Microsoft's own stalemate is helping push Small Business to the cloud.

A growing trend I've seen develop over the last months are many small businesses moving from SBS to Cloud. Companies are opening their eyes and seeing all of the opportunities of hosting their data verses housing their data in house. When a company thought of SBS they imagined a scaled down enterprise grade environment that would be iron clad. For the most part that vision is true. If you began your business three years ago. A major shift in business is just beginning. The name it carries right now is Cloud Services. If you look at where the curve began you can see where Microsoft failed to get ahead of this curve. Step back ten years ago there where many smoke signals displaying the shift that was going to happen. Palm and Microsoft started a great push in mobile technology that fueled what we have today. Many other players as well such as Nokia and Blackberry. Some of these companies road the lip of a wave too long. As you can see now both companies are surfing close-out waves. Both companies are pointing toward mobile management solutions. This is a trend I personal do not see fading.

I spoke of small business but let me push focus to a large scale environment for a moment. A few years ago Government was tied into the Microsoft ecosystem heavily. If you can understand the scale of equipment and cost it is very obvious this was not only a heavy upfront cost but a high maintenance cost as well. With technology this has been a given. The only way to truly bring this cost down is versatility. Though having active sync and web based access to you data and applications was a possibility it was not a friendly option. During my days of service with the 82nd Airborne I used a Palm i705 to access active directory and exchange while jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Being the second man out of the bird directly behind my commander I had to have all communications up and live before my commander had time to lock and load his weapon. I had purchased the i705 personally. The military had not moved beyond toughbooks for access to email and data at the time. An advantage that I put into the hands of my commander was access to not only battlefield comms but quick and reliable access to email, calendar, and files. Before operations I removed my email account and loaded my commanders, as well as loading any Word, Excel, and Access data files he needed. I quickly saw a need but at the same time I saw a limitation. How could I push this envelope securely and give my commander more information. So I developed an in-house company website housed on a small server that only we had access to at the time. Now my operations data could be put on the internal website, updated, and we had real time data at our finger tips (stylus rather). Again this technology was not abroad in the military. Fast forward to today and you can understand that this vision has been but in play by all aspects of Government. Battlefield commanders have access to non secure data at any point during an operation. Secure data still has a tight lipped channel and solutions that differ and wont be spoke of here. A shift in having direct access to information has began to move from encrypted connections internally to devices that can decrypt the data in your hand remotely. An essential reason why Government can make the shift from a Microsoft environment to a Google Apps environment. Encryption happens at both ends. Devices can be remotely wiped and locked. Something that was available by Microsoft but at a higher cost. Files can be accessed remotely with a simple dropbox account. Workstations can be securely accessed via Remote Desktop Protocol. Anything now can be accessed remotely.

Lets shift back to small business. If anything can be accessed remotely then why fork out a high overhead in equipment for an internal workspace only option. Its understood that access can be granted to SBS servers and data can be remotely available. Equipment can have a heavy upfront cost but factor in maintenance and support and the cost continues to rise. Future development relies on the current equipment to be compatible and well tested. Hard drives fail and the equipment needs proper ventilation and cooling to maintain operations. Now you need to include warranty cost etc. The bill continues to rise for ownership of the equipment. Not to mention backup needs. For years we have thrown a lot of money at this solution that really doesn't fit properly for small business profit gains. The majority do not have in-house I.T. staff to shuffle this task and need 90% of it outsourced. Microsoft has not built directly around this concept and left most of these business needing more and spending more. Small Businesses want to buy iPhones because they can use them for business and personal. Complete an email, respond to a phone call, then shoot a photo or video of their child having fun. Where is the Microsoft equivalent device that fits this business model. Slowly getting out of the crawling phase and trying to run a marathon. Now visualize the documents you have created in that great Office suite you bought. It works well on your computer at work. It displays well, emails, collaborates, and functions great on the workstation in the office. Though can you find a good Microsoft provided option to use it mobile. Not without a third party workup that has minimal options. Without a notebook or netbook you can not recreate the experience properly. Many alternatives are available that is understood. That is why Cloud has become a common Small Business word. If you can not get all of this from the equipment you house then what is your alternative. A hosted option. Even though the hosted option has its own drawbacks and limitations the outcome out weighs the pitfalls.

To conclude: unless Microsoft moves quickly the only shift Microsoft will see in its favor is its own software being used for Enterprise Management. Sitting still and working on an OS that will serve two purposes is not the answer. Microsofts stalemate is not deciding between itself to separate the desktop from the mobile scene.