Moving forward, Ray Ozzie, Microsoft Chief Software Architect, sees cloud computing positioned as the backend for three main types of devices that will continue to define the digital lives of end users. The man that inherited the title of CSA from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is currently architecting a new strategy for the Redmond-based company, one in which the software giant is embracing the Cloud and the Software plus Services business model. Under Ozzie, Microsoft is producing Windows Azure, its first Cloud-based operating system that was introduced at the end of the past year.

“At the current time my view point is that you have to do pattern matching. Pattern match the technology trends, pattern match what's going on in terms of the social environment, how people use technology, how organizations use technology in the macroeconomic environment. And now the way I've been framing things, in essence we're moving to a world of three screens and a Cloud. That's the most succinct way that I can describe it, where for the user experience we will all commonly consume solutions that are relevant to us, whether its [sic] media, entertainment or productivity, or business, that are delivered to us in some coherent way across something the size of a phone, something the size of a PC, and something the size of a TV,” Ozzie stated.

In his remarks at the Washington Technology Alliance's State of Technology luncheon on May 1, in Seattle, Ozzie did not offer more details besides a general perspective. However, it is clear that Microsoft is in the right place and at the right time to connect PCs, phones, TVs and a variety of other devices with the Cloud.

“There will be solutions delivered that weave those three things together, brought together by the Cloud as the backend. And if you take that design pattern and go across everyone of these solutions, you can project where things will go for developers to build these solutions and how we do the various things we do today, when we just think about the phone or the PC,” Ozzie added.