[quote]
Microsoft is making a substantial move to the cloud with Office365 — think Exchange and Word, but only existing in the cloud — whose open beta was just launched worldwide earlier this week.
In a press conference in Singapore yesterday, Microsoft announced that they would be launching Office365 beta for business customers in Singapore through telco StarHub.
As a syndication partner, StarHub is responsible for guaranteeing service quality to business customers locally through SLAs, for example, up to 99.99 percent network uptime.
Microsoft’s COO Kevin Turner said that details are still being worked out with StarHub, but a “financially backed SLA is definitely part of the offering.”
Thus far, Microsoft has already signed up 230 local SMB and enterprise customers, said Jessica Tan, managing director for Microsoft Singapore. Notable names include Singapore Airport Terminal Services, who is currently trying out the Office 365 beta.
The final costing details are still being worked out with StarHub, but could go down to as low as S$8 per user per month, depending on application, said Jessica.
Microsoft’s COO Kevin believes that the cloud market is here to stay: “The cloud market is huge. Clearly, a technology inflection point has been reached and it will last a while.”
He also believes that the Office365 offering puts them in a more competitive position vs. competitors and made a barb at IBM: “This year, we will displace 5 million seats from IBM Lotus Notes worldwide.”
Microsoft vs. Google
But of course, the elephant in the room that was not mentioned is the one company that forced Microsoft and others like IBM to move to a cloud-based model for productivity tools: Google.
Google launched a partnership with SingTel (ONEOffice) to sell their Google Apps last year in April 2010 here in Singapore.
Thus it’s not surprising that Microsoft is working with StarHub, the other big telco here, on its Office365 offering.
From a technical perspective, Microsoft is running their own datacenter here that hosts Office365, and StarHub guarantees the last mile connectivity, be it wired or wireless.
According to Microsoft, Office 365 will work on all mobile platforms and tablets. Of course, it will work best on Windows Phone 7 (WP7) and Nokia Symbian devices (whom Microsoft has a partnership with), but they will ensure that it will work on any device that can browse HTML, said Microsoft.
This partnership with StarHub is not an exclusive one, conceded Microsoft when queried. However StarHub’s COO Tan Tong Hai said that as a “preferred partner”, their network capabilities and SMB channels made them a “good fit” for Microsoft.[/quote]
[url=http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/04/20/microsoft-launches-office365-open-beta-with-starhub/]Source[/url]
[url=http://www.microsoft.com/en-sg/office365/online-software.aspx] Beta Link [/url]
Seems interesting, I'll try it out.
So it's Google Docs, but from Microsoft.
Great. Remind me again why Microsoft has a physiological need to be in literally every nook and cranny of the market?
Microsoft, stop trying to be Google.
I don't feel comfortable with any company holding my documents, whether they're for private eyes or not. That's why I hate "Cloud Computing"
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;29327393]So it's Google Docs, but from Microsoft.
Great. Remind me again why Microsoft has a physiological need to be in literally every nook and cranny of the market?[/QUOTE]
...because people bitch and whine when Microsoft ignores a "financial opportunity".:colbert:
[QUOTE=VengfulSoldier;29328525]...because people bitch and whine when Microsoft ignores a "financial opportunity".:colbert:[/QUOTE]
I know I wouldn't :colbert:
I've seen a lot of adverts about the 'cloud' and read a lot about it.
But like, I've never seen it, how do I access the 'cloud'? Is it a microsoft application? Where do I get it? Do I download it? Where can I download it FROM? Is it installed in the windows 7 OS by default? how do I access it?
Like seriously, they talk about it a lot, but I've never seen it ever.
You know why they call it Office365? Because when you see it you'll turn 365 degrees and walk away.
:smug:
[QUOTE=The golden;29329920]I may be totally wrong, but I think "Cloud" is a term used to describe software that is accessible purely online.[/QUOTE]
what they want to store documents PURELY ONLINE WITH NO BACKUPS ARE THEY INSANE
WHY WOULD ANY ONE WANT TO DO THIS
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;29327393]So it's Google Docs, but from Microsoft.
Great. Remind me again why Microsoft has a physiological need to be in literally every nook and cranny of the market?[/QUOTE]
Because Google Docs isn't all that great.
Holy shit, it looked like my name was on the title :v:
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