Amid the expected slowdown in technology spending next year, Microsoft is confident of a few bright spots among end-users, a top executive of the local subsidiary said.
"I think the industry in general is taking it cautiously and that is very similar to how Microsoft is taking it," said Microsoft Philippines managing director Rafael Rollan in an interview with INQUIRER.net.
##CONTINUE##"We are confident that two of our key products -- virtualization and unified communications -- are in a good position to address current requirements of end-users to cut costs," Rollan said when asked about his forecast for 2009.
Microsoft launched Windows Server 2008 in April, along with the latest version of its SQL Server database and other server tools.
The latest version of Windows for servers comes with virtualization technology called Hyper-V, which puts Microsoft in competition with VMware.
Virtualization has been parlayed as a key technology because it allows end-users to consolidate existing servers, thereby reducing the need for more hardware.
Microsoft's Office Communications Server is also available locally. OCS servers as a unified communications platform, integrating voice-telephony, for example, with core Microsoft apps such as Outlook.
"We ourselves have benefited from it, conducting virtual trainings and cutting down on travel expenses," Rollan said. "We are able to save using our own technology and we want to spread that around to our large enterprise customers.”
Asked about target markets, Rollan said locally Microsoft is focusing on three key markets for next year: retail, BPO (business process outsourcing) and public sector.
"Because end-users in these industries are multinational firms, we expect further growth and based on the feedback we get, these will continue to expand next year," he said.
"The key for Microsoft is to grow faster than the PC shipment. Towards the latter half of 2008 we haven't felt the impact yet. But we are preparing ourselves for the downturn next year," Rollan said.
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BY Lawrence Casiraya
Source：INQUIRER.net
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