14 DAY TRIAL // At the start of 2009, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer announced officially that Bob Muglia was promoted to the role of President of Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business (STB) from the position of senior vice president of that business group. Head of STB and responsible for no less than US$13 billion in annual revenue, Muglia emphasized that, in the context of the tough economic times ahead in 2009, technology might provide businesses with a breath of fresh air, when it came down to cutting costs.
“SQL Server is an example of that where we're a fraction of the price of Oracle. Virtualization and the opportunity for customers to lower their administrative costs, and lower the capital costs, and deliver a great set of IT capabilities at again a fraction of the cost – that's another great example. Or, look at our security business and the fact that we are offering customers a very, very cohesive solution that will cost them a small fraction of what they would pay going to our competitors,” Muglia stated.
A 21-year Microsoft veteran, Muglia had worked on the development of a variety of products including the Office System and Pocket PCs, eBooks and Tablet PCs, but reached the position of Microsoft President only after taking the lead of the company's Server and Tools Business. He explained that the group played a critical role in the way in which businesses around the world ran.
“We have a set of great businesses, really, that collectively help to power the engine of our customers in their businesses. Obviously, if you look at Windows Server, SQL Server, our management products, our tools, and now our emerging security products, all of these things are very important for our customers, and have great revenue earning potential for the company. Some of those businesses are multi-billion businesses today, and all of them have very strong potential to grow into billion-plus dollar businesses,” he explained.
Going forward, Muglia continues to be committed to the vision of Dynamic IT, in order to enable companies to boost the efficiency level of their IT development process. Such a move is synonymous with the adoption of services and of cloud computing. Microsoft's STB President indicated that he was happy with the way business customers embraced Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, and pointed out that the company's announcement of Windows Azure Cloud operating system at the end of October 2008 was also well received.
“One trend I think we'll continue to see is good expansion in our database business. We have a great value that we're offering to customers relative to competition like Oracle, and a very, very mature product that really can meet the needs of any business application,” Muglia added. “I think another big opportunity is services, and being able to take and use software to do things that today IT has to hire people to do repetitive tasks on. We've found – and again Exchange Online, SharePoint Online are a good example of this – that we can offer a great value to our customers, and provide them with those features and products through a service at a small fraction of what they would pay to run it themselves, and at the same time it's a good business opportunity for us.”