Microsoft: Cloud computing is the hard truth

Launched its own-brand Tablet Surface, released the Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system with the same core as Windows 8, and acquired US$1.2 billion in cash for corporate social networking company Yammer... Each and every recent message from Microsoft is a “blockbuster”. The next fiscal year starting in July 2013 will be a big year for Microsoft. The innovation strategy will become clearer and more exciting products, solutions and services will be released and entered into China.

Shushu Li: Microsoft's fiscal year 2012 financial results show that its performance is higher than the global average growth rate. How do you evaluate Microsoft's overall performance in fiscal year 2012?

Xie Enwei: Microsoft's overall performance in FY2012 is indeed very good, and its advantages in marketing and strategy development are also very prominent. For example, Microsoft Windows Server is advancing rapidly in the entire market, especially in virtualization. This has a lot to do with the introduction of Microsoft's private cloud architecture and the launch of next-generation Windows Server and system management software.

Shushu Li: Microsoft has been keeping up with China's IT development in recent years. It is said that for every $1 of Microsoft's revenue generated in China, Microsoft's partner companies will create a total of $16.89 in revenue. After entering the era of cloud computing, this figure will not change?

Xie Enwei: Indeed, in China, Microsoft can earn more than RMB 16 yuan for every RMB 1 in revenue. And we are very much looking forward to the upcoming 2013 new financial year, when many innovative products and services, including smartphones Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 operating system, more online services, Office365 and Windows Azure cloud operating platform landing in the Chinese market Our partners and even the entire ecosystem have more opportunities.

Taking application development as an example, our Windows Phone introduced an application store. In February, we also began to promote the application store on the Windows 8 operating system. This is very beneficial for partners who are doing application development or operations.

First of all, in the aspect of paid download sharing, the division of Microsoft and partners apart from the traditional March 7 opening, Microsoft has added a new rule - when the number of application downloads or its influence reaches a certain degree, the proportion will become 28 Partners are more profitable.

In addition, we are actively promoting more applications. For example, we have just released Windows Phone 8 to support mobile payments based on the NFC standard. Microsoft also launched its own wallet Wallet Hub, and will open its interface for third-party applications to access.

Supporting mobile payments is very important, because players need to purchase applications in the application store, virtual currency equipment for online games, or upgrades. Opening of payment links is an important guarantee for developer profitability.

Microsoft supports multiple third-party payment methods on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 to ensure that application software developers can not only make money through paid downloads, but also make more profit through advertising.

Shushu Li: The emergence of Windows 8 platform may provide partners with a platform to bring more opportunities and create greater value.

Xie Enwei: Yes. In fact, I have been working at Microsoft for 18 years. The reason why I was able to work for a company for so long was the value of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft not only did technological innovation, but more importantly applied new technologies to the society, which led to the promotion of the entire IT industry.

Cloud computing must be application-focused

Shushu Li: Microsoft's strategy is the focus of everyone's attention. What is Microsoft's cloud strategy? How is Microsoft's cloud strategy different from other vendors?

Xie Enwei: Microsoft is making strategic updates. In the past, everyone thought that Microsoft was a software company, and the latest strategy we proposed was that Microsoft should be a service provider and provide services and content to end customers through clients, including consumers or enterprise users. On the one hand, Microsoft will focus more on using software to include client devices such as tablets and smartphones. On the other hand, Microsoft will allow more and better online content and services to be displayed on the client.

When it comes to Microsoft's overall cloud computing plan, we do differ from other vendors.

First, Microsoft does not just say or do nothing about cloud computing, but does it while speaking. On the one hand, it mentions ideas and on the other hand, it also pays great attention to practice. As for cloud practice, Microsoft has been a cloud service provider for more than ten years and has launched many cloud services for consumers, such as Bing, Office365, and so on. Supporting these cloud services is Microsoft's more than 100 cross-global data centers built on its own software platform. More than a decade of hands-on experience integrates Microsoft's online products and services.

In the aspect of enterprise customers, apart from the concept, we already have some specific products and cases, such as pork quality monitoring and tracing management done by Chengdu Software Park on Microsoft's private cloud platform; working together with Siemens to build a dynamic data center for efficient integration Siemens distributes hardware and software resources in various places to ensure stable operation of its Intranet service platform. At the Private Cloud Product Launch Conference held in May this year, we just released two very important products, one is the system management software System Center 2012, and the other is the SQL Server database 2012.

Whether it is a public cloud or a private cloud, one of Microsoft's strengths is its own practice. The accumulation of these experiences is very important.

Second, Microsoft stressed that cloud computing must be based on applications. There are many voices in the industry saying that cloud computing is virtualization, which makes people think that building a large data center can provide cloud services. In actual fact, Microsoft has been emphasizing the importance of applications from the very beginning.

