2 Questions: Steve Ballmer

BALLMER: The tiny business is a lot like a consumer. A family has four or five members. Maybe they all want one [Web] domain, and they need a common security contact. Whatever we say is good for consumers is probably just as good for a tiny business. Now [companies change]. You might have people who don’t have servers [decide to] put in servers for a variety of reasons. It doesn’t mean the business size has changed, but they have gone from one IT characteristic to another. And you might find people who have a server today decide they don’t want to have a server.

CRN: Will there be any changes to Microsoft’s Small Business Server?

BALLMER: Do I think there’s an opportunity to innovate, engineer a product or product line that has greater capabilities than Small Business Server that lends itself better to the needs of an IT shop with five to 10 guys, plus support from partners? You really have to think about that whole ecosystem. If you only have five guys in an IT shop … there’s not enough of you to run around there to manage this work that’s coming out of partners. So this is an innovation opportunity in the product line and maybe in the service. There are some services that probably make sense in small to midsize companies.

For the full interview, click here.