Microsoft WPC: The cloud delivers new markets, customers and responsibilities

Additional revenue sources as well as challenges were highlighted in early keynotes and sessions. Divina Paredes reports from Washington DC

By Divina Paredes, Washington DC | Wednesday, 14 July 2010
A slew of opportunities, coupled with new responsibilities await Microsoft partners, as they deliver new services in the cloud.
This is a key theme emerging in the keynote speakers and presentations at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference held this week in Washington DC.
“The opportunity in the cloud is absolutely clear,” says Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive, as he delivers the keynote speech focusing on the company’s shift to cloud computing.
Ballmer points out the cloud will open up a set of new markets, help customers streamline operations and become more agile. As they take costs out of maintenance, they will invest in new scenarios and applications.
Because of the cloud, we can remove many of those costs and much more of the complexity and enable more of the value add to customers. That is the business value that all IT directors talk about, he says.
At the same time, Ballmer points out when customers entrust their data and operations to us, there need to be assurance on reliability, security and privacy.
Ballmer’s address also focused on Microsoft’s work on new form factors. “The world of tomorrow is smart cloud talking to smart devices,” says Ballmer.
We will push hard smart devices talking to the cloud, he says, as he cites the Windows 7 slate and smart phones.
“We will bring Windows based devices which people will be proud to carry at home and supported by enterprise IT,” says Ballmer. “We want to drive that volume with IT as well as the end consumer,” says Ballmer.
His speech also focused on how cloud enhances social and professional interactions. “There are lots of scenarios we want to pursue where the cloud is important,” he says. “We are trying to bring under IT control the metaphors of interaction,” he says, and this includes applying cloud technology through products like Office and SharePoint that will improve people’s ability to collaborate even outside of their organisation.
The conference also became the platform to introduce Microsoft’s new products in the cloud like the Windows Azure platform appliance and Dallas. Enterprises and service providers deploying the appliance in their datacentres will have the benefits of the cloud services offered by Microsoft, including physical control of location, compliance and data. Its first wave of adopters are Dell, eBay, Fujitsu and HP. Dallas, on the other hand is an information service powered by the Azure platform that provides developers and information workers access to third party premium data set and web services.
Mark Walton, Partner Account Manager – LAR – Microsoft New Zealand, says this provides a great opportunity for ISVs to utilise the Azure platform to take the solutions to market. “If I am an ISV and I want to take that application [to market], I don’t have to worry about investing large sums of money into infrastructure. I would pay as you go. All I need to worry about is to pay for that computing power.”
Bob Muglia, president, Server and Tools Business of Microsoft, says the analogy is that of a cable provider where you subscribe to a service but you control what channels you want to watch.