The world’s top software maker plans to build about 20 state-of-the-art data centers as it tries to outpace cloud computing rival Google, BusinessWeek has learnedCorporate America is increasingly leaving computing to the experts. Why go to the trouble and expense of building and managing complex systems to handle your spiraling data-crunching needs when another company can do it for you? And who better, faster, or cheaper than Google?That’s just the kind of conventional wisdom Debra Chrapaty wants to change. As Microsoft’s (MSFT) corporate vice-president for Global Foundation Services, Chrapaty wants to prove that her company is no less capable of running the sprawling data centers to offer software doled out via the Internet. The company is especially keen to handle the ubiquitous Microsoft software that consumers and corporations have been running for themselves for the past few decades. “Google has done a great job of hyping” its prowess, Chrapaty says. “But we’re neck and neck with them.”
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2008/tc20081121_382269.htm