MICROSOFT yesterday unveiled its plans for what it calls a new generation of computing which fully embraces the web to deliver business software.
The software giant's chief software architect, Ray Ozzie, unveiled Windows Azure, a version of its ubiquitous operating system designed to make software services and applications available over the web, during a keynote speech at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles.
Describing this as a "turning point for Microsoft", Mr Ozzie said it involved a transformation of its software and strategy to embrace fully the idea of web services.
Rather than the traditional model of selling software to customers who install it on their own computers, Microsoft will provide access to the Azure platform running in its data centres and charge depending on usage and the level of support a customer requires.
The 6,500 attendees at the conference will be able to test Windows Azure, but Mr Ozzie did say when a commercial service would be available.
This model of software residing on the web has become known as "cloud computing" and has been championed by online retailer Amazon, which makes the infrastructure developed to run its own business available to third parties.
Mr Ozzie acknowledged Amazon's pioneering efforts, saying it had created many of the standards of the new approach.
Microsoft is building a $500 million data centre in west Dublin to support the strategy in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which will play a key role in the provision of Azure when it opens next summer.
The announcement of Azure is the culmination of Microsoft's "software plus services" strategy, whereby it is providing new web capabilities to customers while still protecting its lucrative business of selling software to install in customer premises.
Mr Ozzie pointed out that Microsoft "still believes deeply in the world of on-premise software", while at the same time "believing deeply in the potential of the new world of the cloud".
Tomorrow Microsoft will take the wraps off its new version of Windows for PCs, Windows 7, which will replace the much-maligned Vista which was beset by problems at its launch.
The company has been tight-lipped about discussing Windows 7 with the press and won't even commit to a firm release date for the latest version of the software which runs on about 1 billion computers worldwide.
It is, however, expected to appear in late 2009 or early 2010.
