Microsoft and Google say are entering the business software services space -- with SaaS offerings around advanced eMail, Groupware, Collaboration and Office Applications. Of course that makes sense -- we, along with Gartner ("E-Mail Hosting: Poised for Explosive Growth", Matthew W. Cain, Gartner, Feb 22, 2008), Tier1 and Radicati -- have long predicted this to be an attractive market. SaaS offerings in this space can remove more than 90% of the cost for the user -- giving especially small businesses the opportunity to do more at a low price-point.

You may be one of the many companies that have been building core services for the Internet: Web-Hosting, simple eMail, Internet Access. Your company perhaps has been building a business with millions of customers around offering what's now called Software as a Service. Today these services have become a commodity. To make money these days; upsell opportunities to the existing customer base need to be created, utilizing your core competencies around building and running large scale on-demand data centers. These services need software, either from Microsoft, Google or the Open Source world. Which one should you pick?

ISP's, Telcos, Mobile Carriers, Web Hosters and Service Providers have a lot of experience running OSS - the whole Internet with it's 150 million Web Sites and 1.5 billion eMail accounts is built with it. It made the Internet what it is today.

Should you now play with MS or Google? Only if you want to loose your customers to them - for two different reasons. Microsoft wants to own the Application and the whole stack from Operating System up - and Google wants to own your and your customers' data. In the long run this gives them ownership of your customers. As both are offering these services directly, they are also competition. Any guess who has the pricing power?

Open Source Applications have matured. Many, like ours, are built for SaaS. They fit your DNA as they run on and in the OSS stack and are themselves OSS. We don't want to own you, your data or your application stack, we want to be part of it.

Retain price control, branding, your customers, growth and profit margins by competitive Open Source based SaaS offerings to compete with the folks trying to eat your cake, and have theirs, too!

Check out the attached presentation slides from my pitch at WebhostingDay 2008.