My boss just took off for Australia and New Zealand. Trying to get everything done before he left absorbed most of my time during the last few weeks, so after he left, I started catching up on my cloud services reading. This has been a busy time for cloud computing too! Here’s what I found.

I started with Microsoft’s official Cloud Services site and watched the 1.5 hour video of Steve Ballmer’s recent Microsoft Online Cloud Computing speech at the UW. You’ve got to watch the whole thing. I loved the “man on the street” videos with UW students, featuring Microsoft Channel 9’s Laura Foy. 

With a little more digging, I found a recent post by fellow Cloud Services blogger Steve Clayton, Ballmer says Microsoft is “All In” with the Cloud. This is a great summary of Steve’s speech and tightens up the message to five bullet points:

  • The cloud creates opportunities and responsibilities
  • The cloud learns and helps you learn, decide, and take action
  • The cloud enhances your social and professional interactions
  • The cloud wants smarter devices.
  • The cloud drives server advances that drive the cloud.

I also found an InformationWeek article by Bob Evans, Global CIO: Ballmer's Cloud Commitment Makes Microsoft Relevant Again. Reading this article gave me goose bumps! Mr. Evans really gets it. I think that he does an excellent job of communicating the opportunities in the cloud, how committed Microsoft is to the future of cloud computing, and what an industry changing “bet-the-company” moment this really is. Both pages are recommended reading!

Did you know that Microsoft is actually one of the largest and most active players in cloud computing? Live Meeting, Bing, X-Box, Hotmail, and Microsoft Update are some of the cloud services that Microsoft has been running for several years. I’ve been working on Microsoft’s cloud computing offers in one capacity or another since Live Meeting 2005. The Microsoft Online Services team has released new features and functionality roughly every 6 to 9 weeks since November 2008, so we’ve been cranking on cloud computing for quite a while.

I’m excited to see that Microsoft’s commitment to cloud services is finally getting some attention. If you’d like to learn more about what’s going on with cloud computing, check out the links above and search for additional articles on Microsoft Cloud Services. All of our chips are on the table.