As an Enterprise Architect and Editor for your friendly neighborhood technical blog, I spend quite a bit of time trying to read through the pea-soup Redmond fog to make educated guesses on where Microsoft is going with their technologies and tools. This used to be a lot easier, with most new products and features leaking out of Microsoft like a sieve through MSDN blogs or direct interaction with employees at the occasional conference. But lately they’ve slammed the blinds shut on prying eyes like mine in an attempt to pull some Apple-esque product marketing coups; a move that has left many an industry expert to speculate on the motivations and choices they are making. In some cases, it’s the speculation and uncertainty that in fact become the news, leaving the real story to be buried under attacks on Steve Ballmer, predictions of “catastrophe”, and overall FUD. The real story is that Microsoft is taking some big chances and doing exciting things they’ve never done before… and that scares the HECK out of us!
But our fear and overall shock at the radical change in direction shouldn’t make us lose sight of the fact that some real innovation is coming our way, whether we’re ready for it or not.
