IT Is Moving To An 'Intelligent Cloud/Intelligent Edge' Model

Since taking over as CEO in February 2014, Nadella has often described the IT industry as being in a "mobile first, cloud first" stage, following earlier mainframe, PC, client/server and cloud phases of development.

Nadella said Microsoft now sees "a real rapid shift to a new paradigm" that he called "the intelligent cloud and the intelligent edge."

Three characteristics will define intelligent cloud/intelligent edge. The first is that computing tasks and experiences will involve multiple devices, including desktop and mobile, and multiple means of "touch" and input/output. A task begun on a PC at work, for example, might be completed on a smartphone using very different means of input, data sources, and so on.

The second characteristic is that every device and application will have built-in artificial intelligence capabilities to enhance the application experience. And the third is the growing use of containers, microservices and server-less technologies that provide new ways to develop, distribute and manage increasingly complex sets of applications.