Steve Ballmer: Microsoft is betting the company on the cloud

By on Mar 5, 2010 at 11:02 AM
News March 5, 2010

Ballmer_Cloud

On Thursday, when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke at the University of Washington, he made several interesting statements about his company and its future with “the cloud.” When asked about Microsoft’s position on cloud based computing and programs Ballmer said, “we’re all in.” The CEO went on to say that 70% of Microsoft employees are working on projects that revolve around the cloud, a number which he predicts will climb to 90% within a year. We’re “betting our company” on the cloud, said Ballmer, “there’s so much unrealized potential.” When asked by a student whether Microsoft was simply being reactionary Ballmer responded: “All companies have their mix of proactive and reactive muscle; I’m keen on increasing hit rate in terms of early and often.” A few products we’re sure have a date with the cloud are an updated version of Microsoft’s popular office suite and a mobile application store to supports its Windows Phone 7 platform.

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  • Frogford Ryder

    Not so sure … since they are still working on the next windows.

    • zephxiii

      I’m sure they have different engineering groups to handle different products….

      • NoHypeHere

        And then they furnish those different products. Windows Mobile 7 and Project Pink Phone “Turtle” or whatever. Will the real MS phone please stand up. I’d hate to waste money on the wrong one by purchasing something whose development and longevity could be in question!

        How’s that MP3 player “Plays for Sure” thing working out for all who believed and then went and purchased a Zune mp3 music player and lost their digital music library… Just saying MS has too many forks in the road for the same product line and consumers could get burned in the end.

  • Jones

    Their invitation to that party must’ve got lost in the mail 5 years ago.

  • Roger A

    Anything that Steve Balmer says makes me laugh, cause he is such a complete idiot.
    Its really easy to bet the company and in turn the shareholders money (but not your own), in something that you know nothing about because you got a late start.

    • Carmen

      I think he’s a goof too, but how can you say that he’s not putting his money up when he owns a large chunk of that stock? Just because he didn’t infuse the company with cash doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a vested interest.

    • http://www.applebythehour.com Jarrett

      @ Roger,

      Look, I think Microsoft dropped the ball in the late 90′s as much as the next person but you can not call Steve Ballmer an idiot. This guy is a CEO of a major corporation and he did not get there with out educating himself and working hard long hours.
      This type of comment reminds me of people slamming who ever the president happens to be. Surely not one of use could hold such a title and hold it for more than a day or two. As much shit as I give Microsoft and their products I am not going to say that smart people don’t work for that corporation.

    • Roger A

      Drunken monkeys could run Microsoft better then Balmer.

      • hi

        You should apply for the CEO job Roger. Microsoft is only the largest software house in the world. You and your drunken monkey executives should fare well.

      • LostPlatypus

        Yet, here you sit commenting on BGR, instead of running Microsoft.

  • zephxiii

    “The CEO went on to say that 70% of Microsoft employees are working on projects that revolve around the could…”

    hmmm ;-)

    • zephxiii

      *hint*typo*hint*

      • cnote1287

        i see it ;)

    • http://twitter.com/tarund Tarun D.

      Andrew never learns from his mistakes. I don’t think he proof reads his posts.

      • Andrew Munchbach

        I am pretty thick ;-)

  • http://cameron-schultz.ca schultzter

    When Microsoft runs on their own cloud, like Google and Amazon do, then I’ll believe they’re committed. Until then, it’s just another product to stock the shelves to steal some light (and money) from the serious providers.

    But since it’s branded Microsoft, and they have the power to “encourage” partners to push the product.

  • Will

    Well, unfortunately Microsoft are making their bet too late, however if their next version of MS Server is truly a cloud based OS, allowing for quick scaling and easy management of running instances, then it would be interesting. Unfortunately their current licensing model does not really seem to accomodate the technology.

  • http://www.nooksurfer.com NookSurfer

    I’m definitely excited to see what kind of advancements Microsoft has in store. Although Google has done an excellent job with Chrome, I believe Microsoft will be the one to take the concept to new levels.

  • meanjavabean

    The store and Mobile 7 will flop with the backward approach to licensing, compatibility and excess control being exerted over the developers.

  • Ben

    Isn’t cloud just more feature rich web apps?

    The “Cloud” buzz word is even worse than “Web 2.0″.

  • Jason V

    WTF. It wasnt that long ago he said Google was stupid for doing this stuff and that noone was interested in cloud computing. And this was very recent around the time of the win7 launch, and now theyre saying theyre betting the company on cloud computing?

  • hi

    “Cloud” is another company’s server resources that you lease. “Cloud” is the latest buzz word.

    It could be web apps. It could be virtual machines. It could be any server resource like Microsoft’s Live Mesh.

  • http://(null) nick9283

    @Jarrett,
    not so sure about that. I have this strange feeling balmer was the bully in high school and gates was the nerd.

    bully worked out a deal with the nerd to protect him as long as he gave him a job.

    bully then says “hey rmember when I protected u in school? let me just run this thing when your gone.”

    - not what you know but who you know?

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • http://(null) nick9283

    Microsoft: ” and our new version let’s you sync to the cloud, create documents from the cloud, and even get documents from the cloud to your pc all for only $199

    Google: “pshhh. good luck beating free buddy”

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • webby

    Steve Ballmer: “Microsoft is betting the company on the cloud.”

    Remember what Bill Gates said, “Sometimes we do get taken by surprise. For example, when the Internet came along, we had it as a fifth or sixth priority.”

    M-soft still hasn’t got much past that, but … give them credit … Balmer does some good trash talking

  • Cnote221

    The server crash with the T-mobile Sidekicks come to mind when I read this… Seriously.

    Sidenot, I’m just glad I converted to another phone just before that happened.

  • TopOfNewYork

    How is this proactive? Its biting google’s cloud strategy….they have 70% of the company working on it b/c they desperate to catch google in the cloud game. There are no proactive muscle fibers at MS. Just saying it doesnt make it so. Its lame b/c they have the resources to help compete and give us new and good products problem is they dont have any vision or any innovative talent. I feel like they are an old dinosaur bout to go extinct.

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