Big Azure? Microsoft and IBM ink deal on business cloud

Interesting

This deal feel is further cementing the process of Microsoft saying that they believe (and will make it so....) that their future as a viable company is in cloudy services as a general topic.*

Furthermore, it almost sounds like they are admitting that Azure may not appeal to the large-enterprise proper, and thus have chosen IBM to represent/push windows in the enterprise IAAS market**

Gaining IBM middlware VM's integrated onto Azure is probably not something that will be utilized heavily yet (depending on the pricing...) but likely represents a potential upgrade/upsell option targeted at the growing small/medium businesses that become dependent on azure.

The biggest winner here is probably IBM. As they divest themselves of their manufacturing and hardware capabilities, they do need to be known for something. Deals like these further cement (at least the perception) that they can sell and service large enterprise on a services/knowledge side.

Karl P

*Whether that is good or bad largely depends on where you are standing

**Following in Apple's footsteps earlier this year.....