The Windows platform is no longer at the center of Microsoft's world.
This status quo reflects Microsoft's efforts to expand to markets in
addition to those for Windows and Office. And Microsoft
Chief Executive Officer, Steve Ballmer, is the “architect”
creating a new orbit for the Redmond Company, outside of Windows and
Office. And as Microsoft continues to evolve, one thing is clear:
Windows will get lost in the background. This because the next
operating system from Microsoft will be focused and tailored on the
company's Software + Services approach.
This is not to say that Microsoft will shelve the Windows business. Or
that there will be no more major releases of the Windows platform.
However, in the long run, Microsoft needs to deliver a viable
alternative to Software as a Service. And it will do so by bundling
software with service in a single answer. And SharePoint Server is the
only Microsoft product that holds the key to that. While Windows and
Office will still play a role, SharePoint is the company's future
operating system.
At the Convergence 2007 conference in San Diego, California on March
14, 2007, Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft, answered a question from the
public: “Is SharePoint almost like an operating system changeover?”
Just browsing through Ballmer's response we can see that Microsoft's
CEO indeed considers SharePoint an operating system or platform between
personal productivity and business applications.
Here is Ballmer's answer in full: “That's a good question. SharePoint
-- how do I say this? I get asked, what is Windows? And we had a whole
bunch of PR around that for a long time. When we put a browser in, that
was controversial there for a while. (Laughter.) And what really is
Windows? Windows is the essential set of tools for every application
developer and every user. It's the core user interface model and the
core services that everybody will want, particularly in terms of
storage and presentation.
Office, what is Office? Well, before there was an Office there was an
Excel, there was a Word, there was a PowerPoint. And so Office almost
is as defined by its components as it is defined by the brand itself.
SharePoint is in some senses for me the definitive I'll call it
operating system or platform for that kind of middle tier of capability
that I talked about on my People Ready Business slide. It's the thing
that brings the world of personal productivity and the world of line of
business applications together.
I was encouraged by one of our customers who talked about the
SharePoint enterprise content management services, give it a brand and
give it a name; the SharePoint enterprise search services, give it a
brand, give it a name; the SharePoint business intelligence services,
give it a brand, give it a name; the SharePoint workflow and document
management services, give it a brand, give it a name. It's a lot like
Office, except we didn't brand and name the components in advance; they
are just part of SharePoint itself.