Whether it is based on the traceability of Chengdu Pork based on Microsoft's private cloud or Hong Kong TVB's Hong Kong TVB, it is all about cloud applications.

For another example, taking the virtualization technology as an example, the virtualization technologies of different vendors are essentially the same, but the most important point is that Microsoft's virtualization is not just a cross-physical and virtual machine management, it is not just a cross-operating system management. , is more cross-application management. For CIOs, much of the IT investment is spent on application management, upgrades, and patching. Microsoft's management capabilities in this area are very prominent, with applications at the core.

Third, Microsoft strongly emphasizes that cloud is not cloud, private cloud, or public cloud. In the final analysis, it is determined by customer needs.

We have done simple research and the results show that there are several types of customer needs: SMEs are more likely to be on the public cloud because of their lower IT capabilities; large enterprises may be more comfortable with private clouds because IT systems are already very Powerful, high management requirements for customer data or information.

Even in companies of the same size, the needs of different businesses are different. For example, e-mail is more likely to apply to public clouds. Internal core commercial applications are not suitable for public clouds. There may be both public and public clouds in an enterprise. Microsoft introduced the hybrid cloud model early on. In short, everything is up to the customer and Microsoft will give customers more choices.

Moreover, under the trend of consumerization of IT, the boundaries between consumer applications and commercial applications have become increasingly blurred, and cloud computing can largely conform to this trend and solve problems.

Li Shuhuan: In fact, for many years now, many users are still wrestling with a problem - Why must it be a cloud? Can it not be a cloud? Can we see that the pace of cloud computing in China is also accelerating, even in remote areas where there are cloud computing centers? Get up. However, these cloud computing centers are not much different from traditional data centers. And Microsoft completely thinks about this issue from another perspective. Microsoft does not emphasize that it must be cloud, but just what customers need, what kind of applications to use, what kind of technology and product solutions to solve the problem, if needed Clouds are clouds, no clouds are not needed, and the problem becomes very simple.

Xie Enwei: Yes, all issues should be based on applications and see the needs of practical applications. In fact, for the development of the local economy, it is not a city that establishes a data center to represent high technology, and it is more important to analyze its economies of scale from the perspective of the cloud economy. After calculation, you may find that you must achieve more than 100,000 servers to achieve scale effect in terms of electricity, hardware purchase, human resource requirements, etc., and reduce costs by a large amount of automation, so as to achieve higher economic benefits.

If China needs more than 100 data centers, it may not necessarily be that each province and every city has its own data center. Instead, it should have a standardized plan for deployment. Where should we build a data center? Public cloud services are being promoted to other provinces and cities, so as to focus more on application development, rather than building data centers all the time, they must actually apply these resources.

In addition, establishing a data center does not necessarily result in many job opportunities. Take a Microsoft data center as an example. It has a large football field, about 50 to 60 containers inside, and 500 servers in each container. In such a large data center, people who are really full-time are not responsible. More than six. Therefore, a large data center does not necessarily bring a lot of job opportunities to a city or a province.

However, if you look at the application, the situation will be very different. If cloud-based applications are expanded, an application service ecosystem will be established, application developers, operators, content providers, and maintainers... Job opportunities will be flooded.

Li Shuzheng: With the strong support of the national and local governments, our infrastructure construction has reached a high level and has laid the foundation for the development of cloud computing. But for many corporate users, they are considering how far cloud computing is from me. Isn't it expensive? Isn't it difficult? Isn't it necessary to push everything back?

Xie Enwei: In fact, I actually think that cloud computing is everywhere. Take Microsoft's cloud storage SkyDrive as an example. Applicants each have a free 7GB cloud space for documents, photos, etc., which I use every day. In addition, video phones, e-mails, etc. are already cloud services, and cloud services are everywhere.

Li Shukai: The cloud is a large industrial chain. It needs a very good and huge ecological environment. No company has come completely to its own. What is Microsoft's strategy in terms of cloud computing and its partners?

Xie Enwei: I think it is multi-faceted. As mentioned earlier, Microsoft's 1:16 eco-chain effect will continue to be maintained, and partners will be more diversified. For example, behind our "client + service" strategy, Microsoft has a lot of strategic partners on the client. Huawei is the earliest cooperating hardware manufacturer of Windows Phone 8 that we just announced. Microsoft has a lot of hardware partners throughout the desktop or tablet design.

In addition to hardware partners, we also have partners for application software and partners for online services, and the circle of partners will become larger and larger. For example, Eastern Airlines was originally a Microsoft customer, but when it began to make online bookings and other B2C services, it became a Microsoft application partner.

