Microsoft Looks To The Cloud

Microsoft’s Vision For Partners In The Cloud

Fred Studer, general manager of Microsoft's Information Worker group, says partners that go all-in with Microsoft in the cloud won't regret the decision.

Cloud Computing Services Market To Near $150 Billion In 2014

Global cloud computing services revenue is expected to hit $148.8 billion come 2014, representing a monster market opportunity for solution providers, according to recent Gartner research.

That massive boom in the cloud computing services market comes as cloud services are expected to hit $68.3 billion this year, a dramatic 16.6 percent rise compared to 2009 cloud services revenue, which was $58.6 billion.

"We are seeing an acceleration of adoption of cloud computing and cloud services among enterprises and an explosion of supply-side activity as technology providers maneuver to exploit the growing commercial opportunity," Ben Pring, research vice president at Gartner, said in a statement. "The scale of application deployments is growing; multi-thousand-seat deals are increasingly common. IT managers are thinking strategically about cloud service deployments; more-progressive enterprises are thinking through what their IT operations will look like in a world of increasing cloud service leverage. This was highly unusual a year ago."

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Users Will Dump PC, Head For Cloud: Pew Research Center

Cloud computing will eclipse the traditional desktop by the end of this decade as a majority of people will use the Internet for applications and accessing information, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.

By 2010, the majority of computer users will be using Internet-based applications and devices such as smartphones instead of general purpose PCs as their primary means of accessing IT, according to 71 percent of the respondents to a survey by the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit research center.

Only 27 percent of respondents believed the opposite, that the majority of users will still access applications using general purpose PC, according to the report.

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Google Apps Poster Child Switches to Microsoft BPOS

Just a little more than a year after touting its move from Microsoft Exchange to Google Gmail, Serena Software has decided to make the switch back to Microsoft and dump its Google Apps support.

Unlike the University of California, Davis, which dumped Gmail over security and privacy concerns earlier this month, Serena's reason was much more old school and basic. In short, it all came down to cost. Microsoft came back to Serena with an offer the ALM (application lifecycle management) software company could not afford to refuse, sources said.

Indeed, sources close to the situation said Microsoft offered Serena a price point for its enterprise software that included on-premise software, Microsoft's new Business Productivity Online Service Suite (BPOS) and migration services. The deal was simply too good to pass up. Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite is a set of messaging and a collaboration solution hosted by Microsoft, and consists of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office Live Meeting and Office Communications Online.

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http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/Google-Apps-Poster-Child-Switches-to-Microsoft-BPOS-171445/

Appirio Bets On The Cloud ... And Wins

Appirio gets it.

The company steps into the ring, gloves laced and ready for battle. When the bell rings, it strikes with speed, agility and precision.

In the world of cloud computing solution providers, consider Appirio the Manny Pacquiao: pound for pound one of the best in the biz.

In less than four years, San Mateo, Calif.-based Appirio has grown from its four founding fathers to more than 200 strong and has done so with a jarring one-two cloud partner punch with Salesforce.com and Google (NSDQ:GOOG). Add other key vendors such as Workday and Amazon (NSDQ:AMZN), and Appirio is a leader in offering myriad products and professional services in the cloud.

But to hear Ryan Nichols, Appirio's head of cloud sourcing and cloud strategy, tell it, the cloud sort of formed around Appirio.

"When Appirio was founded three years ago, even we didn't call it the cloud," said Nichols.

Appirio first signed on with Salesforce.com when it launched in 2006. Shortly thereafter it built a Google practice around Google Apps. With those two powerful partners in its corner, Appirio made the move from Software-as-a-Service to what are now known as cloud platforms. Appirio marries consulting and product development with cloud technologies to help customers forge a new business path.

Today, the biggest part of Appirio's business is building custom applications on top of those cloud platforms, Nichols said. Appirio is credited with building a good number of the best-selling applications in Salesforce.com's AppExchange and for devising applications that tie together Salesforce and Google Apps and Salesforce and Facebook.

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All About The Cloud: Microsoft Reaffirms Cloud Computing Commitment

The investment and the drive to capture cloud mindshare with Windows Azure and Office 2010, Hauger said, proves Microsoft is serious about the cloud and that it can attack the five key dimensions of cloud computing head on.

“There are some dimensions of the cloud that have become fairly apparent,” he said. Hauger said those dimensions are:

• 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.

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