Come together
Microsoft is making much pomp and ceremony over the launch of its first Project 2010 public beta, due to ship in the first half of 2010.
The business project-management platform was unveiled at Microsoft's Project Conference in Phoenix, Arizona and is being touted as "fresh, simple and intuitive" by the firm.
Streamlined down to three versions - Standard, Professional and Project Server 2010 - from a previous four in Office Project 2007, the software now boasts several collaboration features including long awaited web-based project editing functionality.
Microsoft's bundle of joy also purportedly sports such wonders as customisable workflow controls, demand management functionality and user-controlled scheduling, whilst supporting 64-bit systems and removing tiresome ActiveX controls in a move to increase security.
The software is also integrated with the SharePoint Server collaboration platform and the Exchange messaging server, so users can "collaborate". Project Web Access, the web interface to Office Project 2007, won't be available under the new 2010 brand, however.
Not everyone is as excited as Microsoft about the launch, however. "I think what they're going to do is try to be ‘with it' and show some Frankenstein-like app that should be in the cloud, but is simply going to be another nightmare requiring $xxxxx worth of server-side software," an industry insider told HEXUS, adding "But I try to be optimistic."
The bottom line is that although sharing is always nice, these features should have been available a long time ago, and Project 2010 comes across as a somewhat defensive move against cloud-based apps. The lack of Project in the recently announced MS Cloud does raise an eyebrow, but it's highly probable the software will eventually find its way into it, although this will be quite far behind the 8-ball in Microsoft's move to SaaS.
