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In a recent wide-ranging talk at the University of Washington, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
said that he has bet the company on cloud computing and explained why he thinks the
technology is important.
It’s an amazing thing how the tech industry keeps vooom; pushing forward, pushing forward,
pushing forward. I’m no grand historian of other industries or other technologies,
but they seem to run out of gas at some time and I feel like kind of the tech industry
is the gift that just keeps right on giving. This is the time, it’s the opportunity and
the cloud forms the basis between the microprocessor and the internet we did give the gift that
never stops giving and they’re giving us the cloud today and as I like to say at Microsoft,
for the cloud we’re all in.
Ballmer said that out of the 40,000 Microsoft employees, the majority of them are working
in the cloud.
But about 70% of our folks are doing things that are entirely cloud-based or cloud inspired.
He said that in from a year from now, that number will be 90% and that currently all
Microsoft products are driven by the idea of being connected to the cloud.
The inspiration for what we’re doing now starts with the cloud. And Windows driving
smart devices the cloud really wants. Windows Phone, Xbox we had a chance to see. Bing of
course is a service that was born of the cloud. Windows Azure and Sequel Azure, which are
really the products that succeed Windows Server and Sequel Server start with the cloud as
their design point. Microsoft Office and Exchange and Sharepoint which are the back-end facilities
in that professional set of tools are all really focused in on the cloud today.
Beyond software, Ballmer also described Microsoft's different strategies for creating devices
that connect to cloud-based services saying that the cloud wants smarter devices. With
reporting by Nancy Gohring in Seattle, I’m Nick Barber, IDG News Service.