The term “Cloud” is just something invented by the marketing teams in the big tech companies. The “idea” has been around since the 90’s (eg. Application Service Providers, ISP’s). Why do think there’s the big push now? What conditions are dictating that now is the time to be using it? Are we looking at better software, technology or are we looking at just another trend again?
I think that the cloud is causing companies to split into 2 directions, cloud or no-cloud (and maybe some that have a bit of each). There will always be customers who need low cost, simple software in the cloud to use. There will also always be extremely customized, confidential data customers who will always stay on-prem.
I think the biggest challenge for MSFT at the moment is that they are now forced to support both. They can’t drop the bread and butter of on-prem customer but they have to keep up to date with the cloud invasion. If they can do that however (which it seems like so far they have), they are going to be one of very few who end up with the “total win”.
