SaaS: Microsoft Rolls-out MOSS as a Service

It was back in September of last year that Microsoft first announced that it was going to offer SharePoint (MOSS) as a service (SaaS). When first announced, the offering was available as a limited beta and restricted to organizations with over 5,000 users. We're now onto the next phase and the broader market is being invited to stroll in the fields.

At the recent SharePoint Conference 2008, Gates announced that the hosted services would be opened up to organizations of all sizes, coming to a node near you, so it was said, in the second quarter of this year.

Now considering how well Microsoft has be able to sell the “Be all you can be with SharePoint” dream, this announcement has surely inspired everything from cheers of joy to cynical snickers to shivers of fear.

The online collaboration and content management space is heating up damn fast. And being the nosy CMS'ers that we are, we rung up Tom Rizzo, Redmond's Director of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, to see if he could add a few nuggets of detail to the story.

CMSWire: Why is Microsoft making the move to on-demand solutions for SharePoint at a time when sales for the product are so high?

Tom Rizzo: We are developing hosted services to address partner and customer needs. The biggest reason for the interest is the ability to reach new customers and grow revenue more efficiently. We’ve already seen products like Live Meeting and Exchange Hosted Services fulfill that need and reach additional potential customers. Microsoft Online Services — comprised of hosted versions of SharePoint Server, Exchange Server and Office Communications Server — is a natural extension of this strategy.

Microsoft will continue to innovate and develop products and solutions that adapt to technology trends and meet customer need. Microsoft Online Services is a prime example of Microsoft’s software plus services strategy in action. Microsoft will continue to provide its customers with options in how they manage and access software — whether it’s online, on-premises or both.

CMSWire: There are two versions of the hosted service: Standard and Dedicated. Can you briefly describe the difference and if you expect one to be more utilized than the other?

Tom Rizzo: There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to providing enterprise-class communications and collaborations services — so the benefits in using Microsoft Online Services depends on several factors. Some businesses require communications services that are suited to just a few hundred employees and take little IT management. That’s where services delivered through the web — Exchange Online and SharePoint Online for example — are a good fit. However, the bigger the company, the more the software is expected to scale to help manage a communication and collaboration infrastructure. Microsoft supports those demands as well.

Please see the below table for a comparison of features in the SharePoint Online offerings.

MOSS On Premise vs. SaaS Feature Matrix

CMSWire: Is there integration with MS Office 2007 like there is with an on-premise solution?

Tom Rizzo: Yes. For the standard offering of SharePoint Online, Microsoft will initially offer a subset of the features found in SharePoint Server (see chart above). Over time, the standard offering will reach feature parity with the server features through service updates. The dedicated offering aligns more closely with the features and functionality found in the server software.

The integration with Office is rich. For example, you can open and save to the service using the Office applications. You can synchronize your calendar, tasks, discussions or documents offline with Outlook or Groove. You can even customize your sites with SharePoint Designer.

CMSWire: We've heard there are no customization capabilities now. Is all functionality purely out of the box? When do you expect to provide customization capability?

SaaS: Microsoft Rolls-out MOSS as a Service

\n\nIt was back in September of last year that Microsoft first announced that it was going to offer SharePoint (MOSS) as a service (SaaS). When first announced, the offering was available as a limited beta and restricted to organizations with over 5,000 users. We're now onto the next phase and the broader market is being invited to stroll in the fields.\n\nAt the recent SharePoint Conference 2008, Gates announced that the hosted services would be opened up to organizations of all sizes, coming to a node near you, so it was said, in the second quarter of this year. \n\nNow considering how well Microsoft has be able to sell the \"Be all you can be with SharePoint\" dream, this announcement has surely inspired everything from cheers of joy to cynical snickers to shivers of fear. \n\nThe online collaboration and content management space is heating up damn fast. And being the nosy CMS'ers that we are, we rung up Tom Rizzo, Redmond's Director of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, to see if he could add a few nuggets of detail to the story. \n\n

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