I wrote a while back about an invite I received from Microsoft regarding a new private external beta codenamed Albany. They finally revealed exactly what it is, and it sounds sort of interesting from a business angle, though not so much from an end-user point of view.
This morning, Microsoft announced the managed beta for Albany, which is codename for a bundle that includes Office 2007 Home and Student, Windows Live OneCare and supporting online services, such as mail and messaging.
So while its an interesting concept, I already use all of those products individually, which means all I’ll really be evaluating, so far as I can tell, is the process by which they’re delivered. Being that eventually most business models will inevitably morph into a software + services concept, this should be an interesting look at how that will play out.
I’ll be blogging about my experience with the beta, which is expected to be rolled out in the coming days.
