Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft SharePoint Online released

Microsoft is pushing HARD with the Software + Services strategy, they released yesterday Nov 17, 2008 the Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft SharePoint Online for businesses of all sizes in the United States. Press release here.

Businesses can buy or try the new services at http://www.microsoft.com/online. As part of the Microsoft Online Services product family, Exchange Online and SharePoint Online are available separately or as a suite together with Office Live Meeting for conferencing, Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services and Microsoft Office Communications Online for instant messaging and presence.

Microsoft also outlined its plans to offer new solutions as a part of Microsoft Online Services in the next year. In addition to Office Communications Online, Microsoft is planning to offer a Microsoft Online Services solution that will provide IT management and security capabilities for businesses, enabling IT managers to secure and manage desktops using a Web-based subscription service. These online services will be based on components from existing systems management, identity and security offerings, and will complement Microsoft’s on-premise solutions, as customers begin to adopt cloud-based computing to address specific needs.

The new services are NOT built on the new Windows Azure Platform, but Microsoft is working on porting the new services to Windows Azure. Microsoft Exchange Online and SharePoint Online gives no timeline when customers will be able to host the services in their own data centers, we can just guess this will happen when Microsoft is going to release the new On-Premises Windows Azure.

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