On the commercial apps side, the big platform vendors that are supporting Microsoft today will likely continue supporting Microsoft. At the end of the day, I think Microsoft will offer the broadest set of choices across the broadest set of technologies, whether it's support for PHP or whatever programming environment you really like, it's more likely to run on Microsoft technologies than any others.
What do you say to CIOs who still don't trust the security of a cloud model?
Well, it's something we always should ask about, but there's great precedence in the outsourcing world. We've all moved our servers to other people's data centers over the years. The concept is not new.
I do think there's a false sense of security when you're running your own data center. There's a lot security in having a contract in place that makes a third party responsible for security. My view is that it's similar to the outsourcing model in terms of the benefits, but you also have this contractual right to expect great security from your cloud provider, which is probably better in the long run than the old practice of running everything yourself.
Shane O'Neill covers Microsoft, Windows, Operating Systems, Productivity Apps and Online Services for CIO.com. Follow Shane on Twitter @smoneill. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline. Email Shane at soneill@cxo.com.
