NaviSite and Microsoft hosted an educational event for Web Design and Development professionals at the very cool Microsoft New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts this past week.  The event, organized by the Microsoft Communications Sector team in collaboration with NaviSite, was extremely well received as a full day of educational sessions and interactive discussions.  The event left the audience with an excellent understanding of the power of the Microsoft Expression Suite and Windows as a Web platform. The majority of attendees were from small and medium sized companies whose business is built with Microsoft developer tools and Websites and Web applications hosted on servers running Windows Server 2008 and SQL 2008.  Represented were Web designers for SMBs, application developers for regional retailers, system integrators, and Web 2.0 companies.

As a hosting provider, it’s always a wonderful thing to have the opportunity to connect with customers at a local level as invaluable insight is gleaned both during the scheduled sessions themselves as well as the informal breakouts that naturally occur during break and meal periods.   Among other things, questions about running PHP on Windows, the MVC Framework on  ASP.NET and Silverlight and BizSpark and WebsiteSpark Hosting surfaced and resulted in rich discussion and lots of excitement.

Sitting in the room, I could see the designers and developers light up at the thought of the next generation of Websites and Web Applications they will be free to create with these and future tools, not to mention the prospect of hosting them on servers at a hosting provider.  It’s sessions like these that foster the ideas that dreams are made of and that find their way into technical specifications and roadmaps, where the real development begins.

Managed Web Hosting providers that connect with local businesses through sponsorship opportunities, social media engagement, or educational seminars truly benefit from the conversations exchanged throughout.  The NaviSite team left the event inspired by the enthusiasm of the participants and the next generation of Web deployments to come.

Today Microsoft announced their latest “Spark” program, specially designed for Web professionals known as WebsiteSpark.  An all inclusive program which includes free leads for our customers, free software and support for the design and development of new Websites, and of course, discounts on licensing for hosting providers.  

The fact that Microsoft will help drive sales leads to our customers is tremendous. Imagine a small Web design agency getting free leads from Microsoft’s numerous demand generation efforts. Web agencies are then able to access the latest Microsoft tool set including Microsoft Expression Web and Studio, Visual Studio 2008, Windows Web Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008.  

Hosting providers in the program, like NaviSite can then provide managed dedicated server and virtual servers with the latest Microsoft stack including Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Now that the Web Platform from Microsoft is simplified with the Web Platform Installer 2.0 and has great support for both ASP.NET and PHP, there is a great chance that an increasing number of Websites will be hosted on a Windows server in our managed hosting data centers.

Eligible Web professionals can get nominated for WebsiteSpark by visiting Microsoft’s Website or a Website Spark Hosting partner.

The first part of Henry’s presentation was about the history of email and the original platforms, technologies and  providers.

Hosted email solutions have been part of hosting packages since the early days of shared hosting back in the mid 1990’s.  In his presentation Henry Weber, VP of Operations, FuseMail, LLC reviewed the different options that hosting companies have when looking to offer email solutions to clients.

With the average shared hosting customer having 3 to 7 mailboxes per domain, email can be an expensive feature to simply “give away”.  Reselling mailboxes on a per employee basis can generate more revenue and be more profitable than simply selling a shared hosting account or dedicated servers.   More importantly yesterday’s POP/IMAP solutions and terrible Linux based Webmail interfaces have functionality gaps and a user experience that is perceived by users and companies as being extremely antiquated.  The days of Horde and SquirrelMail are over.

Henry’s presentation gave a great overview of the alternatives – both in-house hosted by the hosting provider and outsourced and resalable platforms.  Henry shared screenshots, feature overviews and retail price points for different offerings such as SmarterTools, MailSite, BlueTie, Fusemail and Intermedia. 

Henry shared his belief that Webmail is the future of email.  The days of thick clients like Outlook and Thunderbird are coming to an end.  One interface, accessible from everywhere is the method that Google went to market with Gmail and is now a widely accepted method for accessing email.

“APIs” are the future of email according to Henry.  With customization of Webmail interfaces companies and users will get more value out of their Webmail experience than ever before.  With drag and drop email & business process automation for specific folders, there are many new features that are possible once APIs are integrated with the Webmail experience.

Henry referenced some great features that BlueTie have integrated and call “Featuretisements”.  They have a partnership with Orbitz where flights and trips that are created on Orbitz are created in a mashup between BlueTie and Orbitz.  Resellers and BlueTie can share some referral revenue from integrations like this.

In summary, the Email Hosting Trends: Past, Present, and Future, presentation by Henry Weber, VP of Operations, at Fusemail, LLC., was a good overview of powerful email platforms both Linux based and Windows based.

2009 is proving to be the year of the startup.  With the economy providing the stimulus to many an entrepreneur, we are seeing a new wave of customers.

Entrepreneur’s seem to thrive on the “tough economy” and are always looking for ways to “get going” with their dreams and business plans.  (aka “When the tough get going”).  As hosting providers we were traditionally the home for “production” Websites and applications.  With this new wave of customers we are seeing them use our managed dedicated servers and virtual servers to develop, test, iterate, beta and go live with.  Startups are now collaborating with developers and key stakeholders worldwide on servers in our data centers.

The platforms are mature – whether it be ASP.NET, PHP, Ruby on Rails, or Java, it’s now easier than ever for developers to bring their entrepreneurial dreams to the “big screen”.  Even the new environments are designed and highly conducive for hosting services whether it’s Adobe’s AIR, Silverlight or even Facebook and Twitter apps.  The latter are driving the forces of change – almost weekly we are seeing the kind of innovation that we have traditionally seen in longer term cycles.

The opportunity to have rapid exposure through Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets gives every startup a running start.  Programs like Microsoft’s BizSpark, (NaviSite is a BizSpark Network Partner - Hosting) provide the support mechanisms for startups whether they be traditional applications being deployed as a service or new innovations.  It seems that many of the barriers to entry are now gone –and we as hosting providers are here to foster this new world.

This year’s Microsoft Hosting Summit signaled to me the long path that we have been on to get to a point where the Microsoft Web server is not just another platform but a great platform.

Microsoft’s recent campaign and launch of a “Web Platform” takes IIS to the next logical evolution.  After many years of hosting providers struggling to help customers and businesses deploy applications on their Apache or IIS Web servers, Microsoft is now releasing the Microsoft Web Platform Installer (WPI) and Microsoft Web Application Installer (WAI).  These were demonstrated at the Summit and received great reviews. 

Also of interest are unique IIS 7.0 extensions being introduced including Microsoft URL Rewrite, Application Request Routing and the Microsoft IIS Media Pack. With these I believe that the we will see more customer’s request Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7.0 and possibly an end to the comparison between platforms.

The real story here is that clearly Microsoft has been listening to its customers and hosting partners.   While some of these tools are available on the LAMP platform or through other vendors it’s always good to have them as native on the platform. This blog focuses on customers and their use of the technologies we provide them.  With tightening budgets and many fundamental changes in our industry, it’s good to see that Microsoft is doing their part to strengthen our offerings with their recent releases.  NaviSite’s Dedicated Server customers choosing Windows Server 2008 now have a whole new suite of tools to utilize.