Get off my Cloud: Ballmer talks Cloud, social interactions and the 60s

 

 

It's probably too much to suggest that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is just an old hippy at heart, but he's certainly very fond of the late 1960s. "1969 was really an important year," he says. "Woodstock, man on the moon, and those were small, because the internet was really first used in 1969. The gift that just keeps on giving."

 

From the man in the moon it's just one small step for Ballmer onto the topic of Cloud Computing, a subject that was once met with reticence by Microsoft but is now top of any conversational agenda. "The Cloud sort of is part of that internet gift. It's the next step, it's the next phase, it's the next transition," enthuses Ballmer. "Depending on who you are, and how you think, you could say the Cloud started five years ago, ten years ago. You can go back to 1969, if you want, and say that the Cloud started 40 years ago, because the microprocessor and the Internet are the gifts that just keep on giving us the chance, and the opportunities to make a difference."