Significant investments are being made in the cloud by many of the world’s leading companies and cloud computing continues to evolve. The fact that a company can fulfill its computing requirements on an as-needed basis by simply purchasing services is a key attractor to the cloud. Essentially, cloud computing consists of a ‘pay for use’ model similar to what a utility company offers. A company’s size and its computing prerequisites dictate the scale of services it will require. Cloud features, such as scalability and on-demand resource allocation, are fundamental to why an increasing number of small companies and large enterprises are incorporating the cloud into their business.

Over time, Microsoft has steadily increased its investments in the cloud as well as partnered with major global companies on cloud-based initiatives. These investments reflect not only the importance Microsoft places on this technology trend, but they indicate where MS executives think the future of computing is headed. For example, user demand for access to cloud-based content and apps via dedicated and mobile devices is constantly on the increase. Most computer and mobile users make a daily experience of accessing sites, such as Facebook, Flickr, and LinkedIn, which are essentially cloud computing services. A major portion of SMBs and enterprises are expected to adopt a similar model because it will allow companies to focus more on business and leave the IT infrastructure to specialists.

The cure-all for computing’s ills on a global scale?

Cloud computing can make a variety of computing services available to companies of all sizes on an ‘as-need’ basis. It allows providers to offer a range of physical resources, such as processors, data storage, applications, and platform access for developers. Providers accomplish this by having extensive server farms strategically located around the world.

The result is that smaller companies can eliminate the need for physical hardware as well as the expenditures it entails. In turn, they receive access to massive computing and storage resources, then pay only for pro-rated computing services and usage.

Microsoft plants its platform flag and rallies the troops.

The Azure Services Platform can best be described as a platform in the cloud. However, it’s more accurate to say that Azure encompasses a variety of services that form a platform, and its offerings for application developers are substantial. Developers can create scalable applications off-premises by accessing a comprehensive set of development tools, services, and management systems. With Windows Azure, new functionality will continue to be rolled out over 2011 and beyond. These features will make it simpler to move existing applications into the cloud.  In addition, the services available to cloud-hosted applications will also be increased. This array of feature-rich technology indicates that Windows Azure is on track to become a far more complete platform, technologically, as compared to Amazon’s EC2 and Google’s AppEngine. But, really, Microsoft’s cloud computing strategy is a tale of two clouds. On the one hand is its emerging platform as a service as described above. On the other hand are its popular application offerings:  SharePoint, Exchange, Dynamics CRM, and Office Web Apps. This indicates Microsoft’s approach toward the cloud as also based on offering an SaaS (Service-as-a-Software) platform.

Online Applications? According to MS, You ain’t seen nothing yet.

As part of its effort to rally more users and companies to the cloud, Microsoft had originally introduced Office Live Workspace as a direct competitor to Google Documents. With the launch of SkyDrive, Microsoft’s online storage repository, the company renamed the online suite of applications to Office Web Apps as part of its Windows Live Service. Office Web Apps includes browser-based editions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Documents are saved “in the cloud,” in the Microsoft SkyDrive, and can be created and edited in a browser or opened in Word. In addition to the free version of Office Web Apps on Windows Live, there is also a version of Microsoft Office Web Apps for Organizations. The software both enables organizations to set up their own intranets and to access and store shared files via the SharePoint website. SharePoint’s close integration with the Office Web Apps for Organizations software provides diverse means for document sharing and collaboration.

 Microsoft offers its own “messaging for everyone.” Anytime. Anywhere.

 Since Microsoft Exchange Server was first introduced as Windows Messaging, an email client bundled with Windows 95, it has gone through a number of significant changes. Now, in today’s more distributed, cloud-based and mobile world of messaging, a range of previous standards has been forever altered. Cloud-based services and Web messaging solutions, such as Google Gmail, have transformed how organizations and users view email. While individual users have flocked to these new messaging solutions, for large enterprises it has not been a simple transition. Compatibility issues between on-premises and Web-based (i.e., cloud) systems, security, data retention, and compliance are just some of the roadblocks large organizations face as they move their messaging infrastructure to the cloud. Microsoft has sought to ameliorate the problems and capitalize on this trend by recently releasing Exchange Server 2010 while simultaneously introducing Exchange Online, its cloud-based messaging service. Overall, Exchange Server 2010 improves greatly on the previous version, Exchange Server 2007, most notably with the enhanced Outlook Web Access Webmail Client. It offers much of the same functionality as its full Outlook client across diverse Web browsers, and having Outlook as a Web app is a great feature. Administration is also made easy with updated management tools.

MS Office 365: Pie-in-the-sky or Office access for all? That’s the question…

 Microsoft understands that to make the cloud appealing to large enterprises, it must generate a wave of devotees and converts at all levels. To achieve this, Microsoft has introduced the subscription service Office 365, an online suite of applications that include Exchange, SharePoint, Office Live Meeting, and Lync. In order to discuss Microsoft’s future direction with Office 365 (formerly titled Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS)), as well as other services, such as Live Mesh, it’s useful to consider the status of two recently updated products: SharePoint and Lync Server. The current upgrade, SharePoint 2010, now provides a diverse range of cloud-related and enterprise-friendly features. SharePoint Online, the cloud-based Office 365 feature, helps to define, organize, and manage collaborative groups as well as offers document libraries, Web and enterprise content management, and custom code testing. However, if you’re used to the robustness of earlier incarnations, such as SharePoint 2007, notwithstanding its drawbacks, SharePoint Online leaves more to be desired. Microsoft has committed to bringing enduser feature parity between the on-premise and online versions of SharePoint throughout 2011. 

If 2007 to 2010 was a watershed period for SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) to begin showing the breadth and depth of its potential, look for 2011 as the year when Microsoft reinforces its offerings toward achieving further cloud robustness. Because even though Microsoft’s diverse upgrades and releases have met, and sometimes exceeded, expectations for out-of-the-box software, the online components have often fallen short. Of course, Microsoft would argue that building a cloud that meets everyone’s expectations—individual users, SMBs, enterprises—is a constant work in progress. 

However, it’s useful to keep in mind some of the inherent deficiencies that the cloud will likely never overcome. For example, databases with their high I/O requirements perform best when located in an on-premises server as opposed to a remote WAN-based location. Latency is another pitfall that 24/7 high-intensity businesses must be wary of. CIOs need to consider what constitutes acceptable relays of information and what is unacceptable. In general, a LAN-based application will deliver micro-second response times. WAN latency via the Internet can increase significantly to milliseconds. 

As Microsoft diversifies its cloud services it faces stiff competition from a number of players who took early advantage of the trend. For example, Amazon Web Services first offered cloud-based services in 2006. It has already gained significant adoptions from small to mid-sized businesses that have chosen to create their data centers in the cloud, capitalizing on scalability.  However, Microsoft’s comprehensive services platform, the push toward key software products as SaaS (Software as a Service), advanced testing, and development are key elements to customer satisfaction, brand allegiance, and successful cloud computing experiences. Virtualization enables companies of any size to achieve greater measures of business agility and cost effectiveness. It also offers a range of advantages for transforming an IT department from a source of expense to a tool for greater corporate profit.