Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie has his head in the clouds…and that’s a good thing.

Looking through his rearview mirror, Ozzie reflects on his past five years with Microsoft in an internal memo sent to executive staff in late October. The memo, titled “Dawn of a New Day,” encourages Microsoft to continue with its forward momentum and let go of a past that is largely defined by Microsoft’s software for the PC.

Ozzie paints the picture of a “post-PC” world of global Web devices that are hosted by the cloud and always available. This world that he so profoundly illustrates predicts “… decades to come of incredible innovation from which will emerge all sorts of 'connected companions' that we'll wear, we'll carry, we'll use on our desks and walls and the environment all around us."

As so many industry-leading companies today struggle to adapt to a cloud-centric world of apps and devices, we can’t help but wonder what’s around the corner for our industry. How will this affect business processes?

“…cloud computing will become pervasive for developers and IT – a shift that’ll catalyze the transformation of infrastructure, systems & business processes across all major organizations worldwide,” Ozzie writes.

The phones and pads of today are only the beginning of a “post-PC” world that will detect your voice and touch, while sensing your location. Businesses will need to ensure their interfaces are consistent across all platforms.

“…fielding a truly continuous service is incredibly difficult and is only achieved by the most sophisticated high-scale consumer websites.”

These highly sophisticated websites will be accessed and managed from the cloud by web owners and content editors using software-as-a-service (SaaS) models to update content and provide fresh copy on a daily basis. It is a futuristic shift to a cloud-centric world.

Is your business prepared for this future?

Looking Ahead

Ozzie’s vision threatens the software giant, as 50% of the company’s profits are generated by the Windows operating system for PCs and its Office suite of programs such as Word, according to the Guardian.

Google continues to convert businesses and organizations from Microsoft Office products to its Google Apps for Business, which is currently used by 3 million businesses. Ozzie admits that Microsoft has come up short in some areas, although it has done great things.

“Certain of our competitors’ products and their rapid advancement & refinement of new usage scenarios have been quite noteworthy.  Our early and clear vision notwithstanding, their execution has surpassed our own in mobile experiences, in the seamless fusion of hardware & software & services, and in social networking & myriad new forms of internet-centric social interaction,” Ozzie writes.

Stating that he couldn’t be more proud of what’s emerged as Windows Azure and SQL Azure, Ozzie notes that Microsoft is fully committed to services and believes that this will create opportunities for years to come. As Ozzie looks ahead, he states that he senses hope and optimism for the future of Microsoft and the IT industry as a whole.

“It’s the dawn of a new day – the sun having now arisen on a world of continuous services and connected devices,” he writes.

While Ozzie’s memo marks a five-year milestone for Microsoft and stimulates a lot of discussions for many organizations, it encourages businesses to look ahead at the future of technology and what it means for our industries. It will change the way we do business and interact with customers online. It will create an abundance of opportunities, as well as challenges as we shift our efforts to the cloud.

For more insight on what Ozzie sees for the future of technology, read the whole memo, “Dawn of a New Day.”