In February, Microsoft News Center (MNC) spoke with Kurt DelBene, President of the Microsoft Office Division, and Satya Nadella, President of Microsoft's Server and Tools Business, about what's new and what's unchanged with cloud computing. Here's what they had to say.

 

MNC began by asking DelBene and Nadella what they thought would really change for IT and businesses when they start transitioning some of their IT to the cloud.

 

"What I typically hear from customers is that their IT departments aren't making cut-and-dried decisions to 'move to the cloud,' but rather, they look at their aging infrastructure and know they need to upgrade," said DelBene. "This is where the power of cloud computing comes into play. It can provide flexibility and choice to IT organizations. They can put certain capabilities into the cloud and repurpose resources while improving reach and flexibility for their users." 

 

He also made the point that many customers in small and medium-size businesses don't have the space to "deploy an Exchange Server or a SharePoint Server." The cloud can give them those same capabilities. 

 

Nadella added, "One consistent change we've identified is in the world of devices. In the infrastructure business, we first try to recognize any architectural pattern shifts in application development and deployment to determine where the industry is headed." When Microsoft talks to customers about the types of applications they're building, Nadella said, "We find they're broadly classified as device and cloud applications. In that context, we're seeing enterprises looking at the cloud as a way to reach the multitude of devices."

 

MNC's next posed the question, "What do you think are the biggest myths out there about the cloud?"

 

DelBene said one of the biggest myths is based on business needs and their complexity. "It's not as if the cloud suddenly means that a company can repurpose a consumer-class product to fit all its needs simply because people use it outside work," he said. "Businesses still have to meet compliance needs, and they need to access their historical records, among other things. These requirements existed before, and they didn't go away because of a cloud transition. The cloud can increase access and boost productivity, but traditional business needs are still very complex."

 

"I think it's becoming much clearer that IT will actually drive the transition to the cloud and not be replaced by it," said Nadella. "As our customers and partners embrace this, we're seeing a lot of creativity and energy that is really going to drive the next generation of computing."