Software Startup on the Cheap? Microsoft Announces BizSpark

I read a post on TechCrunch this morning about Microsoft's newly announced BizSpark program . In a nutshell, Microsoft created BizSpark to help out software startups who are building Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. BizSpark participants get the following benefits for three years from enrollment:

  1. Access to all tools required to build the software solution (Visual Studio, Team Foundation Server). There is no limit to the number of licenses for the development team.
  2. MSDN Premium licenses
  3. Production licenses for Microsoft products required to host the solution (Windows Server, SQL Server, Sharepoint Server, etc.).

To qualify, the company must:

  1. Be privately held
  2. Have existed for less than 3 years
  3. Be recommended by a 'BizSpark Network Partner'
  4. Have less than $1MM in annual revenue
  5. Be building a SaaS solution

There's no question that this program represents significant value to the software startup. It seems to be a concise, less bureaucratic replacement for the Empower ISV program that is already in place (at least for those building SaaS solutions). What is not clear is whether or not the involvement of 'BizSpark Network Partners' necessarily implies some sort of VC involvement early on - a real problem for the team that is attempting to bootstrap themselves. Also, it's clear that Microsoft is not doing this out of some sort of altruistic interest. As several have noted in replies to Arrington's TechCrunch post, free software solutions to build SaaS solutions have existed for several years - although these alternatives are not Microsoft technologies. This solution should have its greatest appeal to those startups who are already familiar with or committed to Microsoft technologies. Developers currently using Ruby, PHP or MySQL aren't suddenly going to drop those tools because of this program.

Nevertheless, I agree with Arrington that this is a brilliant move by Microsoft. Making it easy (and cheap) for developers to build software using Microsoft technologies will only help Microsoft in the long run - even if those startups don't make it big. [Disclosure: I own a few shares of Microsoft stock.] Microsoft has always understood the importance of the development community to their success. This is just one more way to encourage developer familiarity with their products.

I also believe that this program dovetails nicely with Microsoft's direction with cloud computing solution - Windows Azure (read my post on that here ). It will be a natural evolution for companies graduating from the BizSpark program to transition to Azure as a cloud hosting solution for their (hopefully) successful SaaS solutions.

Microsoft is getting its groove back and moving aggressively in this space. Competition is always healthy.

Filed under  //   Cloud Computing   Microsoft   Software Development   Software Startups   Software as a Service   Windows Azure  
Posted November 5, 2008
 

ArsTechnica Weighs in on Windows Azure

Peter Bright posted a nice summary of yesterday's Azure announcement at ArsTechnica. His summary:


Microsoft says that Azure is the result of three years' work. That may be true, but from what we've seen so far, it's still an immature product. MS has the big picture things nailed down, but the actual details—APIs and specific features—are still very much in flux.

It will be interesting to see how this technology matures. Doesn't sound like there's much in Azure for non-Microsoft developers yet - Amazon's EC2 sounds like the better option. Cloud computing is a greenfield; who will manage to grab the most mind share?

Filed under  //   Cloud Computing   Microsoft   Windows Azure  
Posted October 28, 2008
 

Red Dog becomes Windows Azure - Microsoft answers Google and Amazon with its own cloud computing platform

More big news out of Microsoft's PDC. You may have already been tracking Microsoft's Red Dog project. Today, Microsoft has officially renamed Red Dog and released Windows Azure as a Community Technology Preview (CTP). I recently posted that Amazon's EC2 platform has announced beta support for Microsoft Windows and SQL Server. I am excited about Windows Azure because - as a Microsoft shop - we can be somewhat confident that our platform will port more easily to a Microsoft cloud than Amazon's offering. The benefits of cloud computing are several, from lower expenses initially to endless top side. In concept, the potential is huge. And given Azure's tight integration with Visual Studio and technologies we're already familiar with, the learning curve could be easily achievable. Very interesting stuff.

You can read more about Windows Azure on this dedicated Microsoft site.

Here's a longish video that dives into more detail on Azure from a developer perspective.


Filed under  //   Cloud Computing   Microsoft   Red Dog   Software Development   Windows Azure  
Posted October 27, 2008
 

Microsoft Makes Surface SDK Available to PDC Attendees

Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) is going on this week in LA. While I'm not there, some pretty exciting stuff is already trickling out. Today, Robin Waters posted on TechCrunch that Microsoft is making the Surface SDK available to 1200 developers. Robin also linked to this short video that discusses the SDK's scatter control and shows how easy it is to get a simple photo application running on a Surface device. Cool stuff!

Find out more about Surface here.

Watch the video:

Filed under  //   Microsoft   Software Development   Surface  
Posted October 27, 2008