We also have many solution partners, especially in some new areas such as private cloud, automation of data center management, etc. We need many solution partners to better deploy and operate.

In addition, telecom operators are also our partners because we want to push online services to more consumers and commercial operations through the telecom network.

Our partner ecosystem is constantly expanding. Referring to ISV, we call the new partner CSV, cloud service provider, which includes traditional ISVs such as UF, Kingdee, and new CSV, such as Eastern Airlines and China Mobile. Microsoft's strategy will not change, but will do more in the partner's ecological chain to do more investment and training to achieve a win-win situation.

Windows 8 innovation does not follow

Shushu Li: Regarding Microsoft's mobile strategy, many people are very optimistic about Microsoft, because Microsoft's "cloud + end" both are relatively strong. Windows 8 will soon be released. Please tell us about Microsoft's strategy and initiatives in the field of mobility.

Xie Enwei: I think in this regard, there are indeed a few core points. From the diversification of hardware, the consistency of user experience, and the diversity of human-computer interaction will have a great effect on Microsoft's "end".

First of all, from the perspective of the end, Microsoft respects the concept of terminal diversity. According to the needs of users, the needs of each end are different. From smart phones to tablet computers to desktop PCs and other large-screen terminals, Microsoft will do more hardware innovations with more partners to provide users with different choices.

Second, Microsoft also needs to guarantee the consistency of user experience on different hardware. When Microsoft made smart phones, it contacted many hardware manufacturers and asked about its screen resolution, camera standards, etc. to better protect users' good application experience.

The last step is to do more innovation on the interactive interface. For example, Kinect, its importance is not to make the game experience to a higher level, but to the human nature of human interaction to a certain height. The value of Kinect is not only reflected in the game, but also has a very good interactive experience in education, health care and so on.

Shushu Li: Soon after, Windows 8 was released. Will Microsoft integrate all the products? In this regard, what are the major strategies of Microsoft?

Xie Enwei: In the recent period, Microsoft news is indeed more, but the big strategy will still be attributed to "client + cloud computing", and some traditional products will be released one after another. Let me summarize a little bit:

First, the Windows desktop operating system is a very large product line of Microsoft. Windows 8 is our major update. Second, our server operating system Windows Server and online application platform will play a decisive role in the improvement of the overall infrastructure and the expansion of online applications. Third, our Office product series, mainly the next generation of Office products plus Office365 products, will gradually enter the Chinese market.

These three products fully embody Microsoft's "cloud + end" strategy and are very much looking forward to such a series of very important products to the Chinese market.

Shushu Li: Microsoft has released its own tablet computer, Surface, and other recent moves have also received much attention. Now many people are very optimistic about Microsoft, and may even challenge Apple. How do you see this?

Xie Enwei: Microsoft's Surface is a combination of work and entertainment. It is a client product for creativity and consumption. Microsoft has always been a company that is eager to compete because it will have good industrial innovation. Microsoft will not follow the trend in it, but hope to stand out. The Metro interface of Windows 8 is a good example. We did not imitate others. Instead, we adopted the concept of “dynamic tile” to display the content without clicking on the application.

Li Shuyi: Thank you for sharing. Finally, please look forward to Microsoft's new fiscal year with a few words.

Xie Enwei: In the next 12 to 18 months, Microsoft will put Windows 8, Office 365, and some online services and online operating platforms into the Chinese market one after another. We are very much looking forward to a lot of innovative products coming into the Chinese market in the next fiscal year. Microsoft will work with partners to serve customers, and to stimulate the market and drive the development of the entire industry.

Reporter's Notes: The Next Microsoft

Some people are very optimistic about Windows 8, because it is a combination of work and entertainment, convergence of consumer and enterprise-level applications, Metro interface, dynamic tile, is no longer the interactive application of engineers, but young and old, work and life If you think about it, you know that Windows 8 will "explode" what it looks like on the basis of the original strong user base of Windows.

And just over a month ago, Microsoft Global CEO Steve Ballmer had lectured in Peking University's 100-year lecture on machine learning, multi-modality products/user interfaces, core platforms, cloud computing, and application innovation. The next five technology trends. One of the core platforms is Windows.

However, at this time, Windows is no longer Windows, and now Microsoft is not Microsoft. Bill Gates has retired but this will not affect Microsoft's reinvention.

However, innovation and transformation has always been a difficult task, especially for giant companies such as Microsoft. The correct strategies, appropriate strategies, firm execution and timing are all indispensable.

Surface, Windows Phone 8, and Windows 8 believe that behind Microsoft's "Looking for Fascinating Eyes" action is a firm heart of innovation and transformation.