Microsoft have just announced their purchase of Skype for a whopping $8 billion. Considering that Microsoft, until recently, haven’t had a great history of understanding the demands and swings of internet based services or cloud computing what is it that Microsoft plan for Skype?
There’s a few tempting possibilities for the Microsoft Skype service. Microsoft, as we all know, rule the corporate network space. They have great experience at integration. Their products are highly integrated and if you work the MS way then one password can get you on to your machine, access your data, show your presence to colleagues…you get the idea. They already have a desktop IM and VoIP tool in the form of Microsoft Live Messenger. The problem is that, while MSN is widely used, it’s not great at non-IM stuff, VoIP, video chat etc. It’s not that it’s not very capable it’s just that people don’t choose to use it. Skype is more widely considered the tool of choice and it’s also, rightly or wrongly, considered more secure than Messenger. So with the purchase of Skype MS now have access to a massive pool of interested VoIP users all using a marvellous package, all of which may be interested in other MS services.
The possibility that I’m really interested in however, as an avid Skype user, and working in a Skype based company, is a server based Skype management tool. Skype have a business management portal where you can assign credit, create users and disable users. However what I would love is the ability to log IM chats, record voice calls, block access to and from numbers and users. All the services that you expect from a current non-cloud based VoIP service.
Maybe….one day….perhaps.
