SmallBusinessNewz

Michael Risse, the vice president of the Worldwide Small and Midmarket Business Group at Microsoft, wants you to know that he cares.  And that his company does, too.  In a rather lengthy official interview, Risse explored Microsoft's interest in small businesses.

Perhaps the first thing people tied to small businesses should know is that Microsoft isn't trying to remain a passive observer.  Risse stated, "We invest about $6.5 billion annually to address the needs of this market. . . .  So I think the biggest thing we do overall is give SMBs the broadest choice of the right software, on the right timeline, at the right price to best meet their business needs."

Next, Risse named a specific technology that he thinks will benefit small businesses: virtualization.  He noted, "Today many companies run several servers, and each of those servers may be dedicated to running one application, one function, or one workload.  Virtualization enables the consolidation those workloads into one physical server . . . .  By consolidating numerous environments into one physical box, you save power, you save air conditioning, you save IT cost because there's only one machine to administer, and you save, of course, on the number of boxes you have to buy."

And anyone who remains suspicious of the software giant should know one other thing: we've seen a lot of reports about Microsoft conducting layoffs and reorganizations, but none about it raising the prices of small business programs.

Even if Microsoft still isn't a small business's best friend, it's nice to see a big corporation giving a nod to the little guys out there.