Office Pro 2010 Key SharePoint The next big 'oper
Countless business pundits have speculated as to whether or not Windows Vista could be the last big-bang release of Windows. (The solution, as Microsoft officials have repeatedly stated, Genuine Office 2010, is no.) I believe they're asking the wrong question. Instead, Office 2007, why not ask whether or not Windows will undoubtedly be the center of Microsoft's universe going forward? Might there some other product/products upon which Microsoft is betting the farm? My favorite question during the Q&A session at the end of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's Convergence conference keynote address on March 14 sounded deceptively simple. I'm paraphrasing, but the questioner asked Ballmer something like this: "With all the hoopla here at the conference around SharePoint Server, Office Pro 2010 Key, is it correct to think of SharePoint as almost like an OS (operating system)"? Bingo. Microsoft officials increasingly are talking up "Software + Services, Microsoft Office Professional 2010," as opposed to "Software as a Service" in explaining Microsoft's future. So how does Microsoft keep the growing family of business services it is introducing tethered to on-premise software? SharePoint Server may be the solution. Not Windows. Not Windows Server. Not Office. SharePoint. Ballmer told the Convergence questioner he was dead-on in his thinking. "SharePoint could be the definitive OS or platform for the middle tier, Windows 7 Ultimate Product Key," Ballmer explained. It is the "missing link" (my words, not his) between personal productivity and line-of-business applications. Ballmer also provided one of the most succinct definitions of SharePoint Server I've heard from any Microsoft exec. SharePoint is just like Office; it's a bunch of point products gathered together into a suite. Although Microsoft is not fond of calling out the six or so servers that comprise Office SharePoint Server, it is a bunch of server apps loosely joined. What are Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Dynamics ERP other than the perfect guinea pigs for Microsoft's attempts to make SharePoint Server the new, must-have platform for its internet business users? Microsoft Home business Solutions (MBS) will be the captive laboratory for Microsoft's Software + Services experiments. Agree? Disagree? Or is SharePoint Server just not on your radar screen (yet)? |
