Microsoft needs apps to win cloud computing

Recently, Microsoft announced that the Online Services department responsible for research and development of senior Vice President Satya Nadella will replace Bob Muglia, as Server and Tool department president. Nadella is a respected technology leader who has made a great exploits for Microsoft's return to search. It is worth mentioning that he was in charge of Microsoft's Business Solutions division, which includes enterprise software, before he was the head of Bing products.

In addition, Microsoft announced that another executive, Amitabh Srivastavam, left the server and Tools department, one of the leaders of the Windows Azure Development project. Srivastavam, the technical director of Azure, has made a great contribution to developing a very reliable platform, a service (PaaS) solution.

Media speculated that Muglia's departure was related to two factors, one in the server virtualization market lack of revenue-generating stamina, and second, Microsoft's access to the PAAs market with Azure, the focus of the transfer to the cloud. We believe it is not unreasonable to criticize the lack of revenue-generating potential in the server virtualization market, but pointing the finger at Azure is a bit untrue because the PAAs market is still in its infancy. While moving to cloud computing is a big problem, we think there is a bigger and more urgent strategic problem that needs to be addressed by Microsoft, which involves the overall business application software and infrastructure product strategy.

Although the leadership structure has changed, we find that Microsoft's server and tools departments need to adjust their overall strategy. The problem, we think, is not just to relocate to private cloud computing and public cloud computing. The market for application software and infrastructure is increasingly converging into integrated solution packages; In the face of this, Microsoft needs to locate. As internal-deployment software shifts to cloud computing, we think this is only going to become more common.

We believe that the software aspect has a very simple reason to show that the application software is driving the infrastructure. If there is no application software on the infrastructure, it is very difficult for a platform vendor to succeed. It doesn't matter whether the market is for consumers, small companies, governments or Fortune 500. One of the main reasons we think Microsoft has the power to invest billions of of billions of dollars in research and development money for Windows is the best-selling Office office suite.

In our view, the success of Apple in the hands of the airport is mainly related to this simple fact: it has a killer application software in music; now every developer is developing for iOS. In our view, Oracle can quickly dominate the enterprise software industry, because the real enterprise-class business application software developers can take full advantage of its research and development capabilities, a large scale of application server and database team.

Even Salesforce.com was able to launch its platform strategy after it received enough users in its popular sales force automation application software. SAP also seems to be convinced because it acquired Sybase and launched its own in-house data warehousing device: Hana.

Finally, IBM is the only big vendor not directly involved in the app market, but we think it's mainly IBM's propaganda strategy. Instead of engaging its enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications in the traditional enterprise application market, IBM has been working extensively with developers to take full advantage of their global service delivery capabilities. It is worth mentioning that the IBM series of products through the acquisition in many ways is similar to the application of the product, evolving. IBM has acquired FileNet in the field of document management, Cognos in the field of business intelligence, SPSS in the field of predictive analysis, and several excellent small professional firms in the field of online marketing and customer analysis. In other words, we believe that IBM is adding functionality like application software to provide a complete set of product solutions, complemented by its services expertise in the vertical industry.

We found that Microsoft's business application software strategy is fragmented and lacks consistency. First of all, the so-called Microsoft Dynamics is actually by Microsoft's acquisition of the Big Plains, Navision, Axapta and Solomon, and other companies to the small and medium-sized enterprises, a patchwork of products. Although Microsoft Dynamics products have 30多万个 customers, we believe that in the long run, its market share will be robbed by other developers (such as NetSuite) with more comprehensive SaaS solutions.

One of the main advantages of NetSuite is that it provides a seamless, holistic, cloud-based solution, and even with the help of Microsoft Dynamics product line, it is difficult to integrate several parts of finance, CRM and E-commerce. Microsoft abandoned the Green plan as early as 2007 and has not been very successful in the market for years. While Microsoft says it offers "integrated" solutions for cloud computing, it is not entirely clear how the application fits into the program.

Next on business intelligence, Microsoft has a good product: SQL Server and SharePoint, but in our view it can use its vast resources more effectively. We believe that business intelligence should play a more important role throughout the plan than just an add-on to the server product. Gartner recently included Microsoft in the Business Intelligence Leadership Quadrant, confirming that Microsoft's solution is a powerful, affordable solution. We believe that Microsoft should have a more comprehensive and far-sighted perspective on the broader area of information management.

We believe that the IBM-defined "intelligent Earth", the large investment in the field of predictive analysis and data equipment, and even the Watson project, have all demonstrated that it is leading the market rather than following the market. In our view, no company has a common product such as Excel, nor any company like Microsoft has the potential to reshape the customer analysis market.

Recall: Microsoft bought ProClarity in 2006, a move that had hit. At that time, ProClarity provides a simple, rewritable interface that allows organizations to better leverage the complex business intelligence features of SQL Server. This product is a thin client analysis and reporting tool designed specifically as an add-on to SQL Server. Today, Microsoft combines SQL Server, Office 2010, and SharePoint to sell as a business intelligence solution. ProClarity became Microsoft's configured point Server in 2007 and eventually became part of SharePoint Server in 2010.

After the takeover, the market has changed a lot, and Microsoft seems content to work in the traditional business sector. We encourage the servers and tools department to think about the industry in two different ways.

First, we think that Microsoft needs to move to a higher end in the field of predictive analytics, making data intelligence ubiquitous in all applications. Secondly, we believe that business intelligence products should be able to take full advantage of SQL Azure, both to adapt to the internal deployment of the scene, but also adapt to cloud-based scenarios. In the azure marketplace, we really like the DataMarket data as a service policy. This is a correct step towards redefining this area, and it can grow on that basis.

From an organizational point of view, we believe that it is not ideal to separate the business application software sector from the server and tools sectors; From a customer's point of view, setting up such a department is irrelevant because customers often buy these products together. Business applications are hidden with Office in the Microsoft Business sector, and the development of the server and tools sector does not seem to matter. Our view is that Microsoft needs to make a decision about whether to engage in the field of application software. At the moment, Microsoft seems to be carefully testing the water; We believe that this ambiguous stance complicates its relationship with independent software developers.

One of the advantages of Salesforce.com through AppExchange is that it has a good ecosystem with numerous niche applications that are easily integrated with Salesforce.com's product line. Microsoft has yet to establish such an obvious distribution channel for its partners.

We believe that Microsoft should be firmly committed to the business application software. It is neither serious in the marketplace nor maximizing the benefits of an independent software developer (ISV) ecosystem. We believe that Microsoft can make a clear application software plan for SME customers, and throw the big enterprise field to the established vendors. We believe that the business intelligence and analytics products based on Microsoft Azure and server platforms are products that are inherently attractive to large and small customers.

Microsoft's relocation of its products to cloud computing is clearly one of the solutions, but it does not address the core issue: what products to sell to customers, how to sell products to customers.

(Responsible editor: admin)