The Cloud Gets Closer with Azure

The most important pioneer in the public cloud computing space is undoubtedly Amazon with their Web Services environment (AWS).  They started it on a big scale with S3 and have made steady and meaningful progress for the last few years to the point where it's now a great platform for both startups and small enterprises.  Recent releases including support for Windows, persistent storage on EC2 nodes and more make this a no-brainer for so many application needs.  Wall Street firms won't run their trading and risk applications in the cloud for some time – if ever.  When an extra milisecond can make or break a trade, you need to control every piece of hardware, software and networking gear in the process.  But for everyday applications like mail, accounting/ERP, CRM and more, the    re's a lot to love in the Cloud.

AWS has spawned a host of smaller but innovative competitors.  And guys like IBM, Cisco, Dell, BMC and others are all over this space.  None of them have had the pure firepower for changing the game until Microsoft's Azure announcement.

With absolute domination on the desktop, leading presence for groupware, messaging and internal network services, Microsoft's full embrace of the cloud is going to result in some serious changes in the enterprise.  What if you never have to buy servers for 90% of your applications?  Or patch them, or upgrade them or manage them??  That's what this announcement means.  Sure, you still have to buy desktops and notebook computers.  But over time you'll need fewer and fewer servers in your business.

It won't happen overnight – this is going to be a 10-year transition.  But the Cloud just got a lot closer and at some point we'll look back on the tons of hardware we owned and shake our heads.