Last week Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) opened a new service call WebMatrix, which provides a framework for web developers to select and use open source tools such as Joomla! and WordPress. The service, according to Microsoft, is supposed to make it easier for developers to use these tools by simplifying the integration of various services, coding and database calls. What's not clear to me, however, is why most developers would need a service like this.

For Microsoft, however, the advantages are much clearer says Apoorv Durga, an analyst with Real Story Group. "For Microsoft, it offers some key benefits. It allows them to support an alternative to SharePoint which has had its share of problems specifically for public facing websites, gain some good will in the open source community, target an important SMB segment and a potential to plough some of the deliverables back to its core products." 

Consultant Rob Rose, who is principal at Big Blue Moose, a consultancy focused on content strategy, agrees with Durga's assessment. "This initiative makes a ton of sense to me from a market development perspective--and it all comes down to 'if you can't beat 'em join 'em.' To keep the Microsoft platform viable, they must dance to what the kids are dancing to. And these days, the kids that are focused on websites are dancing to being able to quickly develop sites using open source tools."

But Tony White, principal and founder at Ars Logica, a content management consultancy isn't impressed. As he sees it, Microsoft is trying to do what IBM has done in the past with open source tools, but he doesn't think they're doing it as well.

"Essentially what they want is the same kind of success that IBM has had with similar open source efforts. But there is a key difference between Microsoft and IBM, which is that while IBM is flexible in its approach to integrating with open source CMS projects, it always wraps these integrations with a distinctive, proprietary, value-added layer. Therefore, what customers see is the value of IBM on the outside, along with a quality assurance that IBM has taken good care of the underlying technology, whatever it is."

With Microsoft, however, White isn't so sure they get the same value. "Microsoft, on the other hand, is terribly inflexible at the integration layer, forcing open source projects to comply with their standards. So many of the benefits of open source disappear at Step 1. And unfortunately, Microsoft is not adding the same kind of proprietary value-added layer on the outside, so customers don't get any type of compelling offering from Microsoft + open source as they do from IBM + open source," White explains.

Ultimately, White doesn't see this providing much value for users. "If Microsoft wanted to benefit everyone--users and themselves--they should consider offering a non-Microsoft (or at least not Microsoft-dependent) technology stack with a value-added Microsoft layer. Users would go for that. For now, given a choice between WebMatrix and a Word Press template, go for WordPress."

Durga also warns that these are early days and it remains what he calls an "unsupported and untested product." He suggests that users keep their options open for now.

WebMatrix is certainly an interesting approach by Microsoft, but it still remains to be seen if it will fly with the very community Microsoft is hoping to engage, especially considering it's going after open source users.

For more information:
- see the Microsoft Web Matrix press release

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