Very nice perspective on cloudcomputing and especialy recognising Microsoft’s unique position and approach ..
As we noted in our posting Cloud Computing – A Taxonomy, cloud computing can be delivered in three guises:
- As Public Services (PSs) hosted in large, multisite data centers, and delivered over the public Internet.
- As Virtual Private Services (VPSs) hosted in large, multisite, multitenanted data centers, and delivered securely over the public Internet. These VPSs are sometimes referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS).
- As Private Applications (PAs) hosted in large, multisite, multitenanted data centers, and delivered securely over the public Internet.
Some vendors offer only one type, some two, but only Microsoft offers all three. This is important, and to the extent that Microsoft is able, over time, to employ the same platform for all three, it allows both the easy morphing of PSs into VPSs, and more importantly, the easy morphing of PAs into VPSs, and VPSs into PSs.
This is not the only way in which Microsoft’s approach to the cloud is different from other vendors. Microsoft dominates the desktop, and has a growing on-premise server, and on-premise solutions, market share. This, in turn, leads in many organizations to ownership of the definitive internal directory — Active Directory (AD). This places Microsoft in a unique position to create bridges between an organization’s internal IT infrastructure and the “cloud.” …
Continue at source: Microsoft’s Approach to the Cloud
