This week I wanted to take the time to reflect on Microsoft and their contribution of us, IT professionals, and the business community. Sure it is quite easy to be a Microsoft basher. I personally have made no secret of my disdain of Windows 8, Windows Phone, and Windows Surface RT. However it becomes too easy to through the baby out with bath water if you will.

There are many pundits who will dismiss a Microsoft centric infrastructure in favor of Android, Google, Open Source and a variety of other consumer devices. I am not one of them. Microsoft clearly brings real value to us, the small business owners of the world. It is unfortunate that Microsoft often fails to communicate this very basic and real message to the public. Microsoft is, and will remain the true visionary of small business and enterprise class of applications and platforms.

Here are my 10 reasons why we still need Microsoft products and services.

1: Microsoft is essentially a business software company, therefore has been and remains committed to developing best of breed software from small businesses to the enterprise. Microsoft products can scale with you.

2: Microsoft is not dependent on advertising revenue to pay the bills. Unlike Google, where you the user are the product. Almost all of Microsoft profits come from its Microsoft Office, and Server and Tools platforms. Looking at the Quarter that ended 9/30/2013. Revenue of 18.53 Billion and net profit 5.24 Billion of which 9.59 Billion came from Windows Server and System center alone.

3: Office 365 vs. Google Apps. I am a former Google Apps customer. I switched because Google Docs now called Google Drive simply did a terrible job with Office documents, especially with fidelity of the documents. The sync tool for Microsoft Outlook never worked properly and seemed to be neglected. The new plans from Microsoft are quite affordable starting as low as $60 per year per user.

4: Windows Server. There are many cases a small inexpensive NAS will work quite well for a very small business. However, a dedicated Windows powered file server is a serious machine for serious business. You can order servers that are meant to run 24 hours a day 7 days a week that can do much more than file storage and print sharing. Servers offer File and Network security, Redundant power supplies, ho swappable components, and generally more scalable. They can also facilitate virus management and centralized backup. Windows Server also makes virtualization easy, as well as things such as windows terminal services available for virtualized desktops.

5: Microsoft has a huge army of professionally certified technicians all over the world. Whether you do business in New Your, London or in a small town, it is generally easy to find a knowledgeable expert close to you to provide service and support. Microsoft themselves provide world class support. This is greatly different than using open source tools, and spending hours poring over self-help forums on web sites.

6: It’s all about productivity. Microsoft Line of business applications such as Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Dynamics GP, SQL Server, and much more. The best part is that Microsoft unifies their products to work seamlessly with Microsoft Office. In other words Microsoft has worked hard on the user experience. It all ties together unlike a mish mash of various open source products or cloud plugin type applications.

7: Microsoft Office. This is the Gold standard by which all other office suites are judged. And although some open source alternatives come close at times, they simply fail to offer the rich capabilities that Microsoft tools have to offer. I have yet to see any open source version of Outlook that worked well if at all. As to this, that a small business can subscribe to Office 365 premium for $ 12.50 per use per month and get full desktop versions of Office, as well as Microsoft Exchange email, Lync for online conferencing, it’s an absolute steal compare to Google Apps for business.

8: Open source can be prohibitively expensive. Although free to download and use, open source software can be full of its own landmines. Not all open source software permits commercial use, or offers any type of meaningful or reliable support. While some free support maybe available, it is mostly self-help. Should you chose open source for business critical services, be prepared to understand support can be a time consuming and often expensive proposition.

9: Microsoft Windows. I have yet to find a leading business application that isn’t written for Windows. Some applications may get ported to Mac, and few if any get ported to Linux. I must say I don’t find the quality of Mac business applications to match the features of their Windows counterparts such as Office Mac or QuickBooks.

10: It’s your business! Business Computing Weekly is a podcast for those that want to start or grow their businesses with technology. It is worth investing in the right tools from the very beginning. Sometimes in the name of saving money, we paint ourselves into a technological corner. We ultimately spend more time, and hard earned money attempting to fix a problem that we ourselves create to save a few dollars. Think about it!