A lot of people are asking if Microsoft will prevail in the cloud. While the jury is still out, it's becoming clear that Microsoft's strategy makes more sense than even it has explained.
In a recent post, InformationWeek's John Foley provided several points showing that Microsoft should be able to win, thanks to a massive user base and nearly unlimited resources. Most agree that Microsoft's cloud efforts are not so much a strategy issue as much as an execution problem.
I am starting to agree that "Software plus services" is the right approach--at least for Microsoft. One of the most overlooked Microsoft assets is Visual Studio, and if Microsoft adds a "cloud deploy" capability into the development environment, all of a sudden, things will start to get interesting.