Microsoft's SaaS approach is compelling even if it is late in getting to market. Want hosted email? They'll host it and it is guaranteed to be 100% compatible

Microsoft's SaaS approach is compelling even if it is late in getting to market. Want hosted email? They'll host it and it is guaranteed to be 100% compatible with Outlook/Exchange because it is Exchange. Want hosted groupware, etc.? They'll host it. Change your mind and want to host it yourself? Okay, they'll sell you the same software that the hosted solution is running on, to run on your own hardware. I bet they will eventually even help you migrate it onto hardware that you can purchase from them, so that you have nothing to set up. In contrast, none of their competitors have 100% Exchange compatibility because they are not running Exchange. Very few of their competitors let you change your mind and painlessly switch from cloud-hosted to self-hosted and back as you see fit. And, most of their competitors don't have any solution for hybrid systems where self-hosted applications and data are automatically replicated onto the cloud, or where the cloud can be used to incrementally add capacity for applications you are currently hosting yourself.