By Benjamin J. Romano, Seattle Times technology reporter
Nearly two years after Microsoft embarked on a companywide transition to a new delivery model for software, its vast and highly profitable Business Division is fleshing out its piece of the puzzle.
The broad strategy being outlined today is based on the idea that software will be used in a variety of settings, spanning applications running on a desktop or server to those delivered to users remotely through the Internet. Microsoft calls it "software plus services."
Microsoft is already marketing several services for consumers and small businesses under its "Live" brand, such as Xbox Live, Windows Live and Office Live.
Now it is introducing new services for businesses under that brand and a new moniker, "Microsoft Online."
These services will make use of the same data centers and technologies Microsoft is building to manage the consumer-focused services, and they could offer the company a more stable source of revenue.
One new service, Office Live Workspace, will let workers remotely store, share and access documents created in Word, Excel and other powerhouse applications.
"It's part of what I would call the fast-follower strategy," said David Smith, an analyst with Gartner. "They can't afford to be too far behind where the leaders in the cloud space are going. ... The one that comes to mind is Google."
Google Apps lets users do the same sorts of things with documents.
Both Office Live Workspace and Google Apps are in testing but open to anyone. They are free to the end user and supported by advertising.
For large businesses, Microsoft will begin aggressively marketing some of its server-software products, such as Exchange, as an online service. That means instead of buying and maintaining the servers and the software to run a corporate e-mail system, companies could choose to pay Microsoft an annual per-user fee to host Exchange in one of its data centers, such as the one in Quincy, Grant County.
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