Microsoft: Giving You The Services You Wanted 3 to 10 Years Ago, 3 To 10 Years From Now
Link: Microsoft Offers a Web-Based Strategy
"’We’re not moving toward a world of thin computing,’ said Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, referring to systems in which simple processing takes place on a PC, but more complex processing is moved to a centralized computer through a network connection. ‘We’re moving toward a world of software plus services.’
Nearly every Microsoft software application will be transformed with the addition of a Web-services component within 3 to 10 years, he said.
He rejected the notion that in the future all software would be based in what computer industry executives refer to as ‘the cloud’ — computer hardware and software reachable over the Internet. ‘People tend to get weird and extreme about this,’ Mr. Ballmer said. ‘Does everything move to the cloud? I think that is wrong-minded.’"
