Thread: Why Microsoft really, really, hates the cloud...

This article is a month or so old, but thought it was interesting....

Why this title? Have we not heard from top-level Microsoft officials the praises of Cloud Computing, around their Azure solutions?

This text is anything but an anti-Microsoft pamphlet. It’s an analysis — cold, objective and financial — of the potential impacts of the Cloud Computing Tsunami on the finances of Microsoft.

The Cloud decade has began in 2010; though it will take some time before we are able to visualize all its impacts, we can already see some first results:

The ‘Sale’ sign, put by Microsoft on Office 2010, a product not yet available.
Microsoft has also released the prices for Office 2010 in England, with a 30% price reduction over the 2007 version.
And this is just the beginning …
Almost at the same time, Steve Ballmer gave a one hour long conference at University of Washington, explaining that “Microsoft has over 70% of its developers working on cloud solutions”. In an internal email to Microsoft employees, he said that: “As a part of this, I request that you do the following:

Watch the speech on demand here
Learn more about our cloud offerings and how they relate to our overarching software plus services strategy here (unavailable outside Microsoft network)
Review your commitments to ensure you are landing our vision with customers and partners.“
So, now, you have two opposite views:

Steve Ballmer’s, which explains why Microsoft “loves” the Cloud.
Mine, which explains why Microsoft really hates the Cloud.
More: Microsoft’s revenues threatened by the cloud …

More....

Thanks Dave I'll have a read of the full article a bit later.