In my two-decade career at Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), leading .NET platform architecture, visual studio .NET development, application platform, enterprise strategy and Microsoft Digital, I have been part of building technologies for multiple waves of platforms: the early web, service-oriented architectures, the so-called Web 2.0, and more recently, the Cloud.
While there is no doubt that previous waves of platform technologies have delivered substantial benefits, their impact has been limited because they are “passive” stacks that serve as plumbing for applications and infrastructure. For the most part, with previous waves of platforms, cost savings have been the primary and sometimes singular quantifiable element with respect to business outcomes.