Microsoft today is like the old IBM…

The movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley” released in 1999 has a scene where IBM employees are shown in the 1970′s – all dressed in black suits and tie – basking in the glory of their supremacy in the computer market. IBM employees work in their fancy offices and laugh at the idea of Windows while Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are shown as  youngsters, wearing jeans and running around, creating their businesses our of garages. At today’s launch of the new Micorsoft Office 2010 in New Delhi, India I was reminded of that scene. All the Microsoft employees were wearing black suits and the event was in a star hotel with elaborate decorations etc. It looked exactly like the scene in the movie – except the sides had changed. While the...

Windows Azure – Cash cow for Microsoft ?

With Microsoft ready to launch its Windows Azure service in India, the debate on who will lead the cloud computing market has started heating up. Cloud computing basically allows users to access applications and services through the Internet. The simplest example is the Microsoft Word application on your desktop vs. an online document that you can create on Google docs. Microsoft Word requires your computer’s processor and operating system to run, it requires your computers hard drive to store the document and it requires your email service to share with other users. On the other hand, Google docs requires any basic computer to be connected to the Internet, the rest of the functions are handled by the Google Cloud. You would have to buy Microsoft Word to be...