Microsoft could help save Dell to further its own cloud ambitions

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: Ted Samson.

Microsoft is rumored to be in talks to invest as much as $3 billion in Dell’s much-hyped buyout, according to various sources, leaving observers scratching their heads as to what the software giant would possibly have to gain from owning a significant chunk of the struggling hardware maker. One possibility: Microsoft needs a hardware partner to further its cloud ambitions and take on Google, and cloud-focused Dell could fit the bill.

The bottom line: Microsoft may believe it needs a hardware partner to further its cloud vision. Dell, meanwhile, is in a vulnerable position in the increasingly competitive PC market and is welcoming a buyout to go private and redefine itself as a cloud hardware company while avoiding the scrutiny, impatience, and fickleness of public investors. By sinking a couple billion dollars into helping Dell go private, Microsoft could leverage that investment to use Dell as its go-to hardware partner and as a vehicle to advance its cloud vision — the way it sunk $1 billion into Nokia to compete in the smartphone market…

Indeed, both Microsoft and Dell have ambitious cloud computing aspirations — understandably so as we witness the shift from the personal PC era to the virtual desktop era, where users care more about 24/7 access to their apps and data than they do about what sort of device they’re using…

Read more from the source @ http://www.infoworld.com/t/cloud-computing/microsoft-could-help-save-dell-further-its-own-cloud-ambitions-211400