Microsoft Business Division Virtual Presskit

Eron Kelly: Moving Microsoft to the Cloud - Past, Present and Future - Eron Kelly, Director of Microsoft's Business Online Services Product Management, discusses the key role that Microsoft Online Services plays in Microsoft's transformation from a software company to an online services company, and provides a sneak peek into the future of Microsoft Online Services. (April 7, 2010)

CIO Summit Keynote Highlight: Giving Customers Choice - Microsoft’s Ron Markezich discusses the three screens of the future: the PC, the TV and the mobile phone. (Feb. 24, 2010)

CIO Summit Keynote Highlight: Announcing New Security, Privacy Enhancements - Microsoft announces a number of enhancements and certifications for Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. (Feb. 24, 2010)

CIO Summit Keynote Highlight: Coming Soon for BPOS - Ron Markezich of Microsoft outlines what’s on the horizon for Microsoft Online Services and Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. (Feb. 24, 2010)

CIO Summit Keynote Highlight: New Dedicated Government Cloud - Microsoft launches an industry first — a new version of a dedicated government cloud offering as part of Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. (Feb. 24, 2010)

Recent Announcements

Industry Buzz

Redmond Magazine on the why the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Arizona upgraded to Exchange 2010. – Jeffery Schwartz, Redmond Magazine (May 27, 2010)

“Capgemini now championing Microsoft BPOS over Google Apps.” – Mary Jo Foley, ZDNet (May 19, 2010)

“What we're seeing today in Google Docs roughly mirrors the DOS-based versions of Word and Excel from the 1980's and early 1990's. This is just not compelling stuff, nor is it a great excuse to consider cloud computing.” – Paul Thurrott, SuperSite for Windows (April 13, 2010)

"A mere 3% was generated from licensing revenues on products like Google Apps and enterprise search products. As far as the enterprise is concerned, despite many highly publicized wins (like Los Angeles and New Zealand), it is clearly a market that still hasn't amounted to much for the search giant." – Julie Bort, Network World (Jan. 21, 2010)

"According to Google, the United States state governments have literally handed over our public data to be held and managed by a private company which has well-publicized partnerships with other governments such as China. The data is physically stored in Google’s buildings, on Google’s servers, managed by Google’s employees. This means Google now controls our government’s access to its own data." – Clint Boulton, eWeek (via Sherri Davidoff of Philosecurity) (Dec. 28, 2009)

"CSC has won a contract to provide IT support for 30,000 employees of the United Kingdom’s postal service that will be using Microsoft’s cloud-based offerings for e-mail, collaboration, and chat. It’s a big win for Microsoft Online, and also shows how outsourcing companies are adapting their businesses to cloud computing." – Mary Hayes Weier, InformationWeek (Nov. 24, 2009)

"We wouldn't ask people to get rid of Microsoft Office and use Google Docs because it is not mature yet." – Dave Girouard, President of Google's enterprise division in Computerworld (Nov. 13, 2009)

"Microsoft currently has the edge in large enterprise accounts. Google spent a lot of PR dollars to promote its recent win of a 35,000-seat account at Rentokil Initial, along with its 30,000-seat contract with City of Los Angeles. Microsoft Online Services is currently scoring much larger wins." – Phil Wainewright, ZDNet (Nov. 4, 2009)

“Through a new partnership with Microsoft, we are able to expand and extend a cloud computing approach to a suite of messaging software packages for the public institutions of the University System of Ohio, as well as to private colleges and universities.” – from “Ohio Takes to the Clouds” op-ed in Campus Technology (Oct. 22, 2009)

"The evolution here isn't, 'Gee, let's do something in the cloud or SaaS' … Our Lotus Notes platform was getting to end of life. The question came up innocently that, given we'll have to spend a lot of money here, is there something we can do that's smarter?" – GlaxoSmithKline's CIO Bill Louv on deciding to move all 115,000 employees worldwide to the online, monthly subscription Exchange Server and SharePoint Server offerings, in InformationWeek (Oct. 10, 2009)

"Still, a new study from Forrester Research suggests that Google's progress will come gradually. … In a survey of 2,001 information workers, only 10 percent of the people using Microsoft Outlook said they would be happy to have their e-mail switched." – Steve Lohr, The New York Times (Oct. 8, 2009)

