Most of my readers probably know I’m not very fond of Microsoft. Although, sometimes, an extremely rare thing happens: it’s when the talented people working at Microsoft actually get a chance to create something cool. In this small patch of cool between all the other Microsoft un-coolness is also the idea of making Microsoft Office more Web-capable.
Office 14, the next Desktop Office Suite (coming first half of ‘09), will feature more online power than the previous versions, which had the online capabilities of a dead frog with a 28.8k modem duct-taped to it.
Of course, Office Live Workspace already provided basic collaboration and synchronization for Word, Excel and PowerPoint (I wonder why people still use this piece of fecal matter for presentations), and there’s always Groove, but we still don’t have that for Access and other additional programs. So Gates said that this is about to change in Office 14.
Hooray for those still struggling with Windows, I guess.
InfoPath Services and Groove Services are fine, sure, but who has time to setup a server?
What I’m trying to say here is not that Microsoft should become Google Docs, but that there are easier ways to do it, for people who do not have the money and/or time for investing into servers. That’s what Google does right.
February 18th, 2008 at 10:54
Most people who use Groove in smaller businesses aren’t running their own the Groove server. They use Microsoft’s hosted service. When you trial the Groove client, that is the service that your client runs on. Even larger companies rely on that service. If the business requires more control on server processes, there is a halfway house - they buy Groove Enterprise Services. The server is hosted by Microsoft. Only larger enterprises or those that have the strictest security policies install Groove Server 2007 and they tend to have the resources internally to master that or can afford to hire in specialists.
February 18th, 2008 at 11:31
Very interesting, thanks for sharing :.