NTT, Microsoft Join Forces on SaaS

Two of the biggest and most powerful forces in high tech - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) – are working toward collaborating on the creation of new services, including software as a service (SaaS) offers. The news comes just days after Microsoft announced it is ceasing work around its next-generation service development platform, Connected Services Framework.

The effort, if it moves forward (the press release couched the news in terms such as “in discussions” about a “collaboration”), would bring together Microsoft’s applications with NTT’s Next-Generation Network (NGN) and mobile communications-based ICT infrastructure. NTT is working with many partners on the creation of new broadband and ubiquitous services through what it calls its Road to Service Creation Business Group.

"As we enter the age of NGN-based SaaS and cloud computing, we have high expectations that our collaboration will spur the development of powerful applications that make full use of the merits of NGN and produce results that contribute to enhancing the productivity of Japanese businesses and the ICT-driven development of society,” said Noritaka Uji, senior executive vice president at NTT. “We will continue in our efforts to become a Service Creation Business Group through promoting open collaboration with our partners."

The telecom industry in the past few years has been high on the idea of leveraging Web services and IP technology to get new services to market more quickly. But, as it turns out, this whole Telco 2.0 thing is harder than most folks envisioned. One indicator of the challenges on this front is the news that Microsoft, which has been among the IT companies leading the next-generation service delivery platform (SDP) charge, recently pulled the plug on its Connected Services Framework effort.

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