Microsoft COO: Let’s Rescue Customers From Oracle, IBM

Microsoft COO Kevin Turner sees prime opportunities for partners to “rescue customers” from IBM, Oracle and others, according to his WPC12 keynote. “VMware, Oracle, Apple and Google are great competitors. We’ll respect them but we’re not going to fear them. This is our time to take back the dialog.” Here’s the keynote recap.

Turner outlined Microsoft’s Office 365 strategy vs. Google Apps, competitive gains vs. VMware, and innovations vs. Apple. He believes Microsoft and its partners are moving to a new era of opportunity –led by the cloud and Microsoft’s biggest release cycle ever: Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, and continued enhancements to Windows Azure and Office 365. “Our vision is we intend to have a continuous cloud service for every device, every person and every business…on the planet.”

Among the keynote highlights:

• Cloud revenues grew more than 100 percent across most all geographies and products. We knocked it out of the park.
• Over 50 percent of desktop PCs are deployed on Windows 7. The opportunity is to continue to accelerate with Office as well.
• Hyper-V won share vs. VMware for the first time.
• SQL Server is the worldwide unit share leader now in the database market.
• Customer satisfaction is at an all time high across every audience we track. We grew it five points collectively together. Give yourselves a hand.

Eight technology trends Turner mentioned:

1. Cloud
2. Explosion of data
3. Social computing
4. Natural interaction
5. Ecosystem of computers
6. Consumerization of IT
7. Ubiquitous technology
8. Machine learning

More highlights:

• Microsoft is spending more than $9.4 billion in R&D this year. That’s $3 billion more than the next technology company.
• It’s unprecedented that every MSFT product is being refreshed in a 12-month cycle.
• He rattled off upgrades to Windows Phone, Windows Server, Office 365, Office 365, “and it keeps going on and on and on and on. It’s the largest product release cycle in our history.”
• Windows 8 is the top priority, with great enterprise app a big priority.
• It’s about winning with Office 365 every time.
• When we talk about the cloud, we’ve got it all in market today.
• Microsoft will end-of-life Windows XP in April 2014. “Get customers on Windows 7 because that’s the fastest way to Windows 8.”
• Make sure Active Directory is completely deployed and updated. Get System Center completely deployed. “When we have those two things ready we can take any customer to the cloud at any moment.”
• Many of you haven’t made the shift. The train is gone. Get on.
• “Office 365 is our joint future. Make no mistake Google is pitching our customers but fortunately they don’t win much. When they pitch Google Apps at $50, you need to look below the surface and understand there’s a whole lot of cost associated with making their solution work. We have a great story on functionality, costs and enterprise credibility. Winning with Office 365 is the single most important thing we need to do within the enterprise.”
• Vs. VMware: We have 27 percent market share and we’re growing twice the rate of VMware. I know there are some partners hanging on to that VMworld. Hanging on to that high cost of VMware. Look at what you’re about to see. Now our momentum is picking up that they actually lost share this past quarter. For those who are still hanging on to VMware, you’re late but we still love you. Get onboard with Hyper-V.
• Vs. Oracle: Turner described SQL 2012’s amazing opportunity to scale ahead of Oracle while beating Oracle on price. On the big data front, Microsoft has a “great story” with Hadoop and SQL. “We’ve got the story to take big data into big story and big knowledge.”
• Vs. Apple: “Apple has a great product, but PC Mag readers gave Windows Phone the top award. Them, “Apple makes great hardware. But we have some differences on how we see the OS.” He quoted early reviews that said Apple has lost its way in operating system software.
• “We believe the re-imagined Windows is a game changer.”
• Microsoft is building more retail stores, including first-time launches in Puerto Rico and Canada, with holiday pop-up stores also coming.
• Microsoft Bing is beating Google on search relevance.

Ultimately, it all comes down to customer satisfaction. “The customer is why we’re here. Let’s accelerate adoptions and eradicate Windows XP, lead customers into the cloud, leverage our strong R&D story, and we have to remember the customer is always right. They vote by what they buy.”

Turner said Microsoft is moving out of defense mode and going on the offense. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we’ve got to make the most of it,” he said, referring to the Windows 8, Windows 2012 launches, and various cloud services build-outs. “It’s going to be a lot of fun the next 12 months, ladies and gentlemen. I’m looking for it. I hope you are too.”