Microsoft has stepped up its new aggressive drive into the South African consumer and cloud space with the imminent local release in the next few months of two key products: its “Azure” cloud platform and its cloud subscription version of Office, Office 365 as well as with the recently released Windows Phone Mango platform.

That was the big news from the opening day of the software maker’s Tech-Ed and Partner Summit 2011 in Durban, which has attracted more than 3 500 technology vendors, developers and executives from across Africa.

Microsoft‘s corporate vice-president Jason Zander said that Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure, is planned for release between March and May 2012. Office 365, which brings cloud productivity to businesses of all sizes, will be commercially available in the first half of 2012, with a trial towards the end of 2011.

“Microsoft has repeatedly made its commitment to the cloud very clear and has made repeated updates to its cloud offerings,” said Zander. “We recently announced several new updates to the Windows Azure platform – which we see as the most comprehensive operating system for Platform-as-a-service – that will help customers create rich applications that enable new business scenarios in the cloud.”

Microsoft SA MD Mteto Nyati said the event would focus on the two broad trends that are shaping the industry and are shaping Microsoft’s strategy: the cloud, both public and private cloud computing, as well as devices.

“You’re going to see a whole bunch of devices of different shapes, sizes, form factors, speeds, usage types. We need a world of devices, and they need to be smart. They need to create data, they need to connect to the cloud,” said Nyati. Nyati also noted all the Apple products in the crowd – and welcomed the competition from the “iThings”.

“The cloud for us is the extension of rich experiences that once began on the desktop or on the server, and it’s making them richer and more interesting to users and more compelling every single day.”

Microsoft has high hopes for Office 365, which it says will bring cloud productivity to businesses of all sizes, particularly smaller businesses without an IT department. The service will be hosted from the Microsoft datacentres in Europe, leveraging the economies of scale present in these large datacentres. Office 365 will have a lot of advantages for small businesses through better license management and cloud based distribution.

“Office 365 is the best of everything we know about productivity, all in a single cloud service,” said Zander. “The power of cloud solutions allows companies to rent computing power, rather than acquire it outright. Microsoft Office 365 is software-as-a-service, a form of cloud computing where business services are presented to the end user in a subscription model.” Customers and partners can visit www.office365.co.za to pre-register for the trial.

Microsoft is muscling into the business communications space with the launch this week of Lync, a new piece of communications software that it says will ultimately replace corporate phone systems.

The software combines voice calling, instant messaging, video conferencing and Web conferencing in a single package – and Microsoft founder Bill Gates has hailed it as “the most important thing to happen to the office worker since the PC came along.”

Lync is the latest version of Office Communications Server, which has been one of the fastest growing solutions at Microsoft, experiencing double-digit growth over the past three years.

“Businesses have been eagerly awaiting a communications solution that brings together a consistent and familiar user experience, and easy administration, authentication and storage for all the different communication channels – including voice and video communications, email, instant messaging, co-authoring, conference calling and presence,” said Microsoft South Africa’s Danie Gordon.

“IT departments are already looking at how Lync enables them evolve their infrastructure to enhance or eliminate their traditional PBX systems with Lync.”

Gordon says Lync meets the toughest enterprise standards, but was built with the way people like to communicate in mind. “Any interaction can now feel like a face-to-face conversation, because it can include video- and audioconferencing, application and desktop sharing, instant messaging and presence, and telephony. Lync works with the applications people already use, so it’s easy to become comfortable with the technology.”

One of the early adopters of Lync in South Africa is Standard Bank, which is evaluating the solution to change the way it communicates, and transform the businesses while saving money.

“Lync 2010 client was very easy to install and was up and running in seconds.  We especially like that it’s a central rich application for all communication needs that follows you regardless of your location,” said Blessing Sibanyoni, Product Manager, Standard Bank of South Africa. “This promises to be an efficiency booster for Standard Bank.”

Standard Bank is in good company: globally, companies like Nikon have experienced a 30% increase in productivity, and plans to bring Lync to all 26 000 of its employees across the world. In addition, Nikon expects to reduce its expenses for hosted audio solutions by more than 50%.

“We want to move away from relying on a specific communication tools, like email,” said Yoshiyasu Iizuka, General Manager of the Information Systems Department at Nikon Corporation. “We need capabilities that free people from the constraints of time and place. Our employees should be able to choose the best communications tools for each scenario they face.”-

Early research by Forrester Consulting suggests significant potential savings in areas like travel costs and improved worker productivity. Gartner has been equally enthusiastic, with Bern Elliot, vice president of research, suggesting the release is “an important step” toward clarifying what the next generation of communication will look like.

Starting today, anyone can download a free trial version of Lync at www.lync.com, and business customers can purchase Lync from December 1.

