Microsoft Launches Online Exchange and Sharepoint

In an attempt to bolster its offerings for the business segment in US, Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced online version of its Exchange and SharePoint products. 

Primarily aimed at business environs, Microsoft’s SharePoint and Exchange entities offer a collaborative platform, which provides remote access to desktop computers, organisation wide e-mailing, document and printer sharing, and backup services, to its clients. 

Despite these commendable offerings, Microsoft would face stiff competition from some of the big players in cloud computing domain, including Amazon, Google, and Salesforce.com, who designed their business models almost wholly around web-based platform. 

Since the beta versions of the hosted services launched in March, the company has supported about half a million subscribers, which includes big names like, Healthcare Solutions LLC and Pitney Bowes, from 18,000 businesses, Microsoft claimed. 

While Exchange lets Windows Mobile powered smartphone users to access their emails, calendar, and contacts remotely, SharePoint allows building shared work spaces for effective file sharing.  

Microsoft purports that the hosted services can save an organisation up to 10 percent on costs, by lowering down the initial investment in managing the in-house infrastructure. 

The services will be available on a monthly charge of between USD 3 and USD 15 per user per month, depending on their requirement of product. The UK version of SharePoint and Exchange will be available early next year.