The cloud computing battle has warmed up: Microsoft and IBM have made a huge difference.

Cloud computing has been a hot topic in the industry and related enterprises for the past two years. By the end of this year, cloud computing has become increasingly popular. A typical performance is that Microsoft's COO Kevin Turner recently told the outside world that Microsoft will invest $9.5 billion in R & D this year, A large part of the investment will be used in the cloud computing field. At the same time, Microsoft CEO Ballmer also stressed the significance of cloud computing for Microsoft in a speech at the University of Washington, saying that cloud computing is promoting Microsoft's development. At present, Microsoft has approximately 40000 employees engaged in software development globally, and 70% of them are engaged in cloud-related work. A year later, this number may reach 90%. This is because at the beginning of this year, after Microsoft and HP reached a cooperation agreement of $0.25 billion in cloud computing, Microsoft's senior executives once again stressed and announced the strategic significance and related investment of cloud computing for Microsoft.

Compared with Microsoft, IBM, a traditional IT vendor, also announced the launch of network software this month to challenge Microsoft in the public cloud computing market. New software will allow customers to test and create their own software on the network. Like Microsoft, IBM's investment in the cloud computing field is also a great deal. It is said that IBM has invested more than 20 billion US dollars in mergers and acquisitions, and developed cloud computing to obtain new sources of revenue growth. Although at the beginning of this year, a huge amount of money from IBM and Microsoft on cloud computing indicates that this year's competition for cloud computing is inevitable for IT enterprises,However, there are essential differences between the two in the direction of cloud computing, or in terms of strategy.

I remember that at this time last year, IBM joined a large number of vendors in the industry to publish the cloud computing industry standard declaration (cloud Declaration), which aroused strong repercussions in the industry. While the six principles covered in this six-page paper are designed to require cloud computing vendors to "ensure that their cloud computing products (including security, integration, portability, interoperability, and governance) They provide /management and metering/Monitoring) it is based on open standards, but the absence of names from Microsoft, Amazon, and other vendors in this Declaration also raises doubts about the real purpose of the cloud declaration. In this regard, Microsoft said that IBM has put forward the so-called "Declaration" in an attitude that cannot be negotiated, and they are very dissatisfied with the attitude of IBM. Amazon said that the industry should take actual actions, rather than verbal commitments.

In fact, Microsoft and Amazon had no reason to doubt the cloud Declaration led by IBM. We all know the IBM-led blade in the Blade Server field. the org Alliance, with the participation of many industry vendors, was based on the open principle, but the final market proved that IBM's so-called blade. the org alliance is actually IBM's own blade server standards. With this alliance, IBM and HP account for 80%-90% of the global blade server market, and it is not compatible with the products of blade server vendors of other vendors. This will undoubtedly cause users who purchase and use IBM blade servers to be locked into an IBM vendor. As a result, it is not surprising that IBM's cloud declaration will be processed in the industry. In fact, from the perspective of IBM's style of action, it was the first in the main IT business field to be open (such as hardware) or open source (software), but in the key core technology, IBM is still taking a closed line to keep the most technical stuff in its own hands, and to promote the formation of a certain industry fact standard.

Compared with IBM, Microsoft does not seem eager to establish any so-called standards in the cloud computing field, but pays more attention to the interoperability in the cloud computing field. For example, the Windows azure cloud computing service platform was officially commercially available since January 1, February this year. In product and platform design, the future interoperability is taken into account. That is to say, it not only supports Microsoft's own products and technologies, but also allows developers to fully extend their existing technologies on the Microsoft Windows azure platform. This means that when building windows azure applications and services, you can not only use familiar development tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio and eclipse, but also support various popular standards and protocols, including soap, rest, XML, and HTTPS. This is Microsoft's advantage over IBM. It is also the main reason why IBM recently announced the release of new software that allows customers to test and create their own software on the network to challenge Microsoft.

In addition, Microsoft has a consortium program named "InterOP vendor alliance. In this plan, Microsoft invited competitors to study specific customer conditions, including interoperability and product approaches, as well as provide practices and guidelines for users.

In fact, with the continuous development of cloud computing applications, cloud computing standards and interoperability issues have become the same as the security of cloud computing, the key to whether cloud computing can eventually reach the expected scale in the industry. However, from the current application of cloud computing, it is still in the early stages of development, and the initial stage means market opportunities and profits, this is also the main reason why vendors that have already launched mature cloud computing services fight independently. At this time, it is unrealistic to hope that vendors in the industry, especially those who already have cloud computing services, will jointly develop unified standards. According to my understanding, since the release of the cloud Declaration last year, it seems that I have not heard or saw any specific and substantial progress in the cloud declaration, but its official website has not been able to log on to it recently, is this really just a formal declaration? Or is it true that it is not feasible in reality? In contrast, we should start with interoperability, that is, we can constantly increase the number of applications on our own cloud platforms, in addition, it allows users to use different cloud computing services in a heterogeneous IT environment (making the pie bigger first). In the early stage of cloud computing, it seems to have a greater role and effect in promoting the market, it is easier for the market and users to accept.