Property # 1: New Business Opportunities and Responsibilities
New opportunities abound thanks to the ability of the cloud to increase IT capacity and capabilities without having to invest in new infrastructure, personnel or software. New business opportunities generated from cloud computing include software as a service (SaaS) such as the web applications one may purchase at Google Applications, server virtualization offering online storage capabilities, and proactive managed services through Managed Service Providers such as remote network monitoring.
Simply the fact that any business, any small creator can now put content – information, software, a web application – out into the cloud, can create this content in the cloud and have it accessed instantaneously anywhere across the globe through the cloud and can even monetize their content through the cloud through such sites as the App Store from Apple sets the stage for the myriad of possibilities available to the small business man today. Leaders in the industry are also capitalizing on cloud computing. For example, Ballmer announced that the new version of Microsoft Office - to be released this June - has been designed to run in the cloud.
But with these new opportunities and paradigms come new responsibilities to take into consideration. There is now the need to really protect the user, protect their identity, their personal information, their anonymity. In the cloud, a user is susceptible to identity theft and so it is up to the creator to balance their new opportunities with their new responsibilities to both protect their users and create products that are yes, high tech, but also still cost effective and easy to use.
Property # 2: The Cyclical Nature of the Cloud Continuing to Learn and in Turn Helping Users Learn
Ballmer then went on to discuss the fact that the cloud continuously learns from user input, and in turn the cloud binds together all relevant information that it is fed and creates more holistic and comprehensive data for users. Indeed, the relationship between cloud and user is quite symbiotic as well as the definitive form of information sharing.
Ballmer gave us an example with Bing Maps. Currently they are updating the site to incorporate all data integration the cloud is capable of. At its onset, Bing Maps only offered simple mapping requests and driving directions, but now all information that the cloud has ever been fed on one particular location is now available, making Bing Maps a more multifaceted source of information: maps, directions, actual satellite photographs of the location, pinpointed areas of interest, reviews on restaurants, cinema locations and movie times, links to relevant blogs on the area and its resources, all information on every location has now been bound together on Bing Maps for your convenience. So you see as the cloud continues to learn - for example learn more and more about particular locations - it in turn will help users learn more.
To take cloud learning even further, Ballmer went on to discuss the fact that the cloud not only has the capacity to learn about the world, but now has the capacity to learn about you the user as well: what you are interested in based on its accumulated knowledge of you from previous searches and online personal data. To comb through the vast ocean of information online, we first created search engines to aid us in combing through the content. Now we need to take it one step further. Ballmer predicts that within five years time, search engines will not only be able to help you search the cloud for all relevant sites on your topic of search, but will actually help you comb through the articles for the information you are truly searching for. Ballmer gave the example of the Microsoft product One Note, a research tool that gathers information from a variety of sources. Ballmer also mentioned Microsoft’s plans for Excel; eventually they want to see this Office tool operate within the cloud, and based on the cloud’s knowledge of the world, the subject at hand, and of the user, pinpoint the exact information the user is searching for and automatically upload it into the spreadsheet for you.
Property # 3: The Cloud Enhances Your Personal and Professional Interactions
The third property of the cloud is its ability to enhance all of your interactions, business related as well as social. Everyone is familiar with the new social networking sites available on Web 2.0, the most popular of which is Facebook. So, what exactly is Microsoft doing to incorporate cloud computing interactions into its business plan?
Ballmer commented that Microsoft is pushing ahead into the future, and creating software that will allow business interactions to become increasingly virtualized: think along the lines of Skype. The examples Ballmer gave concerned the new version of Office that will simplify cloud communications and Xbox, a division of Microsoft. The Xbox Live game console has joined forces with Sky, a multimedia company located in the United Kingdom. In the U.K., people can virtually watch television with their friends through their game consoles on a virtual couch and can not only watch the same programming together from their respective homes through the cloud, but can also interact with one another though the console very much like a video game and can physically chat through their Xbox wireless headset. Xbox now even has a camera called Natal Vision that you can purchase that will actually recognize you, your appearance, your gestures, and your voice.
Property # 4: As the Cloud Continues to Learn, It Wants Smarter and Smarter Devices
As the cloud continues to learn, it wants smarter and smarter devices: smarter PCs, smarter phones, smarter game consoles, and smarter software. You will note the cycle of symbiosis: as the cloud continues to learn from users, it will continue to help users learn more, and as this pattern continues, devices need to also improve in order to keep up with progress.
So what is Microsoft working on? Once again, Ballmer cited the new Office coming out in June that will utilize the cloud. Ballmer also mentioned the new smart phone series Microsoft is churning out, Windows Phone 7, has been specifically designed for cloud computing. We also see how devices are becoming smarter with the above example of Xbox Live.
Ballmer announced that Microsoft products will really begin to incorporate sensors and cameras, devices that will recognize you, learn about you; these new devices are really going to provide a richer interface between user and cloud through a machine-middleman.
Property # 5: The Cloud Drives Server Advances that in Turn Drive the Cloud
And finally, the fifth property of the cloud: as the cloud continues to learn, and we continue to learn, and as that cycle continues on, and as the need for smarter devices continues to advance, the need for better servers will also continue to grow. As cloud computing continues do advance, we now need advances in server hardware and software to keep up, and as the cloud continues to advance so quickly – learn and change so quickly – we need servers that have the capacity to allow those quick evolutions to occur.
Ballmer actually brought a next generation server from Microsoft to the University of Washington for the seminar, and boasted that it is the equivalent of 10,000 present-day servers. He also mentioned that the latest servers from Microsoft – Windows Azure and SQL Azure – are both cloud-inspired. Ballmer then went on to discuss Microsoft’s vision for these next generation servers and how they will allow for the privatization of clouds, meaning that personalized, private clouds will be the future of cloud computing, saving users the potential security risk of using the public cloud.
Microsoft in the Context of the Cloud
Once again we return to the cyclical and symbiotic relationship of cloud computing: as a major leader of the IT industry, Microsoft fuels the cloud and in turn the cloud fuels Microsoft. Currently, Microsoft employs roughly 40,000 people worldwide, and according to Ballmer 70% of these employees are working on something either entirely cloud-based or at the least cloud-inspired. Ballmer’s prediction is that within one year that percentage will grow to 90%. Microsoft is literally betting their entire business on the cloud, and if a global titan is betting on the cloud, there is no doubt that all chips are in across the industry. The future forecast of information technology? Definitely cloudy.
References
The recorded seminar from March 4, 2010 at the University of Washington in Seattle given by Steve Ballmer.
Image from Microsoft Partner Network.
Hungry for More?
You can watch the entire recorded seminar at the following link.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/cloud/
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