Comments on: Ray Ozzie's cloud hangs over the Valley

During a talk in Palo Alto, Calif., Microsoft's chief software architect discusses the impact cloud computing will have on the tech industry.

[Mr. Dee]

Microsoft is in a situation, how do we move forward but still innovate and be successful in our traditional markets. Software plus services is the strategy, but how far can it stretch?

[BogusBasin]

So we can see that our dominant days are over. How can we move forward with our mission of slowing the natural progression of technology as long as possible in order to maximize our profits?

[cosuna]

Simple, convince people that netbooks are really Ultra-Low Cost PC (ULCPC), that is "cheap" laptops, and what they really want are Ultra-Low VOLTAGE Laptops. Of course ULVL cost 300 bucks more, have (useless) Vista installed and other absurdities like external SATA (USB drives are cheaper), FireWire, DVD-R Double Side, etc.

Consumers aren't stupid and that's why they are saving their dollars buying netbooks, 'cause all they want is to access the net. But sorry in that area Google's king.

[cosuna]

Microsoft's doing the right thing.... mmmh.... aren't this the guys who devised Microsoft Bob, Windows Vista and Windows ME, and of course, change the venerable "Hotmail" name with the awful: "Windows Live Hotmail".

BTW: Ray's team also changed the ultra robust FreeBSD Hotmail, to the buggy, ever changing Windows based WLH.

[RodDrury]

As a long time Microsoft partner I've been following this closely. Microsoft appears to be burying their heads in the sand on a number of issues. The lack of innovation in Office, impending birth of Netbooks (devices that connect straight to the web) and recently Wave.

The corporate speak assumes we are idiots. Hearing Ray Ozzie talk like this is insulting.

The corporate messaging is:

- Redefining SaaS to be Software + Services - so you need a Windows Client
- Redefining Netbooks to be a low cost PC - so you need a Windows Client
- When something as stunning as Wave arrives, and lays bare the lack of innovation with Microsoft email clients server for 10 years say it's too complex. This interview is significant as the "Wave is too complex" is being rolled out for the first time. Ray seems barely unable to mask his bitterness that Wave is being talked about broadly and no one knows what Groove is/was.

This lack of innovation from Microsoft is becoming more and more obvious as web innovations are accelerating. Office still lacks the real time collaboration we take for granted now in Google apps. While prettier does Office 12 foster any more productivity than Word 95?

The 2-3+ year release cycle for daily use applications like Office is out of sync with what's happening on the web.

I think Microsoft needs to:

* Make the client stay relevant by delivering stunning collaborative applications that leverage installed software. Finally Office 14 may start to do that. Building a stunning Wave client would be a good example.

* Accept that the Operating System is no longer relevant and they need to invest in sophisticated web delivered services that make life easier for consumers and businesses.

*Ship products faster

There are still very broken scenarios for Enterprise Mac users. People who are still in corporates running Microsoft Servers (Exchange mainly) but have fled to a Mac. Office for Mac is just bearable and there are few robust alternatives for Mac productivity. Office 14 for Mac will be way later than Windows so the most innovative tech savy executives are going to have to make a decision when Office 14 arrives. They will want collaborative Word and Excel.

This makes sense for Microsoft. If the collaboration features in Office 14 are good enough then they may win back enterprise Mac users.

If I was Apple I'd be making Mail.app and iCal work great over Exchange 2003+ and be building collaborative support for Office 14 into Pages and Numbers.

In my perfect world they develop a Wave client that can also connect first class to Exchange.

There is a great opportunity for an ISV to nail this problem.

[cvaldes1831]

Cloud computing can only be as good as the network and servers it runs on.

Based on my 15+ years of experience on the World Wide Web, I hereby conclude that the network and server infrastructure is not ready for cloud computing primetime. Just look at previous Google outages as a reference point.

As a GOOG, AAPL, MSFT, ORCL, YHOO shareholder, I can honestly say that none of these companies are currently capable of providing cloud computing services that I would pay a dime for. That's right: I don't pay $24.95 for a Flickr Pro account, I don't pay $99 for a MobileMe account, I don't pay for extra Google Picasa storage space.

As far as I'm concerned, cloud computing proponents can go back to the drawing board and figure out how to provide better availability for their services before I even remotely consider spending a dime a day for their services.

[MSFT_GlenF]

Ina,

Thank you so much for the updated information you have provided regarding the release of Windows 7. For future references, the best site for all the up to date news on the product is found at the Windows 7 support forum, at micorsoft.com/springboard. The site will also give you all sorts of useful information, such as the ?what?s new in the RC? feed?.or you can also you use talkingaboutwindows.com as an additional resource
Thanks,
Glen