Glad to see someone willing to cry foul on Mr. Gates, who has had a habit of public data interpretation that is just a bit outside reality....
Given that a SharePoint license for an end-user is included with ("bundled with") the Enterprise CAL, Microsoft would like everyone to think that licenses sold equals seats in use. No, no, no. Those two things are not the same. If I took a guess, I'd pin the real user number in the 5-10 million region. There are NOT 100 million users of SharePoint across the world. As a comparative figure, Microsoft claims that is has licenses for 154 million seats for Exchange Server; that means that two-thirds of Exchange users are also licensed for SharePoint. Licensed, yes, using, no way.Of course, the Gates quote that Sampson refers to could be interpreted a hundred million ways... MOSS? SPPS? WSS? What product(s) are we talking about? How many users are licensed multiple times and multiple ways?
Other reports from the 3800-attendee SharePoint conference provide more data about SharePoint. That data seems to agree with Michael's decision to call the overall number into question.
Information Week reports that "Microsoft SharePoint Sales To Hit $1 Billion In 2008", but there's something just not adding up.
Microsoft said it has now sold more than 100 million SharePoint licenses since launching the product in 2001. Microsoft sold 75 million through the end of 2005 and 25 million more in the last two years -- meaning the suite has enjoyed a compound growth rate in license sales of about 15% over the past two years.The consensus among analysts has been that SharePoint has been seeing rapid, "viral" adoption over the last couple of years. Yet 75 million licenses were sold before that time and only 25 million since. Somewhere here, we're looking at a shelfware market. Or we are looking at a product being bought for pennies on the dollar versus its list price of US$94 for the standard CAL and US$75 for the enterprise CAL.
And then there's the vaporware announcement of the week. ZDNet's All About Microsoft reports, "Microsoft: Storage unification still somewhere out there":
[Gates] said that Microsoft is working towards more closely aligning SQL Server's tables and SharePoint's lists with the next versions of each product (SQL Server 2008 and Office SharePoint Server 14).First announced in 2001, still on track for "out in the future". And SharePoint may be "built on top of SQL Server", but it still requires separate SQL licenses. They never seem to tell you that.
SharePoint, from its inception, has been built on top of SQL Server, Gates said. Microsoft is working to allow other Microsoft applications, like Dynamics CRM, are SQL Server-based, too. Microsoft is moving toward making Active Directory "more of a meta-directory based on SQL Server," as well, he said. However, Exchange still has its own database that uses a different store than SQL Server, Gates admitted.
"Out in the future, Exchange will be built on SQL," Gates said again on March 3. But still no firm timetable or delivery vehicle was mentioned.
Link: Michael Sampson: Lies, Damned Lies, and SharePoint Licenses >
Post a Comment
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Rob Novak http://www.LotusRockStar.com | 3/4/2008 9:08:39 AM
This is one area of differentiation that I think IBM could capitalize on better in its public messages (well besides here, which is pretty public!). IBM Lotus doesn't slide licenses in with other products - for the most part, there's the occasional bundle promo and integration - and count them as "seats". Hence, when an organization makes a decision for Lotus software, they are making a decision to use it based on its merits and capabilities, not necessarily its price point. Even when they do make decisions on price, if it's a professional and complete evaluation IBM has an advantage.
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Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 3/4/2008 9:14:34 AM
Excellent post Ed, the multiple tiers of licensing, and supposed architecture it is mind boggling why customers still listen to Microsoft.
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Sjef Bosman | 3/4/2008 9:45:51 AM
I thought the era of glass beads, trinkets and mirrors was over a long time ago. Don't get annoyed too much, we all know that real gems don't lose their value. Focus on Domino, and let's have some success stories here!
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Mike Robinson http://www.invcs.com | 3/4/2008 10:01:05 AM
@2 you're absolutely right. However I think more credibility would come if IBM promoted a story including BP who has actively seen the nightmare of attempting extend SharePoint to the enterprise. You're also right in that it is a glorified web based file sharing system so tightly integrated into AD it's nearly impossible to get it working right in a cross-domain (even cross-trust) corporate environment, let alone extending it securely to external partners and consumers.
