This is probably one of the most important years from the perspective of Microsoft. A lot of solutions and products are up for a refresh, and if the sources are to be believed- Microsoft is going to take the market by the storm. Microsoft is looking aggressive to gain back the market share right from the enterprise and small & medium businesses to consumer segment.
Looks like in the era of immense volatility and the shortest product lifecycle's ever, the winner will be the one who would quickly adapt the market conditions and give a variety of flavours and offerings. Microsoft is also joining the bandwagon of cloud computing, though in a very systematic manner and is clear of its value proposition. Just like we have witnessed the waves of virtualization, we are about to see the transformation of how organizations will become more open to services like cloud computing.
The question arises here, what is so special this year for Microsoft? The answer is- "everything". Microsoft is busy plugging gaps in market and trying to make an end to end customer portfolio. With Cisco moving towards software and Microsoft moving towards hardware capabilities it was inevitable for them to have a head on clash. Personally I think Microsoft has a clear advantage as far as the organizations see the addition of business value done by IT
1. Windows SystemCenter 2012 and Windows 2012 server with Hyper-V: A direct competition to VMware, with capability of up to 120 virtual instances. Features like advanced orchestration capabilities and operations manager make things quite easy for IT department of any organization.
a. Linux compatible
b. User based identity rather than device based. Seamless collaboration and synchronization with all client devices
c. Advanced ticketing solutions
d. Offload data transfer. 12 times faster than what current data transfer speeds are prevailing
e. Live migration, solving the problem of the downtime.
2. Complete portfolio of XAAS and public, private cloud offerings.
Windows server 2012 will equip the organization to deploy a private cloud, whereas the offering of Azure will allow the organization the gain the advantage of using public cloud for non-critical applications.
3. Office365: It has created quite some buzz in the market precisely because of its flexibility and scalability features. It can be procured with a lot of permutations and combinations to make sure you buy only what you need. Office 365 consists of 4 products within it.
a. Exchange Online: Mailing capabilities
b. Sharepoint online: Collaboration
c. Lync Online: Best feature of the product offering. Attend all the meeting on the go.
d. Office ProPlus.
All these products again come with different flavours within themselves, thereby providing high amount of customization. Considering the fact that this cloud based product is relatively new, surprising news is that one of the pharma giant is one of the early adopters of this
technology. Quite contradictory to the usual trend of IT/ITES being the early adopters of technology vis-a-vis a manufacturing company.
4. Windows 8: Yes, much awaited Windows 8 would be launching on 26th October. It is not only about the amazing user interface and user experience that Microsoft 8 is going to provide you, but they also want you to get accustomed to the tab like interface. Microsoft strongly believes that tablets are not yet fully utilized from the productivity point and are actually a fad in the market. Beauty of Microsoft products is that they have built everything keeping the end user in the centre and created a whole range of productivity solutions, that is a different story whether end user is able to absorb all the offerings or not.
5. Windows 8 phones and Microsoft Surface: All I can say is that I am keenly awaiting for these devices, and without a hint of doubt this would probably be the mother of all years for Microsoft and we will have to wait and watch how does the market react to this range of whole new products and services. Hopefully, we expect it to react in a more positive manner than it reacted during the time when Microsoft had showcased its new logo.
This year probably witness a lot of action in the areas of datacentre consolidation, cloud computing and implementation of mobility capabilities.
About the author:
Tejas Baldev is a MBATech 2012 batch pass out from NMIMS, currently working with Dimension Data as a Client Manager. Dimension Data is a leading ICT solutions company and a part of NTT group, Japan. In free time he tweets at @tejasbaldev, watches serious cinema and listens to Coldplay. He plans to be an entrepreneur one fine day.
