Microsoft is “All In” the Cloud

Those of you who know me know that for over two years I have been a strong believer in the Cloud in general and of Microsoft's Windows Azure Cloud Platform in particular.  I am a strong believer in the Microsoft Software Plus Services (S+S) philosophy that the best way to build modern applications is to leverage the best of both the Microsoft on-premise Windows Server Platform stack and the Windows Azure Platform stack that runs in the Cloud.

I am also a big believer in the Three Screens and a Cloud vision of device convergence of computers, phones and television sets using the Cloud to make it all happen.

Now I feel like the rest of Microsoft has caught up with me.

At the University of Washington yesterday Steve Ballmer gave a rousing speech on Microsoft’s commitment to the Cloud. Declaring that we are “All In” the cloud Steve went on to discuss how twenty million businesses and over a billion people use Microsoft cloud services today. He emphasized that we and our partners are committed to delivering a broad set of enterprise ready products and design services that build on what you already know.

Concurrent with the speech he announced the launch of a new web site: https://www.microsoft.com/cloud/. The video of Steve’s speech is posted at that site. You will also find lots of information on Microsoft’s positioning on the Cloud and how we are making nearly all of our products available via the Cloud.

We are living in very interesting times.

Bill

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