Microsoft, GoDaddy Bring Office 365 to Small Businesses

GoDaddy has named Microsoft (MSFT)  and its Office 365 service the exclusive provider of small business email and productivity services for its Web hosting and domain provider business.

GoDaddy said small businesses can now leverage three Office 365 offerings, which include two email productivity suites and a unique domain-based email and storage offering called Email Essentials.

"GoDaddy was exploring ways to expand their offerings to include productivity applications as part of their new strategy of making the business of business easy," Microsoft Office Corporate Vice President John Case told Talkin' Cloud in an interview. "After speaking with a number of potential partners, GoDaddy determined that customers valued both desktop productivity and the ability to work anywhere."

Microsoft's partnership with GoDaddy "will help small business owners better run their businesses with a one-stop shop for domain-based email, cloud storage, online video conferencing and more," Case said.

GoDaddy Business Applications SVP Steven Aldrich said the company met with multiple email and productivity service companies that provide open source and proprietary SaaS solutions.

He said that after speaking with all the major players, Microsoft was the only company with a solution that met GoDaddy's criteria.

Case said this isn't the first time GoDaddy and Microsoft have partnered on an offering, adding that the two companies have a history of working together.

"For example, Microsoft distributes GoDaddy domains through its Office 365 offering today," he said.

With regards to Google (GOOG) Apps, Microsoft's largest competitor in the space, Case told Talkin' Cloud that "the vast majority of people and businesses prefer Office."

"Office 365 is Microsoft’s fastest growing commercial product ever," he said. "Only Microsoft offers familiar Office tools in the cloud, respect for file integrity and design when documents are edited by multiple people, and enterprise class security and privacy delivered on the customer’s terms from a company they can trust."

Office 365 from GoDaddy is now available to customers in the United States and Canada.