In what may be the world's worst kept secret Microsoft announced today they would like to own the emerging market for Unified Communciations.

According to this article in the Wall Street Journal the evolution of Internet technologies is opening an opportunity for companies such as Microsoft to create a variety of server and desktop software products that are capable of handling voice calls via the internet.

In classic Microsoft-form, they are planning to leverage their massive balance sheet to fund an all out attack to eliminate PBX's from the face of the planet -- but before they strike -- they have been kind enough to offer a partnering program (terms of surrender) to legacy equipment providers such as Ericsson, Mitel, and Nortel.

Now I don't think that PBXs will disappear over night -- but the impact will be felt very quickly.  According to Jeff Raikes a corporate customer with an Enterprise Agrement (EA) will pay approximately $55 per PC to add voice capabilities.  It's likely that many large enterprises with will test V1 of OCS and then deploy fully at V2 or V3 once reliability and scalability have been proven.  I think the combination of Microsoft and Cisco together waging an onslaught means that PBXs will become PBX-tinct in just a few short years.

So here is the multi-billion dollar question...

"How does all of this fit together with Microsoft's bigger SaaS strategy of Software + Services?"

I am not entirely sure -- but I can easily imagine that Microsoft will soon be in the business of reselling carrier bandwidth services into large corporate accounts.  Do you want fench fries with that???

Note to Verizon and AT&T -- be careful when competing to win the inevitable wholesale contract from Microsoft -- you might just get it.