Ozzie Sees Microsoft`s Future in the Web and Hub

Innovation is the fuel for Microsoft's continued growth on the Web, Ozzie said, and over time, "content and commerce have been transformed by community innovation." He described such continuous software-based innovation as "a recombination of the DNA of the Web."

This means one should think of the Web as a hub, and Microsoft and others will empower a mesh of phones, PDAs, music players, set-top boxes and other devices.

Another core principle for Microsoft is a focus on business and the "power of choice as the enterprise embraces the cloud," Ozzie said.

This principle involves the use of virtual and commodity applications for a virtualized utility computing model, "which will reshape enterprise infrastructure and enterprise applications and solutions."

Moreover, for developers, Microsoft needs to embrace a world of small devices at one end and the cloud at another, Ozzie said.

To reach this ultimate computing and services nirvana, Microsoft is supporting a series of standards as well as supporting transparency and interoperability. Among the key standards Microsoft is supporting are REST (Representational State Transfer), RSS and declarative languages like XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language), with the goal of creating new applications "that take advantage of the unique strengths of each platform." Microsoft also will be supporting new programming models like MapReduce to support computing in the cloud, Ozzie said.