[photo credit: NY Times]
I enjoyed Bobbie Johnson’s piece in The Guardian yesterday about cloud computing and Microsoft’s lack of strategy here. Well, lack of visible strategy I would say and though Bobbie goes down the Yahoo route to look for answers, that’s a bit of a red herring in my opinion. Sure, Yahoo would be a part of a cloud strategy but I don’t think it’s the natural answer to where Bobbie is looking what we’re doing relative to Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine. For that I’m surprised Bobbie didn’t venture in to looking at Live Mesh which has been big news this last week and holds some of the answers as Jack Schofield noted. I say some, because more of this will come to light at the PDC this year. Live Mesh as a platform is an important part of this story but there are other pieces too.
Take a look at our datacenter rollout. This has gotten more publicity recently and if you think of cloud computing, it’s a good place to look. The FT holds some clues. A $500m investment in a Dublin datacenter and several others of similar size in the US runs contrary to lack of investment Bobbie talks of.
What is different here though (and Bobbie has the clue in his piece) is the propaganda war. Lets call it “the Ozzie factor”.
In the past, Microsoft would have gotten out in front of this stuff much more and talked about our plans with excitement and chest beating. I think we’ve learnt from that approach and seem to err more on the side of talking when we have something ready to talk about. It’s very much the Ozzie way. Go to the Wharton interview and search for the word criticism. Then read on. You’ll see what I mean.
Despite this approach, lots of pieces of the cloud jigsaw are out there – in fact I laid out some of the pieces last week. Those with a keen eye beyond the gratuitous Yahoo angle will see that Ray has been doing the same for over 2 years now.
If you’re prepared to do a little more than take a cursory glance, the story is out there.
Thanks for the comments, Steve.
My flip response: if Microsoft's cloud strategy is a jigsaw, then we can all look at a a handful of pieces and guess what the picture's going to be. But it's a lot easier if you've got the box.
More detailed response: As I pointed out to you on Twitter (not sure if you saw) the article was actually written last week, and before Mesh was announced. My bad luck, really, that in the day between going to the printers and hitting the streets Ray unveils the strategy (that's newspapers for you, I just have to take the lumps come that way... ).
Yes, the investment's going into data centres and so on. But, forgive me if I'm wrong here, but I'm still not seeing a cloud strategy that makes Microsoft *part of the web* - I'm seeing one that lets people use Microsoft to synchronise and share documents.
That's fine and perfectly sensible if you're pushing an Office strategy online. Does it make you an irreplaceable service that's part of the architecture of the internet? That's still open to debate.
You assume that people believe there is a strategy, but it's just not talked about yet. They don't.
After allowing IE to languish for years, only to realize their mistake (too late), launching Windows Live without any coherent strategy (talked about or not), and then scrambling to make sense of it after the fact, and numerous other stumbles and gaffes, Microsoft has dug itself quite a hole.
The problem now is that MS believes that once they are ready to talk, the world will stop and pay attention. Afraid that's not how it's playing out. The world is moving on, Microsoft is late, and even though they are innovating and cleaning up their messes, damage has been done.
Microsoft needs to open up, to proactively talk about its plans, to become radically transparent about the role it can play in the next generation of software and services.
A visible strategy is the only strategy that counts.
Hi Bobbie - I didn't get the Twitter response. Chewed by Twitter perhaps?
With respect to the flip response, yep it's much easier from where I sit but is there any fun for you guys in being handed a completed jigsaw? I suspect not :)
I should have realised that the print deadlines may have meant you couldn't include Mesh. Therein is the power of the web though - an appended version on the website maybe?
As for the strategy that makes Microsoft a part of the Web, Live Mesh is a big part of that but you need to look beyond the sync of files and documents hence my underlining of the word platform in my post. it's much more than Office online and given we've shown a Mac client for Mesh already I'd argue it's a remarkably open effort.Think beyond documents and think devices and also developers. I think that's where much of the story is.
As I've said though, Mesh is easier to understand when seen rather than talked about so perhaps I could drop by sometime and show you.
Kip
respectfully, I disagree.
Whilst it would make sense to come out and promise the world I believe we've suffered from doing that in the past. At the PDC, will be talk much more openly but when we have something to give to you and something to show. I don't think anyone wants more hollow promises. Besides, if we laid out the whole thing what would happen to all that great LiveSide insight and intrigue ;)
I also think people do still pay attention -Live Mesh was top of Techmeme on the day of the announce and generated lots of coverage across blogs and mainstream media in the following days. And guess what's top of Techmeme today? Maybe not always for the right reasons but the world does still seem interested in what Microsoft is doing.
As for the strategy, I believe that is pretty well articulated if you look at Ozzie's paper trail. What is less clear is the tactics - your views on these are keeps me (and many others) coming back to Liveside.
Keep up the great work!
Steve