Bill Gates and azure aren’t the only people speaking highly of this newest enterprise platform. Industry veterans, venture capitalists and software patent lawyers are all speaking positively about it, too. This cloud computing platform from Microsoft has many merits that set it apart from the other alternatives in the cloud arena. Many of these points are due to Microsoft’s leadership in the technology community, the relentless commitment to innovating and investing in technologies that drive cloud services and better ways of managing data. However, there are a few cloud qualities that aren’t as appreciated as much by developers and business users.

First and foremost, cloud services provide on-demand access to large pools of storage resources. The most popular use cases are applications that need large amounts of storage capacity when they are new or have very high I/O costs. In many ways, these are the same types of applications as ones found on the traditional server. However, they are distributed and managed differently.

Consumers want cloud services with better control. They want more control over how their data is used. For example, they may want to be able to make changes to images they upload without being able to take them down or make changes to other documents they publish. If you can make changes to an image or document in the cloud while you’re in the office, then you’re more likely to make those changes. In contrast, if you take your calendar out of the cloud while in the office, then it’s more difficult to take those calendars with you when you go home.

Microsoft’s cloud services also allow for more customization. In the past, we’ve seen very few tailored solutions to our needs. We were mostly “one size fits all.” However, with more functionality being required from our applications, cloud service providers are coming up with more customized solutions to fit our needs. More functions, more ways to customize and more control is being added as functional areas. This is something we’ve not seen before and it will continue to play an important part in the future.

Will Microsoft’s cloud services continue to evolve and become more robust? It’s possible that in the next few years we will see new capabilities being added to these solutions. For example, it was only a few years ago that we could make and share movies using video and digital cameras. Now we can shoot a music video and upload it to our computers – all without having to leave the office! That kind of functionality will continue to improve.

Google has recently announced that they are going to expand their Google Cloud Platform into two more countries by the end of next year. Will Microsoft follow suit or stay behind? Only time will tell. In the mean time, our business requires us to adapt to new cloud services and environments. This is why businesses should choose agility over rigidity. Microsoft can remain a viable competitor for quite some time in cloud services by providing a robust, flexible and integrated solution for businesses moving forward.