Microsoft Sees the Future in Cloud Computing

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said that the technology giant that built a fortune with package software is betting the future of computing is in the internet “cloud”.

“Cloud computing represent the next frontier,” Ballmer said at an annual gathering of corporate chief executives at Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington.

“We’ve been betting or investing in the cloud for about ten years and in the earnest for about six or seven years.”

Cloud computing gained momentum during the economic downturn as people and business saved money by using applications hosted online instead of buying, installing and maintaining software on their own machines.

Microsoft sees cloud computing as playing roles in its investments Iin personal computers, smartphones and internet-enabled television.

“Those are intelligent devices that are going to continue to morph,” Ballmer said.

The internet cloud will “fuse the best of what we think of as the phone, the PC. The TV, the Internet and the corporate data-centre,” he added.