Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer suggested during a speech to computer science students at the University of Washington that the company’s strategy going forward will be cloud-based. This is despite the fact that Microsoft made its fortune through the sales of desktop-based software platforms. On the screen behind him during his speech, a logo of a cloud flashed up, superimposed against the words: “We’re all in.”

“We shipped Windows 7, which had a lot that’s not cloud-based. Our inspiration now starts with the cloud… Windows Phone, Xbox, Windows Azure and SQL Azure,” Ballmer said.

Ballmer told the audience that around 70% of Microsoft employees are working on cloudrelated projects, and that figure is expected to reach 90% within a year.

Ballmer also said he was “betting our company” on a move towards cloud-based software and services, and that there was “unrealised potential” in this sector.

He later emailed all Microsoft employees. “Today I spoke to a group of students and faculty at the University of Washington to discuss how cloud computing will change the way people and businesses use technology,” he wrote. “My goal was to challenge people to look at the cloud more broadly and understand the multidimensional nature of the cloud transformation happening today.”

Ballmer also wrote in the memo that “the cloud drives server advances that drive the cloud. This view fuels our investments across the entire company – from data centers to cloud platform technologies, to cloud-based development tools and applications.

Today, nearly all our products have, or are developing, features or services that support the cloud. When it comes to the cloud, we are all in across every product line we have and across every dimension of the cloud.”

Ballmer’s announcement could have huge repercussions for the data center industry as a whole, if the company’s publicly stated enthusiasm for the cloud is maintained.

CAPGEMINI GROUP LAUNCHES NEW SUITE OF CLOUD-BASED SERVICES

Companies considering a move to cloud computing can now talk to Capgemini Group and subsidiary Sogeti, after it created a new global Infostructure Transformation Services unit to “accelerate clients’ ability to drive sustainable cost reduction, and access the benefits of cloud computing and services”.

Infostructure Transformation Services will enable customers to “re-engineer their IT infrastructure and deliver immediate, sustainable cost reductions, and enable the shift to creating an infostructure. Companies will then be in a better position to exploit the new consumption-based, commercial models of cloud computing,” said the company.

There are essentially four distinct offerings within Infostructure Transformation Services to help companies on their journey towards the cloud. These include data center optimisation and consolidation, virtualisation, unified communications and cloud-based solutions.

“Chief information officers are under pressure to deliver sustainable cost-reduction while providing value-for-money opportunities for growth and differentiation,” said David Boulter (left), vice president of Global Infostructure Transformation Services. “New business models are disrupting the manner in which computing capability is deployed and procured. Perhaps more importantly, the explosion of new cloud services creates the notion of the Enterprise Apps Store, which we believe will fundamentally change the means by which companies assemble solutions.”

VMWARE TO AQUIRE PARTS OF IONIX

VMware is beefing up its vCenter product family after agreeing with its parent, EMC, to acquire parts of the Ionix business. VMware has agreed to pay up to $200m for all technology, intellectual property and engineering, marketing, sales and support teams associated with four Ionix IT management products.

The Ionix products will be further integrated with VMware’s vCenter product family. vCenter is a management platform for virtualised environments, and the Ionix products are FastScale, Application Discovery Manager, Server Configuration Manager and Service Manager.

EMC, however, will retain control of the Ionix brand, and will have full reseller rights for all the products listed. While EMC and the two vendors’ channel partners have sold both VMware and EMC products together, this deal marks the first time VMware will be able to act as a reseller for Ionix products, according to EMC Ionix senior director of marketing Bob Quillin. “VMware has not resold any of our products until this new relationship,” he said.

Quillin explained that the main thrust behind the deal was separation of technology areas within the common full private-cloud infrastructure on which each of the companies focuses. The deal will enable EMC to focus on storage infrastructure management, “while VMware is focused on the application and server level”.

A key part of EMC’s “acceleration strategy” for private cloud deployment is Vblock, a full-stack virtualised environment the two companies plan to provide together with Cisco, consisting of Cisco servers and network gear (Unified Computing System), EMC storage solutions and VMware virtualisation technology.

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