Microsoft's transformation wants to jump out of the desktop: pet cloud

This reporter Lu Xianwen March 31, the total investment nearly 700 million yuan Microsoft China Shanghai Science and Technology Park first phase project completed and put into use, this is the first time that Microsoft invests outside the United States to build the research and technical Service Park. Bing, Microsoft's search engine, launched its Bing dictionary April 7 to provide translation search services in both English and Chinese.　　April 11, Microsoft's global Senior vice president, Microsoft Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group chairman Dr Zhang, at the Boao Forum for Asia meeting, revealed to the outside world, Microsoft will continue to invest in China, plans this year to the rapid growth of China's research and development facilities to invest 500 million of dollars. Zhang's remark is a good way of revealing the thinking behind the series of actions-"Microsoft thinks China's development is very important." China started as a sales center for Microsoft and later became a research and development center. Now, China is Microsoft's Strategic center. "In fact, while adjusting China's strategy, the transformation of Microsoft, the IT giant, is in progress," he said. We have a connection with Microsoft began in Windows, Microsoft has been giving us the impression is also a desktop IT company, however, the dialogue Zhang, we hear more is the cloud computing, Internet of things, search engines of these it concepts, "last quarter, Microsoft surpassed Nintendo, Become the world's largest gaming software and game maker.　　We should let you know that Microsoft is an Internet enterprise.　　Single pet "cloud computing" to see how Microsoft understands the hottest it concept, you can read out its transition path. "There is a point of view that in the next 10 years, computing will go from ' End ' to ' cloud ' and eventually all converged into the cloud, becoming a pure ' cloud ' computing era. But I think ' cloud-end ' coexistence, ' cloud-end ' interaction is the future of computing architecture trends.　　Zhang wrote in his blog. Microsoft's next industry focus is no doubt pointing to the "revolutionary computing Model" of cloud computing, the Internet. Cloud computing is actually a continuation of the theory of Grid computing, distributed computing and parallel computing, and its vision is to provide secure, fast and convenient data storage and network computing services with the Internet as its center. Cloud computing is a new phase in the development of the Internet. "Zhang is trying to explain cloud computing in simpler metaphors, and cloud computing turns information into water and electricity, where users can use it anytime, anywhere. Early electricity supply is the power of each building itself, now it is the power grid, plug can be used electricity, water is the same, the past need to drill wells, now has running water. In the past, we hid the money under the bed, now there are banks, banks are clouds, the clouds on the physical layer, this is the first level of cloud computing; the second layer of cloud computing refers to software platforms where you can develop applications on the platform; the third tier is to provide services, including search, maps, videos, games,　　e-mail and other business personalized services. Zhang said: "For Microsoft, cloud computing is not only the strategic commanding heights, but will be the company's largest business growth." "At present, Microsoft's research and Development Center in Shanghai focuses onThe direction of research and development is around cloud computing.　　In Zhang's view, the Internet of things can not be separated from cloud computing, cloud computing is the central nervous network of Things, internet and cloud computing need to develop synchronously. Why do you say that? "The Internet of things requires a lot of sensors, and this is going to have an infrastructure, like laying the road, which is the first step." Cloth sensor, how to collect data, how to manage after collecting data, how to search data, how to find the structure of data analysis, this is the biggest problem. It can be said that we are now just put the sensor into, do ' things ' this step, and only ' networking ', before the formation of a complete internet of things. "Zhang that the key point of the Internet of Things is not the sensors, the key is to collect the data, put it on a standard platform, the platform called the Internet, called cloud computing, and then, the data can be controlled, is endowed with intelligence, this is the real thing networking concept, this is the real thing networking to achieve the goal.　　In his view, the Internet of things to develop mature needs 30-50. A game for 2 billion dollars Microsoft, although a good student, has done well, but it also has to admit that it has made some mistakes.　　