I was at two of Microsoft's big announcements in Delhi - launches of Office 2016 and local data-centres. While the announcements were really big considering that both Office productivity suite and Azure cloud services contribute a lot to Microsoft's revenues, it was the optimism that really caught my attention. Post the Windows 8 debacle, the world wanted to see if Microsoft will be able to turn things around. Microsoft lost search to Google and mobile to Apple and several analysts wrote the company off. That was before Satya Nadella came in. Microsoft under Nadella is a company that believes in openness and collaboration. It is a company that has snubbed its corporate ego to put customer at the front. If that sounds vague? Let me throw some light on it: Apple Special Event, San Francisco: Microsoft demoed its Office apps redesigned to take advantage of iPad Pro's split-screen view. It was a testament to Microsoft’s computing vision. During the Office launch in India, Microsoft India executive Alok Lall expressed his optimism: “Who would have expected Kirk Koenigsbauer to be on stage at Apple event?” Yes, those are not just his words, but one that’s resounding on every other tech enthusiasts’ mind. [related-post] Phil Schiller introducing Microsoft as “yeah these guys know productivity” couldn’t have come at a better time. Microsoft’s ideas are very clear: “our customers using Apple iPad need better Office apps and we have developed one for them”. Indeed, Microsoft Outlook is one of the best mail client on iOS and Redmond offers nearly 68 apps on Apple’s mobile platform. Watch video of Microsoft at Apple's event here. Dreamforce conference: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff invites Satya Nadella by calling him “an incredible leader of an incredible company”. Well it needs to be taken into account that this same Microsoft once sued Salesforce in the battle of CRM (Customer relationship management). Salesforce is the number one CRM provider in the world and Microsoft has its own Dynamics CRM, but Satya Nadella acknowledged in front of a huge audience that it makes no sense to compete and rather collaborating would be the right choice for the industry. At Dreamforce, Satya Nadella went a step further by demoing some stuff himself. He showed Salesforce integration inside Outlook mail app, real-time co-authoring with Word desktop app, Cortana analytics suite and Office add-ins. This is Microsoft which wants to be there at every competitor’s platform and yet make its own platform the best for overall experience. Azure Cloud Switch: At Microsoft’s announcement of local datacentres for cloud services, the focus was on projecting Azure as an open and hybrid cloud infrastructure. While explaining Microsoft’s open cloud, Tyler Bryson told me that “30 per cent of the workloads running on Azure cloud in India now are running Linux.” To complement that, Microsoft has built its own Linux-based Azure Cloud Switch (ACS) which is essentially an operating system for managing data centre networking built on Linux. Asked about this move, Tyler added, “We want to change the perception that it’s only for Microsoft. Our Hadoop engine is released on Linux platform”. Again here the takeaway was customers wanted Microsoft cloud on Linux server and Microsoft rather than pushing its own server, is now happy extending its platform to competing platforms that customers rely upon. [related-post] Google Patent disputes: In another first, Google and Microsoft agreed to drop all patent infringement litigation against each other. This puts an end to all the court cases involving Microsoft’s Xbox devices and Motorola’s mobile devices based on Google’s Android platform. The companies in a joint statement said, “Google and Microsoft have agreed to collaborate on certain patent matters and anticipate working together in other areas in the future to benefit our customers.” Note the words - customers and collaborate - this would be the pinpoint if Satya Nadella’s Microsoft succeeds in its ambition. Microsoft is hosting its first major Windows 10 hardware event on October 6 and in the lead up to the event, it has almost turned its foes into friends. At Dreamforce, Satya said “Google and Facebook wouldn’t have existed without Windows”. This is true, but now Windows can’t exist without them. Microsoft’s Windows 10 needs third-party developer boost and if Google steps into the ring tomorrow and announces its Windows 10 Universal apps then Microsoft would be in the game big time. Microsoft under Satya Nadella is less of a tech giant and more of a startup that develops platform. When we speak platform, Microsoft is now about Windows, Azure and Office. Rest all are just supplements to these broader platforms. While speaking to Jessi Hempel of Wired, Satya very nicely summarised his CEO job as “curator of culture”. These words speak more about the man than those huge paragraphs above. In short, Microsoft has taken the first step by extending its hand to competing platform. But will others reciprocate? That’s the obvious question only time can answer.
