For years analysts have criticized Microsoft for being behind the times when it comes to online services and software. But the dominant players in the market like google and Salesforce better not get complacent. Over the course of this fall Microsoft has gone a long way to catching up to some of the initial leaders of cloud computing.
Throughout the last few months Microsoft has been executing a two pronged attack, beefing up it’s online offerings both in the consumer and enterprise worlds. On the consumer front its Windows Live Service is getting a major refresh to add new social networking functions and to increase the storage limit of it’s free online storage, SkyDrive, to a whopping 25 GB. In fact, in general Microsoft has said that it’s hoping to have windows live replace the apps that are generally bundled with a new install of windows for free, giving windows a distinctive cloud based slant.
More impressive though has been Microsoft’s moves into enterprise cloud computing. In an October follow up to last spring’s release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM online, Windows announced their cloud computing solution the Azure Services Platform. Joining competition like Google and Amazon, Microsoft will soon offer a hosted platform where businesses can run and develop mission critical apps in a scalable offsite environment.
The development of Azure points towards Microsoft’s embrace of the Fixed Cost Computing (FCC) model that’s quickly growing in popularity. While some more traditional companies may insist on onsite applications and infrastructure, more and more businesses are willing to put their faith in the cloud. A study by Microsoft found that 65% of small businesses would consider going for a subscription based hosted computing model for apps like email, shared calendaring, or other applications.
This trend toward FCC is likely to benefit small businesses especially, since they’ll be able to get access to the same technology as bigger companies, but without the upfront capital costs of buying it themselves. Already FCC CRM apps like Partner Hosted Microsoft CRM or Salesforce.com have found a strong base in the small business environment. And with most of these small businesses experiencing “tech envy” according to Microsoft’s research, this trend is only likely to accelerate.
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