Microsoft's Nokia deal was all about clouds

MICROSOFT'S ALLIANCE with Nokia has nothing to do with its mobile phone strategy but is part of a cunning plan to expand its cloud computing offerings.

According to PC World, the recently announced partnership is a cover for tools Microsoft will be releasing next year in its Office and System Centre lines. The push is apparently meant to extend the Vole's cloud collaboration, real-time communications and management strategies.

The company's objective seems to be to create a single management platform for Windows, non-Windows platforms and devices on the back of its System Centre tools.

The Vole is aiming to widen its management capabilities to include mobile devices, Linux and virtual machines. If it works out, Microsoft can stick Office 2010 on back-end servers to run diversfied cross-platform cloud offerings in both on-premises and hosted configurations.

The Nokia move is about the cloud side of things. It means that Nokia's E-series smartphones will be the first non-Windows mobile devices that System Centre will be able to manage.

Next year Nokia will ship the Office Communicator Mobile client on its smartphones and the Vole hopes that will enable mobile-optimised versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote on Nokia devices. µ