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Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 3/4/2008 10:11:35 AM
@5 - as always actually giving details about the customer would add to the credibility, but unfortunately we did not seek that permission (it actually came out while we were talking to the customer about Sametime in an extranet situation). It's anecdotal, as such you have to decide on it's worth.
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Kevin | 3/4/2008 11:10:56 AM
I love to see this kind of thing just because it helps make my case with partners & customers on why to look at a Lotus solution.
However, just to make sure we're all on the page we think we're on...we need to be sure and clear that IBM isn't counting Notes licenses sold which include integrated Sametime as a Sametime license in use. ; ) In my mind that's what the opposite side would look at.
Perhaps the saddest thing of all in this is how gullable the press is on the whole. They latch onto anything Microsoft says as truth. So many of them strike me as nothing more than tabloid reporters anymore.
That is why it is so nice to see someone else call them out on their creative math. Perhaps their Excel calculation bug bit them when figuring this number.
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tonyo | 3/4/2008 11:55:25 AM
@1 Darren,
I've talked to many customers that have deployed sharepoint for internal and external use on the same farm. Most customers provide 2 ADs - one for internal names, the other for external users with the Sharepoint web server hosted in the DMZ - with the SQL server behind the firewall. We've just released some tools to help customers with the effort as well { Link }
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Jeff Picco | 3/5/2008 11:17:53 AM
@8 - that is what we are planning, just the time frame is debatable still.
Sharepoint has seen a user based demand only rivaled by Outlook lust at the company I work for. So, now we are deploying a solution with out knowing the issue we are trying to solve. I've also spent a lot of time talking with companies where their deployment failed to hopefully make sure we don't make the same mistakes. Keep in mind, most of the companies I'm talking about are over 10k users.
I do think the Quickr team could learn a lot from the other offerings out there. Install MOSS and play with it. There are a few good things about the product (navigation not being one). In fact, play with Alfresco and Community Zero for ideas, as well. We have more users on CZ then any product for cross company sharing of project and document data.
For prod mgmt: Oh, how I long for the option per place to decide for a rigid taxonomy or flexible one with the use of tags and true Wiki syntax support.
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tonyo | 3/5/2008 11:32:18 AM
@9.. Sharepoint CAN suffer the same issues as Notes if it's not managed properly - managed as in deployment and adoption rather than infrastructure. In any collaborative tool, the worst thing you can do it turn it on and make it available. then like many Notes shops, users will create databases, put some stuff in them and forget. I suggest to customers they look for some business problems that are crying out for automation ( like budgeting and forecasting for example) and create a sharepoint template to manage it ( with workflow, security, content types etc)
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Jeff Picco | 3/5/2008 4:16:46 PM
@10 - agreed. The double edged sword of the MS product line is the incredible marketing behind each product. You can create a rock star our of that goofy dog / paper clip thing when you do a search. Simply amazing. Users demand product with out knowing why they need it.
“Out in the future, Exchange will be built on SQL”... no, really? That's the closest they've come to a public roadmap post-Exchange 2007. If anyone believes that will be a simple upgrade let me know, I want you to invest some money in a business venture (one where I scoop up all the cash and do a runner, but you'd be too daft to realise).
As for SharePoint, I've lost count of the times I've been told a customer is using SharePoint but they dismiss it with a wave... it's departmental, it's not being used, we're just sharing a few files. Easy come, easy go.
One important area of collaboration we continue to explore is stretching it beyond the firewall and out to the extended enterprise. The alternative is that you get all this stuff set up and working well internally, but it all falls down and you switch back to the old common denominator (e-mail, with all it's failings) when you deal with external contacts.
My understanding is that SharePoint doesn't extend well beyond the firewall and the corporate directory to which it's tied. I've only met one customer who has attempted that, and they described it as "a nightmare". However, I'm no SharePoint expert so I'll willing take opinions and guidance on that issue.