Microsoft’s acquisition of Groove Networks and the installment of Groove founder Ray Ozzie as CTO gives Microsoft a key peer-to-peer technology to enhance its Office applications while bringing the promise of future innovation to workplace technology, IT research and consulting company Gartner said Friday.Once the deal is approved, which is expected to be done by June, Groove will become part of Microsoft’s Information Worker Business unit and will continue to be based out of its Beverly, Mass., InfoWorld.com reported. Gartner said Microsoft has taken a significant creative leap with the acquisition. “This deal, coupled with Microsoft’s real-time collaboration product launch, signifies a greater focus on collaboration than Microsoft has previously shown,” Gartner said in report on its Website. “Microsoft’s vision goes beyond any specific technology, to define how people do work. “Microsoft is promoting empowerment of the information worker and blurring the lines between enterprise and consumer work,” Gartner analysts Betsy Burton, David Mario Smith, and Tom Austin wrote. Attention will now be focused on Microsoft Office as the company positions it to greater advantage. “With a focus on ubiquitous network computing, Microsoft is leveraging Office dominance to encourage users to drive buying deci-sions, without help from IT departments,” Gartner said. “Microsoft views per-sonal knowledge networking (PKN) as a critical marketplace dynamic. Like Office, PKN expands through grass-roots adoption within virtual teams and communities, rather than through systems under IT department control.” Groove’s peer-to-peer collaboration technology gives Microsoft ready-made experience in supporting shared team workspace applications – a relatively weak offering within Microsoft’s SharePoint, Gardner said. Ozzie, Groove’s founder, was the chief architect of IBM’s Lotus Notes and is a leading visionary on collaborative work. Gartner also said Microsoft’s move is also aimed at hurting rival IBM. “Microsoft might be buying Groove to block IBM from buying it,” Gartner said. Microsoft is also facing challenges to reconcile Groove’s peer-to-peer architecture with its won SharePoint Portal and Windows architecture, and must determine how or whether to continue supporting the current Windows SharePoint Services shared workspaces.Microsoft also needs to bring its disjointed collaboration products into a more cohesive workplace offering, Gartner said. Dana Gardner, an analyst with The Yankee Group, said the acquisition is a major plus for small- and medium-size businesses that will see Microsoft Office applications enhanced with peer-to-peer technology without having to pay for upgrades to back end servers and other components.“Microsoft has been investing in its own communication and collaboration technology but for small and medium businesses that rely on Office for their front end business processes, but this (deal) could be a result in a much richer set of services without having to install BizTalk Server or other back end components,” Gardner aid. “A lot of SMBs are reluctant to upgrade unless they really have to. This is a way for them to bring a richer set of functions into SMBs without having to do so.” Technology Industry