Microsoft makes SharePoint and Exchange cloud services available to all

Until today, only large companies could get SharePoint or Exchange as an online service available directly from Microsoft. Smaller customers could get hosted Exchange from numerous other suppliers (Intermedia, for example) and hosted SharePoint from numerous others (Apptix, for example) but not from Microsoft. That changed today as Redmond released multitenant versions of Exchange Online and SharePoint Online and took off the restrictions of who it would allow to buy them.

Businesses can buy or try the new services at http://www.microsoft.com/online. Exchange Online and SharePoint Online are available separately or as part of the Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite, which combines them with Office Live Meeting for conferencing, and Microsoft Office Communications Online for instant messaging and presence (however OCO is not yet available for purchase by the public as a stand alone service. CRN reports it is still in beta with anticipated available of next spring.)

Microsoft says that over the past year, it has sold more than a half million seats for Microsoft Online Services, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Office Communications Online. It counts as customers Pitney Bowes, CG Healthcare Solutions, Clean Power Research, Corefino and Fair Isaac. Microsoft further says that more than 7,000 organizations participated in the beta of the service before it was officially announced available as of today.

Microsoft is clearly walking a tight line in releasing this service straight to the public without its channel. Microsoft's partners are a large reason the company has become the success it is today. In July, at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, some of its resellers were angered over the commission structure for BPOS and by Microsoft's announcement that it would step in between the reseller and the customer by taking over billing of customers for online services.

This big brother move is -- and should be -- a scary proposition for both resellers and customers alike. To give you an example of what dealing directly with Microsoft is like, look no further than how it handles new customers signing up for the 30-day trial of BPOS. Microsoft Subnet attempted this today. Fire up the browser page, get stopped and asked for your Windows Live ID. Don't have one? Sign up for one first. Go back to the page. You are asked for business contact details and you are treated to a gigantic typically threatening EULA, which you must accept. Hunt around pressing buttons as Microsoft does not make it at all obvious how to get to a screen that grants access to the trial.

Once that is discovered, you are sent an e-mail (just for fun -- it doesn't do anything but advertise the service you are already trying to try). You are asked to provide a domain name and when it's all said and done -- Microsoft says they will get back to you within 24-hours and to hang tight without access to your trial version until then. It is a fine example of bureaucracy and the kind of experience that will make an SMB think twice about entrusting Microsoft with monthly billing.

But the low fees might still convince them to try. Exchange Online is priced at $10 per user/month, SharePoint Online per user/month is $7.25. Office Communications Server Online will be $2.50 per user/month, and LiveMeeting will be $4.50 per user/month. Microsoft will offer these services in one-year automatically renewing agreements. For pricing details on BPOS and ala carte services, see this chart.

If billing doesn't scare 'em away, the online version of SharePoint in particular could be a big hit, says SharePoint expert and Microsoft Subnet blogger Sue Hanley. She notes that it appears as if both the Standard and Dedicated offerings have a capacity limit on the size of site collections so the service may not work as a full-out intranet replacement. It is however, a good choice for a situations where the ongoing cost of maintenance of hardware is the barrier.

Hanley also notes, "This offering provides even more empowerment to end users because you don't need as much IT infrastructure to run the SharePoint back end, which is great.  However, the really hard part of making SharePoint work in the organization - governance, content management, training, information architecture, etc. is still really hard."

"You still have to figure out a plan for maintaining content because content management is content management in the 'cloud' or on the 'ground' - you still need to do it!," she adds. " There's nothing special about SharePoint as a service that makes this any easier with the exception of the fact that resources can now be focused more on content governance and less on IT infrastructure.  Moreover, there is nothing about SharePoint as a service that makes the paradigm shift from folders to metadata any easier for end users."

Because of these difficulties, SharePoint as a service will remain an opportunity for partners to build custom apps that sit in the cloud, Hanley contends. This is provided that resellers are not turned off by Microsoft's billing arrangements.

Visit the Microsoft Subnet web site for more news, blogs, podcasts. Also see:

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