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Web 2.0 - the user experience - and its potential to affect or enhance the operation of a hosting business is something touched on regularly among these blogs.

I think it's one the business's most interesting issues because at this point, it's still a matter of theorizing and philosophy.

No doubt, the phrase "Web 2.0" is a business buzzword - so catchy it's begging to be thrown around by people with nothing to say. But it's not a red flag yet. Web 2.0 is young enough in its relevance to Web hosting that its discussion usually demands a bit of originality.

Monday's presentation by Microsoft's director of shared hosting market development John Zanni, "Web 2.0: Microsoft Windows Opportunities for your Hosting Business" was the Microsoft boilerplate. But it was the best kind of boilerplate - the official word from a company that's still just figuring out how to steer the ship through the Web 2.0 waters.

He describes Web 2.0 as the user experience end of the hosting reality described by its brother-buzzword "software as a service." Software is being delivered as a service. Internet users are getting into social networking. SMBs are buying hosted services. This is the new hosting landscape.

Some very big companies, like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and eBay are serving the demand for some of these services very well. Likewise, and conversely, companies that serve some of these needs very well (YouTube, MySpace, etc.) have suddenly become very big companies (in certain cases, of course, they have been acquired by very big companies).

Zanni calls hosting a $15 billion business. But if the scope of that business is expanded to encompass "IT services" (by incorporating hosted services) that market expands to $1.5 trillion. That's a big number. And while it's one I can't break down for you exactly (I just lifted it from a PowerPoint slide. Talk to Microsoft), the point is pretty clear. That's a big enough market for Microsoft, Google and anyone else who wants to take advantage.

For hosting providers, dealing with Web 2.0 is primarily about figuring out how they want to take advantage.

Microsoft's position, according to Zanni, is as a platform developer first and foremost. What the company envisions for hosting is a business of building blocks and attached services. And by designing its platform to be the best platform for hosting those building blocks, Microsoft can position itself to profit from Web 2.0.

A Web host can take Microsoft's tack on a smaller scale (and, Microsoft would prefer, using its platform). You can design your business as a platform for building blocks - services that can be assembled into business solutions. It is no longer enough to be just a provider of technology.