Sort of…
Office Live Workspace is in beta release now. Unlike Google apps it isn’t a truly online collaboration package, more a service to allow central storage and document sharing between users. It seems they’ve gone down to distinct lines – full functionality offline and cut down functionality (a la Google apps or less) online. So it’s more of a roaming access solution than a collaborative offering per se.
David Berlind reviews the offering in detail and concludes that the cut down functionality is a strategic decision taken by MS to assess the hosted productivity space and react as things develop.
My read is that this is a hedge-your-bets move by MS and quite smart – from here they can either move to a completely hosted suite, or develop parallel offerings on and offline.
Ben Kepes is an analyst, an entrepreneur, a commentator and a business adviser. His business interests include a diverse range of industries from manufacturing to property to technology. As a technology commentator he has a broad presence both in the traditional media and extensively online. Ben covers the convergance of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users. 