Gartner recently sat down with Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft, to discuss his vision for cloud computing, and the impact on enterprise computing and the IT industry. Summary follows – click here for full transcript.

Cloud-based computing will fundamentally transform how enterprises procure and consume technology solutions. Vendors such as Microsoft, which rely almost exclusively on revenue from traditional shrink-wrapped software, are threatened by the shift, but must embrace the technological and business model discontinuities. At this critical transition point for Microsoft, and nearly a year after Microsoft publicly disclosed its cloud-computing strategy, Gartner Fellows Neil MacDonald and David Smith met with Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie to talk about how Microsoft and the industry have progressed during the past year, and to look ahead at what's next for cloud computing.

• Ozzie's (and thus, Microsoft's) vision of cloud computing emphasizes hybrid enterprise/cloud computing, where organizations choose when and where computing takes place locally versus in cloud-based infrastructure, and emphasizes that the on-premises and cloud-based solutions work seamlessly together.
• As with early encryption issues, Ozzie believes that security and privacy issues will be addressed as the industry matures in a combination of legislative advances, as well as industry cooperation.
• Ozzie's vision for cloud computing includes system infrastructure, an application platform and finished applications being delivered as a service.
• Microsoft is investing in its own data centers because it must in order to provide its consumer-based services. It believes it is helping to lead the industry in providing innovations in data center architectures.
• Ozzie believes the future of cloud computing is in the experience delivered via a browser across multiple devices — mobile, PC and TV-type screens — which is a vision he refers to as "three screens and a cloud."