Microsoft Live to Expand to 53 Services
Microsoft Live to Expand to 53 Services
September 3, 2007: Microsoft’s (MS) Live network is currently monstrous in size; this expansion is set to continue with the Live network to hit 53 services according to the MS roadmap.
MS’s latest offering, the Windows Live Skydrive has been causing a stir in the storage world, with maneuverings by Google and MS for dominance. However the real story lies at a deeper level, with MS continuing to release a steady stream of new Windows and Office Live services that will see the portfolio expand to 53 services and further additions not ruled out. MS is hoping the portfolio expansion will “allow people to become more learned or dedicated to internet services” said Harvey Sanchez, Online Services Strategy Manager at Microsoft Australia.
MS has “actually just approved a little matrix of live services” Sanchez said. The Live services push is aimed at synergising the various products together which will see the success of one service boost the take up of the others. While complimentary product positioning isn’t anything new, on such a scale in cloud computing is quite significant. According to Sanchez it is this complimentary element of the live services which is the most important.
The big flashy services such as the MS Skydrive, Groove, Virtual Earth and Live TV grab easy headlines while other services slip under the radar. The Live portfolio has several releases slated for later this year, such as ‘Live@Net’ a specific offering aimed at wireless customers and partners which will enable them to co-brand the Mail, Messenger and Space experience to their end users. Other examples coming this year include Office Live Personal Workspaces which will offer online storage and a place to share files, folders and pictures as part of the Office Live suite.
MS also has around twelve products currently in beta which are slowly snaking their way towards release, ranging from Live Mobile to Live Mail Desktop and Live Barcode. With a portfolio this large it would be a mild understatement to say that MS is positioning itself to take a sizeable chunk of purely online services or ‘cloud computing’ for itself.
The expansion of major cloud computing portfolios such as MS Live and Googles suite of online services is aiming to capture more of a users online time and making your time less about how much time you spend on the world wide web, and more about how much time you spend on that companies services for the web. According to Sanchez, surfing the web is important for everybody, though it is the ability to utilise the web in a much more effective way that is important.