TMCnews Featured Article

Recent reports indicate that Asia’s small-to-midsize businesses (SMBS) are in love with email hosting solution Microsoft (News - Alert) Office 365. In fact, Microsoft boasts a 400 percent growth rate for their products in this particular market. However, it’s not just Asians that are opting for Microsoft’s email hosting solutions over Google’s (News - Alert). Microsoft’s email hosting for universities, Live@edu, recently found a favorable venue in community colleges in Los Angeles.

Google representatives argue that their cloud-solutions are “fundamentally different” from Microsoft’s. Perhaps those fundamental differences are exactly why Asian SMBS and U.S. universities are opting for Microsoft as their email hosting provider over Google. One of the strengths that Microsoft has it that although it is a cloud-based system, the years of experience the company has with desktop services is what gives it a competitive advantage.

Microsoft’s CMO for the Asia Pacific region reveals that, “Prior to Office 365, SMBs were massively underserved, relying on a ‘hodge-podge’ of older solutions that didn’t work together. With Office 365, they can experience the latest in productivity from a familiar and trusted source.”

But, Microsoft’s endeavors in other global markets have not been so successful. Tilburg University in Denmark was supposed to be the first European University to adopt Microsoft’s hosted email services, Live@edu. The university opted to go with domestic email hosts because apparently, Microsoft took too long to get their Office 365 launched. Corno Vroman of Tilburg states in an article featured in Computerworld, “Our transition from Live@edu to Office 365 for education is phased. Exchange Online and Lync Online are available right now, and the complete, integrated suite will be available from June. We want the migration finished before the summer. I'd actually rather go with Office 365, but it's taking too long. Microsoft has been cooperating and trying hard, but we simply can't wait any longer.”

Just today though, an announcement was made from the faculty of the Los Angeles Community College District that they have rejected Google’s offer to serve as their email host, and opted to have their email hosting powered by Microsoft. 250,000 students and faculty are now leveraging Live@edu.