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Should Microsoft sell Windows and Office? This former exec believes so:
A former Microsoft executive has offered up some advice for current CEO Satya Nadella: spin off Windows and Office and focus on Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing crown jewel.
Ben Slivka, a 14-year veteran at Microsoft who left in 1999, gave the unsolicited advice to Nadella in an interview with CNBC, saying: "The right thing probably is to bet the future on the cloud."
[...] On top of this, Nadella invested heavily in building out Azure and other enterprise-focused offerings to compete with Amazon's AWS and Google Cloud. By some estimates, Azure hold 20% of the cloud market, below AWS' 32% and above Google's 9%.
According to analysts that CNBC spoke to, spinning off Windows and Office would make very little sense. Nadella has built significant and much-needed synergies between Microsoft's various businesses, in such a way that the rise of one boosts the others.
So what do you think?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 13 2022, @12:56PM (2 children)
There was talk of Microsoft diversifying years ago. I kinda chuckled when I first read it, because Microsoft really has nothing to sell other than software. Today they have Azure, but not back then.
I've always wondered just WTF they do with all the data they collect. Telemetry is a common point of discussion these days, but even 25 years ago, they were quietly collecting data. That was the major reason I've always avoided Windows, I didn't know what they collected, or what they did with their collection. WTF were they doing with it?
Microsoft, diversify? Azure is just a more efficient way to collect data, when you think about it. Why snoop on people's desktops, when those people are happy to 'trust' the cloud with their data? Maybe, maybe not. I'm sure that the most trusting of people have stuff on their desktops that they don't put on the cloud. Gotta keep tabs on all the data!
But, where does that data GO? Straight to the NSA? That's some weird shit that no one has ever even attempted to explain.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday January 13 2022, @06:31PM (1 child)
Microsoft can not only snoop on user's browsing, but Microsoft has its fingers right in the kernel of every Windows running PC on the planet. Talk about being able to snoop on every single program you run. What those programs do. How those programs are written. What data is being passed through those programs. Nevermind having unfettered access to all of the
pr0ninformation stored on every PC in existence.The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Common Joe on Thursday January 13 2022, @08:02PM
Other people throughout this post keep saying how useless Windows is and how much it costs and that is why Microsoft should just get rid of it. However, you just highlighted the exact reason why they won't and why it is so profitable to keep Windows. Whether the user uses Azure of AWS, 90%+ users go through Windows to do it.