Microsoft, from completely dismissing the idea of cloud computing to reluctantly jumping in to not letting the traditional desktop approach go away to taking a half hearted approach to pushing their clouds, has always given an impression that it will not embrace the cloud strategy wholeheartedly. Pundits, including myself, were dismissive of their cloud strategies and some were convinced that Microsoft will never take the cloud game seriously.
However, ever since Ray Ozzie announced the Azure strategy during PDC ’08, Microsoft has been trying hard to convince people that they are in the game for real. Their difficulty stemmed from the fact that they need to go against their own current Windows server offerings to make Azure cloud strategy tick. Many saw this dilemma to go heavily against their cloud strategy. But, Microsoft’s claims about their seriousness appears to be real and they proved it today with an announcement about reorg.
Today, Microsoft announced through a blog post that they are merging Windows Server & Solutions group and the Windows Azure group into one single organization within their Server and Business Tools called Server & Cloud Division (SCD).
This change reflects the alignment of our resources with our strategy, and represents a natural evolution for Microsoft as the Windows Azure business moves from an advanced development project to a mainstream business, as we announced last month at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC). Server and Cloud Division will help enterprises with their on-premise, public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud strategies. Their strong portfolio in terms of Windows Server, Windows Azure, SQL Server, SQL Azure, Visual Studio and System Center, will help them minimize the damage on their existing market share while, also, helping them reach the new cloud market. The details of the reorg is as follows
Microsoft is announcing today the formation of a new organization within the Server & Tools Business that combines the Windows Server & Solutions group and the Windows Azure group, into a single organization called the Server & Cloud Division (SCD).
- The Windows Azure development team, will move from under Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie to the Server & Tools Business, led by Bob Muglia, President, Server and Tools Division. Senior Vice President Amitabh Srivastava will lead the newly formed SCD, reporting to Bob Muglia.
- The Windows Server and Solutions group, led by Corporate Vice President Bill Laing, will join the Windows Azure team to form the Server & Cloud Division. Bill will report to Amitabh and will continue his role as a key member of the STB leadership team. Bill will partner with Amitabh to continue the bilateral sharing of technology between Windows Server and Windows Azure, which has been a key design goal of Microsoft’s software + services strategy.
- The Windows Azure business and marketing team, will continue to be led by Doug Hauger. Doug will join the Server and Tools Marketing Group, led by Corporate Vice President Robert Wahbe, reporting to Corporate Vice President Bob Kelly, who is also responsible for Windows Server, System Center, and Forefront.
With Microsoft establishing the organizational changes needed to take their cloud infrastructure strategy forward, all eyes are now on how they are going to go forward with their cloud applications strategy. Are they going to protect their cash cow with the S+S strategy or going to go all out on a pure SaaS play is something we have to wait and see it play out in a long run. In the short term, Microsoft is not going to let go of their hold on the traditional software market.
On a related cloud news, as reported by Infoworld, Microsoft and Netapp has signed a three year deal to work together to deliver technology that includes virtualization and private cloud computing as well as storage and data management.
