Groove Networks, code-named Mojo.
The subscription-based service is designed for fuller-function business portals and would enable a company to set up a secure space to communicate with an accountant or among various workgroups, for example.
Microsoft’s top worldwide channel executive said Office Live, due to beta early next year, will jump-start business for a variety of solution providers targeting very small businesses. Some of the foundational Windows Live services demonstrated last week are already in beta, said Allison Watson, vice president of Microsoft’s worldwide partner and small business group. “This will, for the first time, widely open up a segment of the market that has been underserved by technology,” Watson said. She estimates the potential market to be about 5.2 million businesses that run four PCs or fewer and are without servers. "
Unveiling Microsoft’s “live software” vision, Microsoft Chairman Gates previewed Windows Live and Office Live last week in San Francisco and pledged that virtually all of Microsoft’s software ultimately will be offered off a server or as a service. Its initial offerings target consumers and very small businesses without IT staff and typically without even a server.
Windows Live is an advertising-supported service that lets users customize their own home pages with search content, RSS feeds, workspaces, applications and a new AJAX-based e-mail system called Live Mail; and Live Messenger, an updated version of Microsoft’s MSN Messenger. The free service is not designed to replace the Redmond, Wash.-based company’s MSN.com, which will continue to feature programmed content.
Office Live, previewed by Microsoft General Manager of Information Worker Services Rajesh Jha, is a set of free and subscription-based services for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
The base-level Office Live lets small businesses sign up for a free domain registration and a free Web site, plus up to five Live Mail accounts with up to 2 Mbytes of storage and free online collaboration to enable ad hoc file sharing a la Groove Networks, code-named Mojo.
The subscription-based service is designed for fuller-function business portals and would enable a company to set up a secure space to communicate with an accountant or among various workgroups, for example.
Microsoft’s top worldwide channel executive said Office Live, due to beta early next year, will jump-start business for a variety of solution providers targeting very small businesses. Some of the foundational Windows Live services demonstrated last week are already in beta, said Allison Watson, vice president of Microsoft’s worldwide partner and small business group. “This will, for the first time, widely open up a segment of the market that has been underserved by technology,” Watson said. She estimates the potential market to be about 5.2 million businesses that run four PCs or fewer and are without servers. "
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