June 17, 2010 | Network World Staff

Microsoft is betting on the cloud to provide the next wave of innovation and opportunities for technologists, businesses and consumers. CEO Steve Ballmer has said that the vendor is “all in” for the cloud, which potentially represents a $3.3 trillion
market. But where does its cloud computing platform stand today? To gauge Microsoft’s cloud momentum, check out our latest news stories, product reports and user adoption stories.

Executive commitments

Microsoft emphasizes hybrid cloud at TechEd
As the technology industry moves toward the cloud, users can ease the transition by adopting a hybrid computing model, said Bob Muglia, Microsoft's president of servers and tools. "We're creating the precursors for the cloud. Today there is a lot of work you're doing inside your environment that could be delivered as a service.”

Microsoft exec: We and users win with cloud
Microsoft is firmly on the cloud-computing bandwagon and with good reason -- it can make more money by doing so, even as it helps customers cut costs, said business division head Stephen Elop. Microsoft is not only selling applications via the cloud, but raw computing power and a development platform with its Azure service. "We're going after more of the pot.

Read more

Source:http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/061710-microsoft-cloud-computing.html