"While the Office Web Apps are currently only available as a Technical Preview (with a formal beta program to be announced later this year), they're already shaping up to become a formidable challenge to Zoho and Google Docs. … The results are jaw-dropping." – Neil McAllister, InfoWorld (Oct. 7, 2009)

Voices from the Microsoft Business Division

Afie Makinde, the head of Information Technology and Projects for Transcorp, talks about why her company chose Microsoft Online Services and how that decision has positively changed the company. Microsoft Online Services Team Blog (May 17, 2010)
Jonathan Pisarczyk, with Phaeton Automotive, shares his thoughts about why Phaeton Automotive chose Exchange 2010 and how that decision has helped save money and made employees more efficient. Microsoft Exchange Team Blog (May 17, 2010)
Chris Caposella, senior vice president for the Information Worker Product Management Group, spoke with CIO about Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010, Microsoft’s cloud strategy, and how Microsoft’s online products will give workers the tools they need to be productive in today’s business environment. Shane O’Neill, CIO (May 17, 2010)
Chris Caposella, senior vice president for the Information Worker Product Management Group, spoke with VentureBeat about Office’s position against its competitors and his excitement of the upcoming release of Office 2010. Enterprises will stay with Office because they aren’t convinced that Google is making a commitment to Apps, and that the features in Outlook are the most popular within the enterprise. Anthony Ha, VentureBeat (April 9, 2010)
Chris Caposella, senior vice president for the Information Worker Product Management Group, spoke with Ina Fried of CNET about Microsoft’s cloud strategy and about the decisions that IT pros need to make when considering moving their business to the cloud. Ina Fried, CNET (April 8, 2010)
Ron Markezich, corporate vice president of Microsoft Online Services, spoke with CIO’s Shane O’Neill about how a cloud migration can redefine the way a company does its business. Companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Coca-Cola and Aviva are highlighted as customers that have successfully moved onto Microsoft’s Online Services with success. Shane O’Neill, CIO (March 24th, 2010)
Ron Markezich, corporate vice president of Microsoft Online Services, had a question and answer session with Shane O’Neill of CIO Magazine, where they talked about how BPOS is the right choice for enterprises in the cloud, Microsoft’s cloud strategy, and the future of productivity in the cloud. Shane O’Neill, CIO (March 15, 2010)
Kurt DelBene, senior vice president of the Office Business Productivity Group, speaks with InformationWeek about Microsoft’s focused and consistent cloud strategy and how the hybrid model of on-premise and hosted data is successful for enterprise customers. Kurt said that Google’s offerings are confusing and how Microsoft’s solution is right for the enterprise. Doug Henschen, InformationWeek (March 31, 2010)
Chris Capossela, senior vice president, Information Worker Product Management Group, engages in a Q&A regarding the future of Microsoft Office, social media, his personal history and other topics. The article, a part of Eric Lai's "The Grill" series, highlights the many facets of Capossela's life, including his stint as a successful junior tennis player. - Eric Lai, ComputerWorld (Dec. 15, 2009)
Stephen Elop, president, Microsoft Business Division, participated in an Economist-sponsored debate on cloud computing with Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff. - Ludwig Siegele, The Economist (Nov. 20, 2009)
Teresa Carlson, vice president, Microsoft Federal, blogs about security in the cloud and datacenter. Carlson joined Chris Niehaus, lead product manager for Microsoft Federal, for a Q&A with Kim Hart of The Hill's "Hillicon Valley," and the topic is also discussed in a clip from Federal News Radio with Susie Adams, chief technology officer for Microsoft Federal. (Nov. 18, 2009)
Gartner analysts Neil MacDonald and David Mitchell Smith conduct a Gartner Fellows Interview with Ray Ozzie, Microsoft Chief Software Architect, on cloud computing. (Oct. 30, 2009)

Fast Facts on Services from Microsoft Business Division

To date, more than 7,000 partners around the world have joined the Microsoft Partner Program for Microsoft Online Services, making it the most successful partner ecosystem for online business-class services.
Thousands of educational institutions in 86 countries have enrolled in Live@edu.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0/Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online has more than 18,000 customers and more than 900,000 users.
Microsoft Office Live Workspace now has 11 million users sharing, storing, and working together, and Microsoft Office Small Business - the largest commercial services offering at Microsoft - has allowed 2.5 million small businesses to create professional-looking websites to connect with their customers.
Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services (EHS) processes between 2 and 4 billion messages per day.
4 out of 5 Business Productivity Online Suite seats sold to date have come from partners.