Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience


There are many reasons why initial success becomes the father of later failure. Sometimes designers cling too long to old technology, sometimes companies make ill-advised leaps to new and untried technology, and sometimes leaders cling to old business models when change is essential to survival.

I came to Microsoft to lead a new research initiative in cloud computing, one that complements our production data center infrastructure and our nascent Azure cloud software platform. You can read the press release and the web site for the official story. What follows is my personal perspective.