Microsoft - A Cloudy future ahead ?
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2:04 AM |
3 Comments |
A disclaimer, right off the bat - I'm not a big fan of Microsoft. As an end-user, I use Chrome, not IE, Gmail a lot more than Hotmail, and would love to have Ubuntu on my laptop instead of Vista, but have chickened out.
The Good
Having said that, Microsoft must have done some things right over the years (duh, I could've said that without enrolling in IE Business School). For most of us, the first time we used a PC, we used Windows or DOS. Methinks, the best thing the boys in Redmond did was to simplify everything. I still remember the days when people took classes to learn how to operate computers! Now, everything is so intuitive.
The Bad
There's so much to say here! The highlights:-
* Windows is prone to crashing
* PCs kept getting faster, and Windows kept getting slower
* By the time Vista got around, people were fed up with the bloatware
The Ugly
There have been anti-trust issues. But these don't concern me directly as an end-user. So let's pass.
The arch-enemy - Google
More and more of your day-to-day work is going from your laptop onto the internet. Onto the cloud.
This makes them go head-to-head with Google in
* IE vs Chrome
* Hotmail vs Gmail
* MSN messenger vs Gtalk
* MS Office vs Google docs
* Bing vs Google
* Android vs Windows
The money, today?
Currently, Microsoft is getting the bulk of it's money from 2 blockbusters - the Windows operating systems (XP, Vista, 7) and Microsoft Office (2003, 2007, or the new 2010). From licenses.
The money, tomorrow?
In the near future, it'll be selling a service (a subscription). Microsoft will host these applications on their own servers, and the corporations will pay subscription on some sort of a per-user basis. Microsoft calls this Software + Service. The rest of the world, SaaS (software as a service) or Cloud Computing.
If you can buy milk, why go buy the cow? By the way, it's not just Software, you can get IT infrastructure too, as a service.
The new Office 2010 is already available, for free. It can be used to keep all your work 'online'. The cloud-wars have begun !
My $0.02 on the outlook (ok,bad pun!) for Microsoft
* I think the Microsoft of the future will be heavily reliant on the cloud.
* Google currently has a one-size-fits-all approach. All corporations get the same deal, be it a 10-man startup, or a biggie like Cap-Gemini. Microsoft has a more nuanced approach. They have one offering for the 10-man startup (where Microsoft hosts the apps on its servers), and another one for the big ones (can be hosted on the company's servers, and customised). This will be an initial advantage over Google, as their offerings are already tailored to enterprises scale implementations.
For Google, this is proving to be a bit of a challenge.
* And, I'm sticking my neck out here, but I think they're going to be fairly creative, and might finally shed their image of being 2'nd best in everything. If that's tough to imagine, then check out this amazing video clip - Vision 2019.
The Good
Having said that, Microsoft must have done some things right over the years (duh, I could've said that without enrolling in IE Business School). For most of us, the first time we used a PC, we used Windows or DOS. Methinks, the best thing the boys in Redmond did was to simplify everything. I still remember the days when people took classes to learn how to operate computers! Now, everything is so intuitive.The Bad
There's so much to say here! The highlights:-
* Windows is prone to crashing
* PCs kept getting faster, and Windows kept getting slower
* By the time Vista got around, people were fed up with the bloatware
The Ugly
There have been anti-trust issues. But these don't concern me directly as an end-user. So let's pass.
The arch-enemy - Google
More and more of your day-to-day work is going from your laptop onto the internet. Onto the cloud.
This makes them go head-to-head with Google in* IE vs Chrome
* Hotmail vs Gmail
* MSN messenger vs Gtalk
* MS Office vs Google docs
* Bing vs Google
* Android vs Windows
The money, today?
Currently, Microsoft is getting the bulk of it's money from 2 blockbusters - the Windows operating systems (XP, Vista, 7) and Microsoft Office (2003, 2007, or the new 2010). From licenses.
The money, tomorrow?
In the near future, it'll be selling a service (a subscription). Microsoft will host these applications on their own servers, and the corporations will pay subscription on some sort of a per-user basis. Microsoft calls this Software + Service. The rest of the world, SaaS (software as a service) or Cloud Computing.If you can buy milk, why go buy the cow? By the way, it's not just Software, you can get IT infrastructure too, as a service.
The new Office 2010 is already available, for free. It can be used to keep all your work 'online'. The cloud-wars have begun !
My $0.02 on the outlook (ok,bad pun!) for Microsoft
* I think the Microsoft of the future will be heavily reliant on the cloud.
* Google currently has a one-size-fits-all approach. All corporations get the same deal, be it a 10-man startup, or a biggie like Cap-Gemini. Microsoft has a more nuanced approach. They have one offering for the 10-man startup (where Microsoft hosts the apps on its servers), and another one for the big ones (can be hosted on the company's servers, and customised). This will be an initial advantage over Google, as their offerings are already tailored to enterprises scale implementations.
For Google, this is proving to be a bit of a challenge.
* And, I'm sticking my neck out here, but I think they're going to be fairly creative, and might finally shed their image of being 2'nd best in everything. If that's tough to imagine, then check out this amazing video clip - Vision 2019.
Great video. I do think MIcrosoft has pretty cool ideas in the pipeline (Project Natal por example), but the question to me is how they will execute. So far, it has been poor. And Google is catching up.
ReplyDeleteI was last week to a cloud computing session from Google here at ie, so dont miss my blog post on that one (coming soon).
I also think that Microsoft is getting "cloudy" and will get even more in the future. I was not aware about the issues customers have with Google Apps. Thanks for useful link.
ReplyDeleteKaran! you are a great writer. I thoroughly enjoyed your blog. I think microsoft may be going through a bit of the circus industry paralysis. Not to say that they are totally done for and clearly they are looking for new outlets but they are in a bit of a time crunch. That said, I don´t know much about microsoft outside of your blog and mine...haha.
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