Server

At what might arguably be called the most energetic and captivating TechEd keynote in many years, Microsoft corporate vice president Brad Anderson and a bevy of fellow executives made the collective case for the firm’s transition to devices and services. But the day was perhaps most notable for a related announcement that was delivered internally to Microsoft’s employees and then shared with the public: Going forward, Microsoft’s enterprise emphasis is in cloud services....More

If a credible recent rumor is true, Microsoft is preparing a dramatic expansion of Windows Azure that will include an Azure-hosted desktop virtualization service, or what I think of as a hosted VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) solution. Is VDI about to get a lot less expensive and complex?...More

For the naysayers writing the obituaries for the PC industry and for Microsoft over the past several weeks, the firm’s surprisingly strong quarterly results—including record revenues of $20.49 billion—must have come as a shock. But this isn’t the first time Microsoft has confounded its critics, who routinely overlook the company’s successful transition to the cloud....More