Date: 2006-05-16 Category: News

Microsoft to focus on software-as-a-service

Software giant Microsoft is to focus on providing more software-as-a-service SaaS for firms, chief executive Steve Ballmer has said.

He reiterated the firm’s drive to place SaaS at the focus of its commercial software business, using its Windows Live and Office Live platform as a spring board for a variety of products.

The company already has a number of services for small business in beta, including hosting, collaborative email and applications for managing employees and customers. Basic editions of the products are currently available for free, with more advanced subscriptions starting at $29.95 a month.

"It is very fair to say that all forms of software will have a very important service component behind them, which brings additional value to the community and new capabilities," said Mr Ballmer, speaking at a Silicon Valley event last Wednesday.

Mr Ballmer also highlighted some of the firm’s other major threats, taking time to discuss areas where the Linux operating system was beginning to encroach on the firm’s revenues.

"We need to have a better high-performance cluster technology that Linux does," he said. "We are hard at work at it. You take a look at what is going on in security appliances, we need better technology. So there are two or three areas where Linux has really developed a position."

He claimed that Linux can still be beaten on "total cost of ownership" – an argument which forms a core part of Microsoft’s anti-open source strategy.

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