Microsoft to sell hosted service subscriptions for $3 a month

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Not an accurate representation

What Microsoft is doing here is offering choice. Their end-customers have a chice of running MSFT software on-premises or acquiring it as a service hosted by partners or acquiring it as a service hosted by Microsoft. Compare that to Google: hosted by Google or nothing.

Regarding partners, this is just a recognition that certain segments will move toward hosted services. Many will not because they want the control of managing apps like Exchange and Sharepoint themselves, within their own datacenters. Microsoft partners will still have plenty of success selling and managing on-premise solutions. For those end-customers who want a hosted model, the partner still makes money on referral from Microsoft. With Google they make nothing. All the money goes to Google.

Regarding pricing, I don't see any price increases here. I see low prices ($3/user/month for mail and $15/user/month for mail + sharepoint + LiveMeeting). That's certainly much less expensive than what an end customer would spend purchasing and managing these types of workloads themselves. They save substantial amounts of money.

Posted by: marksashton   Posted on: 07/08/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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