Transformation of our Company
As our industry has evolved because of this web-catalyzed services transformation, so too has Microsoft. More than two years ago when I wrote the memo entitled
The Internet Services Disruption, much of the company was still focused on bringing our Office 2007 and
Vista
products to market. Aside from MSN, IE/IIS and our tools groups, it was truly “software‟, not “services‟, that was top of mind.
Since then, we‘ve made tremendous progress in our expansion toward software+services‟ -from the long-term quests we‟ve undertaken and customer scenarios we now envision, to the great services and service-enhanced software we‟ve begun to bring to market, and the amazing projects at various stages within our development pipeline. In light of all the work that we‟re doing, it‟s important that we build a shared sense of what Microsoft‟s path looks like in this transition toward software+services. For consumers, advertisers and publishers, our investments in new forms of content, community, commerce, search and advertising are key. We‟re investing significantly to ensure tremendous audience engagement, and to provide an attractive and well-targetable audience, ensuring that we continue to be an attractive partner for advertisers and publishers within a vibrant and competitive advertising ecosystem.
For customers and partners who use and who‟ve invested in Microsoft‟s myriad offerings, we feel there‟s tremendous growth potential in moving toward a world that fully embraces software, services and the web. The device mesh, the social mesh, cloud-based infrastructure, and server/service symmetry represent great opportunities across all markets we serve.
Over the course of this year, and progressively over the next few years, you‟ll see the principles and scenarios laid out in this document come to life through many new and service-enhanced products and services for individuals, businesses and developers. As you do, I hope you‟ll share my excitement and optimism as you experience how we‟re bringing together the power of the internet, with the magic of software, across a world of devices.
Ray Ozzie