It's official. Microsoft has a new CEO named Satya Nadella.
Nadella follows Steve Ballmer, who decided to leave the software company last year, and inherits a company that in my opinion has become besieged by competitive pressures on a number of fronts. Whether Mr. Nadella will become successful in his new position is still unknown. There are, however, a few interesting points that may indicate his background and timing may make Nadella not only successful as a new CEO, but a welcome friend to the managed service provider community whose faith in Microsoft has been tested over the years.
Nadella Understands Cloud
Mr. Nadella's previous role at Microsoft was as executive vice president of the Cloud & Enterprise group. The cloud initiative within Microsoft helped push the company away from software driven products towards hosted based software (aka, cloud computing). Products like Office365 and Azure have helped solidify Microsoft's place in a services centric post PC world.
What About The Channel?
I think may MSPs this morning are going to be wondering what the new CEO will do related to the IT channel. In particular, some of the moves Microsoft has made over the last 5 years have been somewhat disruptive to the status quo. MSPs still remember the demise of the Small Business Server; not to mention the often foolish decisions surrounding Microsoft's public battle with Google (just ask any Australian MSP about the "Telstra BPOS" debacle).
Many years ago I sat in a small room in Redmond Washington and listened to Mr. Ballmer and other Microsoft executives discuss their managed services strategies (cloud was not yet being used). During that briefing the objective was unequivocal: Microsoft was going to have a direct and channel strategy regarding the future. That much has proven true.
Microsoft Private Cloud?
In my humble opinion, there is one question which needs to be addressed by Nadella: what is Microsoft's private cloud strategy? Just take a look at companies like IBM and you can see where they believe the MSP and cloud providers should be heading. Microsoft cannot just rely on Office365 to survive. MSPs (i.e., the entire IT channel) need to re-engaged. The channel used to be responsible for selling a lot of Microsoft products. Those days could return, depending on what Mr. Nadella decides in these next few months.
