Microsoft is applauding Software as Services as a mush-have asset for business customers, with a special emphasis placed on small businesses. Essentially, the software giant is pointing SMBs to the Cloud. And fact is that the Redmond company is more than ready to accommodate customers looking to embrace the Cloud with its offerings. While the Windows Azure Cloud operating system is yet to be finalized, the software giant's Microsoft Online collection of services are up and running and available worldwide to potential clients in no less than 19 markets.

“The ability to run software on the premises, from the cloud, or more often a combination of the two — what we call “software plus services” — and be operational without having to make a significant upfront investment, is obviously very attractive for SMBs in particular,” revealed Eduardo Rosini, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners organization.

The Redmond company indicated that online services rather than on-premise solutions were a way for small businesses to survive the global economic downturn. SMBs are traditionally the first to feel the impact of the financial crisis, but also the first on the way to recovery. The Cloud could in fact catalyze recovery, if for no other reason than for the consistent cost advantages it is offering.

“For example, with the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, SMBs can set up e-mail, collaboration tools, communication tools, Exchange, SharePoint and Office Live services — all for $15 a month per employee in the U.S. For a business with 200 employees, your monthly expense for those services would be around $3,000. And that’s all,” Rosini stated.

However, Microsoft is itself struggling to attract customers to its Cloud offerings. Long-time users of on-premise solutions have strong concerns related to security, reliability and data control. Microsoft Online's customers only number in the thousands, for the time being as adoption is slow, despite the financial crisis pushing companies to joggle around with resources.

“In the past, you had to set up your datacenter, your servers — basically a six figure upfront investment to get up and running. So the economics of software plus services are hugely favorable. Any size company can benefit from this approach, but for a small business that hasn’t invested in its own datacenters and doesn’t want to make that investment right now, software plus services is a good solution,” Rosini added.

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