Global CIO: Microsoft Joins Oracle & IBM In Rise Of The MachinesGlobal CIO: Microsoft Joins Oracle & IBM In Rise Of The Machines

"Microsoft is seeking to help build private clouds, not at the expense of its Azure public cloud, but on a pattern that matches what's available in Azure," Babcock writes. "Such private clouds, locked down behind firewalls and intrusion detection systems, will be able to handle private customer data and financial transactions. To do so, Microsoft is willing to run Java applications on its appliance as first class citizens alongside Microsoft .Net languages, such as Visual Basic and C#, Microsoft's Java competitor."

And since none of us is entirely selfless, Microsoft itself stands to gain by not only relieving customer frustration but also by offering new levels of sustained value, Babcock writes:

"In positioning itself as an architect and builder of the private cloud for eBay and others, Microsoft is also ensuring that its existing customers stay wedded to Windows as they move toward cloud computing. The Azure platform appliance will do many things the same way Azure does, so it's also building potential future users of its public Azure cloud."

As these machines and appliances begin their rise, it's easy to dismiss it all as a just a blip on the chart, or merely a fad that signifies little. But I believe those are grossly short-sighted observations for two key reasons:

1) In case anyone's been on an abandoned island for the past few years, CIOs have hit the boiling point in their frustration over managing mountains of stuff replete with too much complexity and too much cost and requiring too much assembly and tuning and testing and configuring and other types of busywork. They are mad as hell and are desperately seeking more intelligent and more valuable alternatives.

2) Look at that roster of IT leaders above eagerly jumping into the action for specialized machines: their track record for spotting new ideas might not be perfect, but when all of them move very quickly and aggressively into a new space, it's probably because customers' screams for help (see adjacent point #1) have become impossible to ignore.

The machines are on the rise and they don't seem likely to retreat. With such a range of options from eager suppliers, now looks like the ideal time to get in touch with your inner machine.

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