For example, once overlooked the full energy of the search engine, in the absence of Renren, happy net, people began to use MSN, but MSN did not become a social platform. "We've made some mistakes on the internet, not always making the right decisions on the strategy, the search is long overdue, the community should be more focused, and the cloud computing platform should probably be done earlier." On the Internet, we did take a detour.　　"Zhang is very straightforward, but he unambiguously said that the Internet is the direction of Microsoft, the excellent desktop system so that people deeply rooted in the positioning of Microsoft desktop companies, but now, Microsoft is changing this." "We are now the world's largest gaming company, and many people may not know that we have a game that sells 2 billion of dollars." We are also applying it technology to energy saving and emission reduction. In this area, we have a number of major projects, such as Microsoft in Seattle built the world's largest data center, all with electricity and water, zero emissions. For example, Microsoft in March just launched a software in the United States, is used to reduce energy consumption for the family, this is a set of sensor technology + cloud server management software, after the use of each user knows how much electricity in the home TV, the refrigerator how much electricity.　　"From the desktop to the Internet, Microsoft's transformation is becoming clearer, and it seems to Microsoft itself that this third transition is not starting today, but 5 years ago." Zhang this summary of Microsoft over the past 35 years, "we may achieve a small transformation every 5 decades, every 10 years to achieve a major transformation." I think Microsoft is now going through a third big transition-from PC to Internet. The first transition is from platform to application, is Windows+office, the second is from consumer to enterprise, make server more diversified.　　This is more challenging than the previous two. Zhang that the next two or three years, the wholeIn the IT industry, smart terminals and mobile interconnection should be the fastest growing segment, specifically when it comes to applications, including search, community networks, E-commerce, and video, which will usher in their golden Age, "for Microsoft to see opportunities and not to limit themselves to the desktop." April 12, Microsoft in the United States released a new mobile phone "Pink", the phone for young people rather than white-collar users, focusing on social functions, such as text chat, e-mail, mobile games, music, access to social networking sites.　　More important, this is seen by the industry as Microsoft's return to the once-abandoned handheld devices market. Bing will be the "Black horse" Google left, search engine companies will be asked the same question: "How to view the Google incident?" Is it good or bad for other search engines? Zhang's answer is that the Google incident is a choice for individual companies, and that Microsoft's strategy for China's development will not be affected by the incident.　　Microsoft's research and marketing strategy in China will not change, and there will be a lot of investment in search and cloud computing, including health care, education, Low-carbon, and other emerging businesses. Microsoft's current search-related moves suggest that Bing search will someday be able to compete with Google. As early as last July, Microsoft and Yahoo signed a 10-year network search cooperation agreement, teamed up with Google to compete.　　In the United States, Bing's market share has climbed up to about 13%, and Yahoo's cooperation has also had a positive impact, both of the search engines add up to 30% of the market share. In the Chinese market, Bing also hopes to catch up with the black horse's posture to shake a monopoly of rivals. Microsoft's decision to scramble for more market share was not small last June, when it launched its Bing beta in China and launched its Bing dictionary, which is still limited in its current market share. "Search is the most important service in the cloud," says Zhang. Bing is still in its infancy in China, and we've spent a lot of time still lagging far behind the market leader, but Bing has great potential and needs more input and patience. We are very optimistic about the future. "Search is important to Microsoft," he said repeatedly. "China is the world's largest internet market and has 384 million Internet users by the end of last year," the data show. 2009, China's search market value increased by 38.8% to 7.15 billion yuan, according to revenue calculation, Baidu occupies 60.9% of the market share. Baidu and Google add up to more than 90% of the market share. Industry analysis predicts that China's search market is expected to grow by 40% this year, reaching a scale of 10 billion yuan. Can Bing create miracles in the cracks? To a certain extent, whether Microsoft can achieve the desired goal in search, but also from an angle to reflect the way the Internet transition can go smoothly. As a user, we can try Bing and then vote with the mouse.