Microsoft readies new managed services

A number of months back, I speculated on how/when Microsoft would area hosted SharePoint Server, hosted Exchange Serverand hosted Live Communications Server goods. My preferred guess was Microsoft would launch Microsoft-managed variations of those solutions within the late 2007 or later on timeframe.I was amazed to learn these days at Microsoft;s TechEd 2007 present that all of those products are already on the Microsoft cost list. And there are actually some new managed companies within the near-term pipeline about which Microsoft hasn;t gone public, like a Microsoft-managed business-intelligence bundle consisting of SQL Server, Efficiency Stage and SharePoint Server all integrated with each other.Microsoft is taking critically its very own Software+Services strategy and it is developing not only a support to accompany practically each one of its current software goods, but also a managed support implementation of a company, according to Ron Markezich, Microsoft Vice President of Managed Options.Microsoft has talked about its managed-desktop solutions that it has been testing inside Microsoft, in addition to with buyer Energizer Holdings for your previous few of years. Microsoft has said less about the fact that it also has long been piloting Microsoft-hosted Exchange, SharePoint and Live Communications Companies with Energizer and also the only other managed-service customer Microsoft has named publicly (XL Funds).Inside the final quarter, Microsoft signed up two a lot more spending consumers for its managed companies, Markezich mentioned in the course of an interview at Microsoft;s IT pro conference in Orlando on June four. He mentioned neither buyer is yet willing to get named.“We want clients with 5,000 seats and above,” said Markezich. “We started offering these (companies) broadly a year ago, but the sales cycle is fairly long.”In order to participate, clients who want to buy these providers directly from Microsoft must be willing to obtain an Enterprise Agreement license for your associated on-premise software program and then pay a monthly usage fee. Healthcare and pharmaceutical buyers are showing considerable interest, as are consumers who want to migrate off non-Microsoft platforms, Markezich stated.Microsoft is mulling other managed companies, including a managed version of SoftGrid, its application-virtualization product. Microsoft could offer managed SoftGrid as a hosted appliction-distribution support, a desktop-management service or any other amount of ways, Markezich said. Microsoft also is thinking through how it could build a managed thin-client service, either depending on Terminal Providers or one of its virtual-machine items, he added.Enterprise users: Would you be interested in letting Microsoft run and manage any of your current or future solutions?