In the last day Microsoft have shelled out a reported £5B to purchase Skype from an investment company and ebay (who still owned around 35%). There has been a lot of buzz on the internet about this purchase: Why have they done it? Have they paid too much? Are they going to ruin Skype?

At the moment no one knows the answers to these questions but I personally think this is quite a good purchase, as long as they can integrate this into the rest of the product range.

So let’s look at why they’ve done it:
Now they have access to 700 million users; obtained a great technology; and are now the market leader in VoIP.

In one foul swoop they have jumped ahead of Apple and Google in consumer internet telephony and video conferencing, plus kept it out of the hands of Facebook. The interesting thing is that Skype is the only truly platform agnostic offering, in that it runs all major desktop systems as well as nearly all mobile phones, which is something Apple and Google can’t claim yet.

Have they paid too much?
It is hard to say if they have paid too much or not, my feeling is yes but if it helps them gain ground in the consumer market, which is something they are striving for (this is why Apple has done so well), then it could be money well spent. The issue Microsoft had was that they were bidding against other companies with pretty deep pockets and they probably needed/wanted Skype more than the others.

Will Microsoft ruin Skype??
I don’t think they will ruin Skype, they’ve paid too much to allow it to wither and die. I think they will wait for a while, take stock of their acquisition and look for ways to integrate it into their other products. XBOX live is ripe for integration as is the Microsoft Office platform, there is also the possibility of aligning it with - or replacing - Live Messenger. (That said I wouldn’t want to be responsible for integrating those platforms together.)

Overall I think this is a good move for Microsoft and quite a brave one, time will tell to see if it is a wise one.

Microsoft, yesterday announced an upgrade and rebranding of its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) of cloud services, bringing its hosted Exchange Online and SharePoint Online offerings together with the cloud version of the recently renamed Lync communications platform (previously known as Office Communications Server).

The package also includes support for Office Web Apps and licensing for the Office desktop suite. The beta programme includes small business and enterprise editions. Office 365 replaces the existing BPOS tools, Office Live Small Business and Live Education platforms.

The new Exchange Online is based on Exchange 2010, and like its on-premises sibling gives you access to new scheduling features, along with MailTips for handling out-of-office messages and other common tasks.

Users will get 25GB of storage with each Exchange Online account, and the service will also allow sending attachments as large as 25MB. It’s also set up with antispam and antivirus tools, helping protect your network.

Like SharePoint 2010, SharePoint Online supports social features, and can also be used to manage a secure extranet for working with partners. As it’s the latest version of SharePoint, it’s also a host for Office Web Apps, giving Office 365 both an online editor for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, and support for collaboration using the desktop versions of the tools.

Microsoft Office 365 is going to be provided on a per-user license – it will also enable businesses to host websites on the SharePoint online services. You’ll be able to sign up directly on the site, or you’ll be able to purchase a subscription (along with support services) from a Microsoft partner.

Pricing for the UK has yet to be announced, but the US service will have plans ranging from $2 to $27 per user per month, with the more expensive plans including access to the desktop Office suite, and the basic plans just offering web access to email.

Microsoft is also offering a range of plans for what it’s calling ‘kiosk’ workers — that is, workers without a dedicated computer. Kiosk workers will work with Office 365 using their browser, with Outlook Web Apps for email and the Office Web Apps for working with documents.

Small businesses get free access to the cloud service for 30 days, with a $6 per user per month charge after that.

So overall it seems a step in the right direction for Microsoft being able to leasea functional cloud based system to commercial and public sector. Microsoft are only currently offering Windows Live which is limited in ways – but I must say I really do like 365 and looking forward to its introduction. What I would love to know is will 365 intergrate with Windows Mobile 7? Stay tuned for an update on prices and a release date for the UK.

You might be thinking what is SharePoint? It is a company intranet technology, written and expandable using Microsoft .Net; in layman’s terms it is a place to store company information in the form of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, all standard document formats, providing simple ways to share information, manage version control, blogs, wiki’s and a whole lot more.

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Google Aps is simply not an enterprise level suite of applications yet. (It may well get there but isnt even close yet)

Firstly it is still in Beta testing mode – this means you have no service level agreement with Google. They can take the whole system down without warning, meaning guess what…..none of your staff can work! They also state in the terms and conditions when you signup that they cannot guarantee the safety of your data and are free to use your data for marketing purposes if they please. Brilliant!

Once you are in, you’re locked in - People for years have complained that they are locked into Microsoft’s software stack. Well if you start using Google Apps you’re now in a similar situation! Any smart company should put in place a plan for the future. What if you come to realise you didn’t want to host your application on the Google App Engine anymore? Good luck, almost everything you are given access to is proprietary — that means all your data is locked into a format that isn’t like a traditional relational database. This could turn into a disaster for your business if you rely on a custom built app.

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