The rapid consumerisation of technology is fundamentally changing the way businesses procure and use information technology (IT) – and is transforming the entire industry in the process, according to one of Microsoft’s top executives. Speaking at the opening of Tech-Ed Africa 2010 in Durban, Microsoft’s chief technology officer (CTO) of Worldwide Services, Norm Judah, said people increasingly want Monday morning’s technology experience to be the same as their Sunday evening experience, with access to the same data and devices.

“We hear a lot about the cloud, which is effectively the fifth generation of computing,” said Judah. “Fact is, the cloud is dramatically changing the way IT in general is consumed – and this rate of change is accelerating dramatically. The cloud will automate a lot of the cost out of technology, while increasing its agility. If you’re not thinking about the cloud today, why not?” Tech-Ed Africa 2010 is Microsoft’s premier event for IT professionals and developers, and runs from 17-20 October at Durban’s International Conference Centre (ICC). It is being attended by more than 2 500 delegates from across the continent.

At the event, Microsoft will be showing off its much-anticipated Windows Phone 7 Series and controller-free Kinect gaming system – both of which launch in South Africa next month. It will also be highlighting some of its key cloud-based technologies, including its Lync collaboration platform and recent releases like SQL Server 2008 R2 and Office 2010. “I don’t know if we’re always going to be talking about the cloud – that’s a word that might last five or ten years. So the real thing to do today is to capture the dimensions of the thing that we’re betting our company on, and pretty much everybody in the technology industry is betting their companies on,” said Judah. Judah is no stranger to South Africa: he earned his first degree (in electrical engineering) from Wits University before heading abroad in the mid-70s. He has worked for Microsoft for the past 20 years, and has built an impressive reputation as a speaker and a strategic thinker around IT.

Tech-Ed will also feature the announcements of several new and upcoming technologies that Microsoft believes will help enable IT professionals and developers to help their organisations save money and improve efficiencies. “It’s all about ensuring that IT professionals and developers continue to have the platform and technologies to drive maximum value and business results. Getting the most out of IT investments is even more important in today’s economy,” said Nyati.

Apart from Judah, Microsoft has assembled a formidable line-up of local and international speakers for this year’s event, which will include more than 200 in-depth sessions. They include internationally recognised technology expert, bestselling author, and public speaker Michael Noel, and self-confessed geek Lynn Langit, who co-host’s the MSDN Channel 9 geekSpeak series at http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/geekSpeak/. Links to videos, blogs, product downloads, and other information about this year’s event, can be found at www.teched.co.za. If you want news from Africa’s premier technology conference, you can expect it right here on Bandwidth Blog, so stay posted.

Free WiFi for Tech-Ed Africa? You’d better believe it, thanks to an agreement between Microsoft and MTN Business that will effectively see a 50Mbps international pipe being bolted onto the side of Durban’s ICC for the duration of the event later this month.

Tech-Ed Africa 2010, Microsoft’s premier event for IT professionals and developers, runs from 17-20 October at Durban’s iconic International Conference Centre (ICC) – and is expected to attract 2 500 hard-core geeks for three days of in-depth workshops, demos and insights from an array of top local and international speakers.

MTN Business’ participation means users will be able to access websites and applications using the WiFi provided, as well as take part in presentations that will be done using video conferencing. Microsoft will be splitting the connectivity between free browsing and streaming international presentations.

“We’re proud to demonstrate our highly resilient, low latency technology capabilities to such a tech-savvy audience,” said Angela Gahagan, Managing Executive at MTN Business. “We look forward to making their experience at Tech-Ed a fantastic one.”

Tech-Ed delegates will also get the unique opportunity to get hands-on and personal with the two jewels in Microsoft’s consumer crown, the upcoming Windows Phone 7 and the controller-free Kinect gaming system.

Katrien De Graeve, a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft BeLux, will be showcasing the Windows Phone 7 platform for developers. She plans to make her sessions interesting, practical and above all hands-on.

“I want to show all the capabilities of the phone. In these sessions, we will actually build sample applications end-to-end. After all, Tech-Ed is as much about fun as it is about learning,” said De Graeve.

Windows Phone 7 is a completely new offering when compared to Windows Mobile 6.5: the new device offers a music player, social network integration, Xbox Live games, Office applications, as well as the typical e-mail and contacts integration.

The one thing I cant wait to see is Kinect, Microsoft’s new control scheme for Xbox games:

The highly-anticipated Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways, with full body play – no controllers. Microsoft believes the natural, intuitive interface will herald a new era in how people interact with devices in the future.

More details on how to attend the event, as well as links to videos, blogs, product downloads, and other information about this year’s event, can be found at www.teched.co.za. You can also follow the pre-event activities on Twitter on @MicrosoftSA or @TechEd_Africa, using the hashtag #TechEdAfrica.

Expect a lot of updates from TechEd, right here on BandwidthBlog.