On October 18th BBC News reported that “Ray Ozzie, chief software architect of Microsoft and proponent of cloud computing, [had] resigned unexpectedly. Mr Ozzie was a top member of the company’s management, having taken over the software role from Bill Gates.”
By challenging the company to make more use of the web and to move away from the old school hardware systems that were in place, Ozzie revolutionised the way in which Microsoft functioned. According to CEO Steve Ballmer, the cloud is now “… full speed ahead in all aspects of [their] business.”
However this success has come through no lack of hard graft. When joining the company five years ago, The Daily Telegraph writes that “Mr Ozzie, 54, told executives that unless it adapted its software and the way it was sold “our business as we know it is at risk.””
His persistence and belief in the idea of Cloud Computing has revived Microsoft and hurled it favorably into the now and with emerging technical leaders in the business, Ozzie know his work as a catalyst is done.
And so by taking a step back and examining the facts maybe we can ask the question: if a business as established as Microsoft has had to embrace Cloud Computing and adapted itself in order to fulfill its potential, shouldn’t that be a lesson to us all?