Microsoft’s Software plus Services strategy is in no way limited to the private sector. In fact, the Seventh Annual Public Sector CIO Summit was the stage where the Redmond company found fertile soil to stress the need for governments to evolve to Government 2.0. Over 300 technology leaders from educational and governmental organizations attended Microsoft’s Seventh Annual Public Sector CIO Summit, and had a chance to tap the company's vision involving the role information technology can play in cutting costs and boosting impact.

“In today’s uncertain environment, public sector CIOs are looking at technology as a key enabler to make their organizations more efficient and effective, while at the same time improving transparency and collaboration,” revealed Curt Kolcun, vice president of Microsoft U.S. Public Sector. “This summit provides an opportunity for our customers to share best practices with their peers while envisioning how technology can accelerate the promise of Gov 2.0 and improve 21st century learning.”

The software giant pointed to the Cloud as the natural way to Government 2.0. An in this context, the city of Carlsbad served as an illustrative example. Carlsbad has tapped the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite instead of traditional, desktop-centric collaboration and e-mail solutions. Microsoft emphasized that the hosted email solution came with a range of facilities including filtering, and compliance features, but also backup functionality and 24/7 support. Via the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, Carlsbad now has access to a variety of examples of Microsoft technologies including: Exchange Server, Exchange ActiveSync, SharePoint Products and Technologies, Windows Messenger and Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

“As we prepared to migrate e-mail systems it was the perfect time to ask the question of whether someone else could build, manage and support a collaboration environment as well as or better and for a lower cost than internal IT staff” explained Gordon Peterson, director of information technology for the city of Carlsbad. The city found Microsoft’s solution to be cost-effective and considered that it met its security and best practice requirements with the additional benefit of round-the-clock e-mail support.