Microsoft Server & Tools chief Satya Nadella says Microsoft will leverage the cloud the same way it leveraged the PC
Cloud computing is widely perceived as a threat to Microsoft, because the maker of Windows and Microsoft Office earns the lion's share of its money selling licenses for packaged software.
But Microsoft's new Server & Tools President, in his first public appearance since taking the top spot, said cloud computing is another opportunity Microsoft can exploit just as it did with the birth of the PC.
Microsoft cloud stumbles: Windows Azure turns 1 in 'anemic' market
"If you look at our history, it's always been about taking an inflection point and being the democratizing force behind," said Satya Nadella, who replaced longtime Microsoft executive Bob Muglia as the Server & Tools chief in February this year.
"At a philosophical level, if you say there is a fundamental change in architecture, we have to embrace it and ride it," Nadella continued, during a 20-minute on-stage discussion Wednesday with Eric Savitz of Forbes at the GigaOM Structure Conference.
Microsoft has always been about "low price and high volume," Nadella also said, making the case that the consumption-based economics of cloud computing fits into Microsoft's sweet spot.
"We're not the ones with high license fees," he said. "I look at this as structurally a very beneficial thing for us. But, sure, we have to innovate."
Windows Azure, Microsoft's platform-as-a-service cloud, opened for business more than a year ago but hasn't gained the adoption seen by Amazon's infrastructure-as-a-service offering or Salesforce's PaaS cloud.
Still, Nadella insisted that Amazon's success can help Microsoft, because Amazon hosts Windows Server instances.
"A good chunk of our Windows business, we do through Amazon," he said.
Going forward, application developers could build services that use Azure for computing and Amazon for storage, and even make calls back to the customer's internal data center, he said.
"My approach would be to partner as broadly as possible with anyone who is in this business," Nadella said.
While Nadella oversees Windows Server and Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud ambitions extend much further with Office 365, a hosted version of Exchange, SharePoint, Lync and Microsoft Office. Office 365 is set to launch out of beta next week, while its predecessor, the BPOS service, suffered an outage just before Nadella took the stage.
Cloud computing is widely perceived as a threat to Microsoft, because the maker of Windows and Microsoft Office earns the lion's share of its money selling licenses for packaged software.
But Microsoft's new Server & Tools President, in his first public appearance since taking the top spot, said cloud computing is another opportunity Microsoft can exploit just as it did with the birth of the PC.
Microsoft cloud stumbles: Windows Azure turns 1 in 'anemic' market
"If you look at our history, it's always been about taking an inflection point and being the democratizing force behind," said Satya Nadella, who replaced longtime Microsoft executive Bob Muglia as the Server & Tools chief in February this year.
"At a philosophical level, if you say there is a fundamental change in architecture, we have to embrace it and ride it," Nadella continued, during a 20-minute on-stage discussion Wednesday with Eric Savitz of Forbes at the GigaOM Structure Conference.
Microsoft has always been about "low price and high volume," Nadella also said, making the case that the consumption-based economics of cloud computing fits into Microsoft's sweet spot.
"We're not the ones with high license fees," he said. "I look at this as structurally a very beneficial thing for us. But, sure, we have to innovate."
Windows Azure, Microsoft's platform-as-a-service cloud, opened for business more than a year ago but hasn't gained the adoption seen by Amazon's infrastructure-as-a-service offering or Salesforce's PaaS cloud.
Still, Nadella insisted that Amazon's success can help Microsoft, because Amazon hosts Windows Server instances.
"A good chunk of our Windows business, we do through Amazon," he said.
Going forward, application developers could build services that use Azure for computing and Amazon for storage, and even make calls back to the customer's internal data center, he said.
"My approach would be to partner as broadly as possible with anyone who is in this business," Nadella said.
While Nadella oversees Windows Server and Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud ambitions extend much further with Office 365, a hosted version of Exchange, SharePoint, Lync and Microsoft Office. Office 365 is set to launch out of beta next week, while its predecessor, the BPOS service, suffered an outage just before Nadella took the stage.
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