Forrester has a good piece on SharePoint Online. A solution that will fuel the growth of SharePoint tremendously in the coming years …
When is SharePoint not like SharePoint? When it’s SharePoint Online, part of Microsoft’s recently announced Microsoft Online Services offering. Unlike Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 — a full-blown collaboration platform with collaboration, content management, business intelligence, portal, search, and application development facilities — SharePoint Online offers only basic collaboration capabilities.
That said, SharePoint Online could be perfect for your organization. If your organization is looking for commoditized collaboration and business content management services, then take a close look at SharePoint Online.
Alternatively, if you’re looking to build differentiated solutions for knowledge workers, then consider taking the full MOSS plunge. To assess which offering best fits you, start by mapping your requirements using Forrester’s research on IT archetypes.
Source: SharePoint Shoots For The Cloud
not only is sharepoint not feature extensive, it is also not that easy to implement. it is not “ready to use” and will still require some setting up. this speaks for alternatives like http://www.hyperoffice.com which offer the same collaboration capabilities, plus integrated messaging capabilities (an exchange alternative), and they recently also announced integrated web conferencing solution ( http://www.hypermeeting.com ), AND the product can be put to use right away. I think it offers a afar better option to growing businesses.