A big area of focus for Microsoft in the future will be services running on the Internet, as a platform for developers as well as a solution to consumers, small and medium business, and the enterprise.
That`s what Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told IT professionals and developers earlier this week at Gallagher Estate in Midrand.
"One of the biggest shifts and transformations for all markets over the next 10 years will be the migration of software from something we think of as a fixed product to something we think about as a service that will be always updated, live and connected over the Internet," he said.
Ballmer qualified his statement by pointing out that pushing Microsoft`s Windows XP Service Pack 2 to over 200 million desktops worldwide would not have been possible without using the online Windows Update service.
"We think Web services is an important part of transformation at the platform level and the application level," he said, hinting that all future innovation at Microsoft would be based on this principle.
Security was another topic Ballmer highlighted during his session with IT professionals and developers, giving the assurance that while Microsoft focused on improving usability, security remained a top priority with a range of new security technologies scheduled to be introduced this year.
"Microsoft absolutely and objectively has the most secure products in the market and even analysts will tell you Internet Explorer is more secure than Firefox and that Windows is more secure than Linux," Ballmer said.
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