Azure Is the Future of Microsoft

Paul Thurrot has a long list of microsoft futures that somehow failed to gain traction for the 5+ years I have been reading winsupersite.

Windows Phone 7 was the future, then Windows Phone 8, then Windows 8 and RT. Also Microsoft managed to snatch parity straight out of the jaws of victory in the last console generation.

I admit that in the case of Azure he has a stronger case, but the cloud is far from the endgame. The pendulum between centralization and decentralization has swung a few times already.

And there is the issue of trust. I can thrust "insanely awesome startup" that they will hold and respect my data and fight tooth and nail to protect it. but what happens when Microsoft is subpoenaed to deliver data that is on their servers but the VMs are operated by other company? They tried something with seizing domains - going straight for Verisign.