Late last week, I posted a
top-10 list of things Microsoft did right during fiscal year 2010, which ended on June 30. With every right there must come a wrong. What will surprise some readers is how some actions fit into both categories. A number of "wrongs" on this list also appear on my "did right" list but put into different context. With that introduction, during fiscal 2010, Microsoft wrongly:
1. Revamped its cloud computing strategy. Azure debuted a month late and a whole vision short. In 2008, Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie laid out a startling and potentially revolutionary cloud computing vision. Developers would write to the datacenter much as they did to the desktop operating system. I likened the approach to an operating system in the sky -- to a truly cloud OS.
But Azure turns out to be something much different, and not because Microsoft mismanaged the project like Windows Vista. Clearly something else
changed. The Office and Windows hawks beat out the cloud OS doves. Azure is now more like a cross between Amazon cloud services and hosted Microsoft everything else, as the company seeks to extend its Office-Windows-Windows Server applications stack to the datacenter. Microsoft had a chance to do something quite revolutionary with Azure. The revolution is now nothing more than a resolution to protect the status quo.
No. 1 is the "wrong" of No. 1 ("launched Azure") and No. 2 ("revamped its cloud computing strategy") from the "did right" list.
