Microsoft's cloudy vision

Redmond still has time to come good in the on-demand space

A series of announcements last week from Microsoft may have been intended to show the software giant is still capable of capturing the zeitgeist ­in this case that it could lead a cloud computing revolution. In fact, the announcements merely served to underline the crisis the company faces in competing with web giant Google.

Prior to the unveiling of its plans for online versions of Exchange and SharePoint, and the beta release of Office Live Workspace, the blogosphere had been ablaze with rumours of a series of game-changing announcements from Microsoft. In fact, the announcements turned out to be less thrilling than expected.

The move to on-demand online computing has Microsoft in a predicament. The ability for users to access all manner of applications across the internet presents a clear threat to its $16bn Office business ­ perhaps even its Windows business. But in inching its “software plus services” strategy forward with small online enhancements to its email and collaboration applications, plus some tweaks that let users access Office documents while away from their main PC, Microsoft is not really addressing the big web-based picture ­and so is potentially giving rival Google a clear shot at the market.

For IT managers, cloud computing is still far too immature to be mainstream strategy, so Microsoft’s failure to present a compelling vision will not be fatal in the enterprise­ at least not yet.