Satya Nadella, Office for iPad, and the big new Microsoft vision

If we didn't believe Microsoft's commitment to a ubiquitous computing future of devices and services, then new certainly should after today's launch of Office on the iPad. The company's new CEO Satya Nadella talked about a world of ubiquitous devices and ambient intelligence, where everything we do is digitized, and handled by our interactions with the machines we use.

Simon Bisson

Office Product Manager Julia White demonstrates Office on iPad.

Nadella's ubiquitous computing future is one of many devices and many scenarios, with sensors, smartphones, tablets, and big screens all part of the everyday fabric of computing, and where cloud services offer what he called 'the most important trend of all, the ability to reason over data, where we can gain insights and improve the fidelity of our interactions.' As he then pointed out, 'A device that cannot connect to the cloud cannot take part in these scenarios'.

This, then, is the big picture we were expecting to see from Nadella, an articulation of a vision that puts his stamp on the company. Delivering Office for iPad is certainly a big change for Microsoft, a step away from its old Windows-first ideology. But it's merely a piece of the puzzle that needs that big picture to become a success.

The new iPad app takes advantage of device capabilities to deliver something that's familiar to Office users, while still being an authentically iOS application. Microsoft is clear that this is only the first iteration of a new touch-first Office, with new regular updates to add new features and top support additional elements of its cloud services.

While Office on the iPad is a key milestone, and a clear statement of Microsoft's devices and services future, the announcement of its Enterprise Mobility Suite is likely to be more significant for its business customers. Bundling together three elements of Microsoft's cloud management platform, the Enterprise Mobility Suite mixes device information and user management in one cloud control panel.

With BlackBerry mired in the collapse of its device business, and Google expected to announce its Android device management features at its June I/O event, Microsoft needed to explain its mobile device management plans to its IT pro audience. Bringing together Intune and Azure Active Directory in one cloud-hosted suite makes a lot of sense, as it builds on Intune's BYOD track record, as well as IT pros' experience with Active Directory.

Delivering MDM as a cloud service is an intriguing departure from the traditional on-premises approach to device management. But it makes a lot of sense when you consider just how devices are being used, with many mobile devices never connecting to business networks while still working with corporate data. A cloud enterprise management service means those devices can be managed as soon as access to data is required, and with Azure AD, permissions and service sign-ons can be controlled from a central console.

Working in the cloud also means that those devices are managed where they work: In that same cloud.

Removing devices from control -- and wiping corporate data and passwords -- is as important as getting devices onto a network. It's one of the stumbling blocks for any business that's considering adopting BYOD policies, with the daunting prospect of managing a mix of devices and services. Bundling Azure AD and Azure Rights Management with Intune moves MDM in the direction of information-centric ways of working, where the user's information is what's managed rather than their devices. Microsoft is clearly thinking in terms of services and endpoints, with information selectively wiped from devices when users remove them from management.

The introduction of the Enterprise Mobility Suite should help with the adoption of Microsoft's applications and services. Addressing IT department concerns while delivering the attractive, touch-centric applications users want will make it easier to justify BYOD policies, while keeping company information locked down and secure, and compliant with business regulations no matter where those users are working with their devices.

Nadella's point about the future of computing being one of form factors we haven't yet seen is an important point. What he introduced today was only one step on the roadmap he's started to unveil. Office on iPad addresses the use cases of one part of Microsoft's billion users; it's not the applications themselves that are important, it's the services that let them work that are key to what happens next. A touch-centric iPad Office would be a curiosity without Office 365 and OneDrive and their related APIs.

Building new applications around those cloud services and APIs makes a lot of sense. It's the machine learning systems in the cloud that make features like the recently announced Office Graph work. Users with subscriptions to those cloud services will be able to take advantage of their capabilities, users without them will be limited to just viewing and presenting documents they've been sent by service subscribers.

With the launch of these new tools and services we're only seeing part of Microsoft's new strategy, with its focus on users, developers and IT pros. Transforming Microsoft from a platform company to a ubiquitous computing giant is a huge challenge, and it needs to bring those three constituencies along on its journey if it's going to succeed.

Today's announcements start to address two of those constituencies, the users and the IT departments. It'll be interesting to hear what Nadella has to say to the third constituency, developers, next week at Microsoft's BUILD developer conference.

Nadella described today's announcements as 'A coming together, a cloud for everyone and for every device; the first step on a journey.' With a computer already on every desk, Microsoft needs a new vision to drive the innovation we expect from a computing giant. In that description of a cloud for everyone and for every device, it looks as though Nadella just might have found the vision his company needs.

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