Microsoft on Cloud Computing: We are all in.

Today, Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft, spoke to a group of students and faculty at the University of Washington to discuss how cloud computing will change the way people and businesses use technology.

His goal was to challenge people to look at the cloud more broadly and understand the multidimensional nature of the cloud transformation happening today. Other companies have defined the cloud in a narrow, one-dimensional way. Although these companies provide some interesting components, Microsoft is uniquely delivering on a wide range of cloud capabilities that bring increasingly more value to our customers.

He outlined the five dimensions that define the way people use and realize value in the cloud:

• The cloud creates opportunities and responsibilities
• The cloud learns and helps you learn, decide and take action
• The cloud enhances your social and professional interactions
• The cloud wants smarter devices
• The cloud drives server advances that drive the cloud

This view fuels Microsoft’s investments across the entire company, from datacenters to cloud platform technologies to cloud-based development tools and applications.

Today, nearly every one of our products has, or is developing, features or services that support the cloud. Or put differently as Steve Ballmer said, when it comes to the cloud, we are all in. We are all in across every product line we have and across every dimension of the cloud.

As of today you will see an ad campaign on the commercial and government businesses and a new website with consolidated content and case studies around Microsoft efforts in the cloud space.

You can watch the full speech on demand here.