Microsoft has made a concerted effort, especially in the last couple of years, to make some real gains in the cloud. In the consumer and small business market, they are gaining traction against Google, their largest competitor in those markets.
The question is, can Microsoft beat Google in the cloud? Google is more at home in that space. Compared to Microsoft, which recently turned 40 years old, Google is more at home with taking innovative leaps forward more quickly, which is to be expected from a financially strong, younger competitor.
During the last year, Microsoft has taken steps to stay relevant and profitable in a word that is leaving the PC covered in dust, in museums, along with the floppy disk and Friendster. Windows is the one aspect of Microsoft’s legacy that is still holding it back.
Microsoft Cloud Innovations
Office is now a cloud-based suite, like Google Drive, with native apps for Android and iOS. Microsoft will be gradually abandoning Internet Explorer (IE), in favour of a browser for “the modern web,” known as Project Spartan.” This is being sold as a browser designed for “easy sharing, reading, discovery and getting things done online”, not unlike Chrome.
Cortana is a voice search service designed to compete against Apple Siri and Google Voice, with some commentators saying it has the potential to surpass both.
Microsoft is even embracing the wider developer community, in the same way Google has been doing for years. Docker support for Azure and Hyper-V are recent examples of this policy paradigm shift. The Seattle-based tech giant doesn’t move as fast as its competitors in Silicon Valley, but clearly things are changing under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella.
What’s Next?
However, even with all of this innovation, Microsoft is still playing catch up.
Consumers and businesses need all the capabilities and functionality of Windows, with the speed and agility of the cloud. The launch of Nano Server shows that Microsoft is creating “a purpose-built operating system designed to run born-in-the-cloud applications … that delivers speed, agility and lower resource consumption.”
With fewer people than ever needing the bloated features of PC-based systems, Microsoft is in a unique position; able to capitalise on Windows and its relatively new ventures into the Cloud. Bringing these strengths together could give them a significant edge, since Windows can do a lot more than Google’s Office-Lite suite of cloud-based services.
For enterprise customers, this could open up the possibility of all the features of Windows, with the convenience of Google. A price and features war, which will benefit customers everywhere, could soon follow. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft does next since it seems like they are just getting warmed up when it comes to innovation in the cloud.
The great news is, whatever Microsoft does next, we’ll be here to provide all the real-time secure synching and backup you could ever need. Sign up for a free trial today!
