Microsoft Still Appears Hesitant On Cloud Computing


Microsoft has put significant development efforts behind Azure, its operating system for cloud computing.

And the company acknowledges that most corporate customers are looking closely at this latest trend sweeping the world of data-center computing.

But the software giant appears hesitant to embrace the transformation and its potential for upending the buy-and-install software business that has fueled its fortunes for more than a decade.

On-premise systems will be here for a long time,” Distinguished Engineer Yousef Khalidi argued on Thursday.

Speaking at the Structure 09 conference in San Francisco, Khalidi said that he wanted to “anchor” the industry’s discussion of cloud.

In general, software applications have to become more cloud-like, he said. But cloud is in its early stages.

“We will see co-existence,” he said. “Not everything will move to the cloud. At least not right away.”

He also suggested options for customers might be limited. Cloud could shakeup the hosting industry, with only a small number of big vendors surviving to operate big public clouds because of the capital cost, he said.

Smaller vendors will offer differentiated services around them.