by Simon Quicke14 November 2008
Resellers are starting to sign up for Microsoft’s Software
plus Services approach to hosted services on the back of last month’s clarion
call to the channel from the vendor’s CEO Steve Ballmer.
At a partner conference in London last month Ballmer outlined its
approach to hosted services, which still retains an element of traditional
software sales alongside online elements of the application.
Scott Dodds, general manager of SME and partners group at
Microsoft, said that the initial fears that resellers had over the approach and
the suspicions they had about the ability of Microsoft to promote online
services directly to customers.
“We are getting through the fear, uncertainty and doubt that
Microsoft could be cutting the partner out.
People are starting to sign up to sell those solutions through our datacentres,”
he said.
He added that the interest in hosted services was coming
from mid-market customers down to the small company level and the ability to
pay for software on a more flexible basis was appealing to users keeping a firm
eye on the cash flow.
Since Ballmer spoke in London
the vendor has unveiled its cloud operating system, Azure, and used its recent
developers conference as an opportunity to bang the drum over online services.
