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Cloud Computing Analysts encouraged by Microsoft’s ‘cloud’ progress
Jul 31st
Cloud Computing Analysts encouraged by Microsoft’s ‘cloud’ progress
SEATTLE (MarketWatch) — Wall Street analysts came away from Microsoft Corp.’s annual gathering encouraged by the company’s progress in adapting to a market in which software applications are increasingly delivered online, according to research reports published Friday.
Microsoft increasingly has been moving into so-called cloud computing, where software is accessed through an Internet connection, rather than installed in a user’s computer.
Younger rivals including Google Inc. (GOOG 484.85, -0.14, -0.03%) , Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN 117.89, +1.03, +0.88%) and Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM 98.95, +1.16, +1.19%) have sought to expand the cloud-computing market, while Microsoft has endeavored to alter its own approach to keep pace.
Jefferies & Co. analyst Katherine Egbert pointed out that investors are shifting money out of Microsoft shares, based on concerns about how the company will develop new ways of making money.
Shares of Microsoft have fallen roughly 15% in the past three months, compared with a roughly 8% decline for the Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP 2,255, +3.01, +0.13%) over the same period. The stock closed Friday down slightly, at $25.81.
But Egbert wrote in a research note that concerns about Microsoft may be exaggerated, as the company has a history of adopting “technologies, mostly invented by others, to the mass market.”
Cloud evolution
“We’re going to lead with the cloud,” Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said at the company’s annual analyst meeting Thursday, while noting successes in vying for cloud-computing contracts against Google and International Business Machines Corp.
Microsoft “appears to be holding their own competitively” in cloud computing, Deutsche Bank analyst Todd Raker told clients in a note. “The bottom line is we believe the cloud is evolving from a secular threat to an opportunity” for the company.
However, Raker also acknowledged that the timing of any significant economic benefit from Microsoft’s cloud-computing effort remains “unclear,” noting that “we get significant pushback from investors on near-term reasons to own the stock.”
Some analysts argued that investors may not yet fully appreciate Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform service, which includes cloud computing and storage for customers hosted at the company’s data centers.
“While the buzz has picked up around Azure over the past 12 months, we do not believe the company gets enough credit,” Oppenheimer analyst Brad Reback told clients in his own research note.
“Azure should be a net revenue and profit creator” as more corporate customers snap up the service, he said.
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IBM buys cloud computing software firm Cast Iron
May 3rd
IBM said it bought privately held software company Cast Iron Systems to bolster its expertise in cloud computing, an increasingly popular technology that helps companies cut costs by enabling access to software online.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Monday’s announcement underscores International Business Machines Corp’s continued effort to expand in software and services while retreating from sales of commoditized hardware.
IBM said the deal will help customers integrate various cloud applications from providers like Salesforce.com Inc, Amazon.com Inc, NetSuite Inc and SAP.
IBM said it expects global cloud computing market, including “software as a service,” to grow to $126 billion by 2012 from $47 billion in 2008.
Analysts said they expect deals in cloud computing by IBM and such other technology vendors such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Cisco Systems Inc and EMC Corp.
Targets could include similar small companies specializing in cloud computing, like Boomi, Hubspan and informatica, they said.
“I think software as a service will continue to undergo a shakeout, absolutely,” said Forrester Research analyst Liz Herbert. “There are lots of these small providers in spaces like integration and billing and provisioning … We are seeing and we expect to see more acquisitions activity from major providers.”
IBM does not always announce terms of individual deals but has said it spent a gross $1 billion on acquisitions in the first quarter. For all of 2009, it spent $1.5 billion, including $1.2 billion cash to buy business analytics company SPSS Inc.
Cast Iron, whose approximately 75 employees will join IBM, said the deal will help it gain broader customer reach. Its current clients include Time Warner Inc and ShoreTel Inc.
Source: Reuters
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Microsoft to Offer U.S. Scientists Free Cloud Computing
Feb 5th
U.S. Scientists Given Access to Cloud Computing
The National Science Foundation and the Microsoft Corporation have agreed to offer American scientific researchers free access to the company’s new cloud computing service.
A goal of the three-year project is to give scientists the computing power to cope with exploding amounts of research data. It uses Microsoft’s Windows Azure computing system, which the company recently introduced to compete with cloud computing services from companies like Amazon, Google, I.B.M. and Yahoo. These cloud computing systems allow organizations and individuals to run computing tasks and Internet services remotely in relatively low-cost data centers.
The new program was announced on Thursday at a news conference in Washington.
Neither Microsoft nor the foundation was willing to place a dollar amount on the agreement, but Dan Reed, the corporate vice president for technology strategy and policy at Microsoft, said that the company was prepared to invest millions of dollars in the service and that it could support thousands of scientific research programs.
Access to the service will come in grants from the foundation to new and continuing scientific research. Microsoft executives said they planned eventually to make the new service global.
The government has traditionally supported a group of scientific computing centers at universities and laboratories around the country. These centers have typically housed supercomputers capable of solving scientific and engineering problems quickly. In recent years, however, increasing emphasis has been placed on computing systems capable of storing and analyzing vast amounts of data.
“It’s all about data,” said Jeannette M. Wing, assistant director of computer and information science and engineering directorate at the science foundation. “We are generating streams and rivers of data.”
Genetic sequencing systems are capable of generating as much as a terabyte, 1,000 gigabytes, of information a minute, Dr. Wing said.
Microsoft made its commitment to scientific computing two years after a similar service was introduced by Google and I.B.M. Several scientists familiar with the Microsoft project said the software company was hoping to differentiate the new service by offering scientists a set of custom applications that simplified access to Azure and the use of older software applications like Microsoft Excel.
“We’re trying to figure out how to engage the majority of scientists,” said Dr. Reed, who directed several of the nation’s scientific computing centers before joining Microsoft.
Simplicity of use is one Microsoft goal. Programming modern cloud systems for full efficiency has been difficult. The company is trying to overcome this difficulty in creating a variety of software tools for scientists, said Ed Lazowska, a University of Washington computer scientist who works with the Microsoft researchers.
Dr. Lazowska said the explosion of data being collected by scientists had transformed the staffing needs of the typical scientific research program on campus from a half-time graduate student one day a week to a full-time employee dedicated to managing the data. He said such exponential growth in cost was increasingly hampering scientific research.
Full Source The New York Times
