Microsoft Unveils Two Pillars of its Cloud Strategy

For a company with about 90 percent of the operating system market, Microsoft has been painfully slow to introduce a cloud strategy to capitalize on its market strength in desktop and server computing.

However, this year, the company upped its game in the cloud, wrapping its strategy around the "infrastructure-to-application" model.

In January, it teamed with HP, promising to deliver cloud computing solutions via prepackaged servers, storage, software, and networking gear. HP and Microsoft said they would commit to spending $250 million over three years to combine some research and development efforts.

"The cloud is the driving force behind this deal," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the time.

Last week, Ballmer told attendees at Microsoft's CEO Summit that the future of software will be in the cloud.

"It's a place where we will all work," he said with visionary gusto.

Ballmer's forward-looking statement was backed up by Microsoft product news the same week.

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