Microsoft COO: Standing firm on Vista

…and really understand what it takes to deploy and maintain our products.

A recent study by Quocirca of C-level execs indicates 90 percent of companies outsource over 40 percent of their software codes. And while 78 percent of them recognise the importance of software development, 60 percent that do outsource coding work for their critical apps do not demand security to be built into the software. What are your thoughts on this, and how do you think a company like Microsoft can play a role?
Architecting applications to be safe and secure is one of our top priorities. Windows Vista is an example of this. We built Vista with security in mind right from the start.

We are one year out from launch and there have been less than half the vulnerabilities of XP SP2, and 60 percent less malware than XP SP2. Security is one of the top reasons customers are moving to Windows Vista.

Beyond Windows Vista, we are trying to lead by example in our other applications, as well as helping our community of software developers build applications with security in mind.

Applications should be secure by design. We will always have to address the evolution of software and the fact security threats are constant, but by building applications on a strong foundation, we can make things better in the long run.

During a conference in July 2006, you said: "Enterprise search is our business, it's our house and Google is not going to take that business." It's almost two years since then — is this still the core market you see Microsoft and Google compete in? And where do you think Google stands now in this market?
The IT industry has historically been defined by a series of periodic, transformative shifts in the way people think about computing, and we're in the midst of another: a services transformation.

With any of these transformative shifts, the prediction is that change will happen swiftly and completely. But the reality is quite the opposite. Customers want choice, and that is the foundation of our software-plus-services strategy. We are giving customers the choice of what they want to do with their data and infrastructure. If they want to run it on-site, we will support that. If customers want a partner to host a solution, we will support that as well. Finally, if a customer wants Microsoft to host a solution, as many have asked us to do, we can do that.

Again, it is about giving customers a choice, which is a very different strategy than our competitors.

Vista clearly didn't exactly have a smooth ride leading up to its launch, with various delays, security fixes and longer-than-expected testing. Given a chance to, is there a one thing you would have done differently in the design, development and marketing of Vista? And where does SP1 play in the scheme of things?
We are very pleased with Windows Vista to date. We have currently sold over 140 million copies through to March. It was a milestone for us and the technology community.

Different customers adopt at different paces, and we are seeing more and more enterprise companies adopting at a faster rate of deployment compared to both Windows XP and Windows 2000. The list of enterprises moving forward on deployment is continually growing, and some of our largest customers are in the process of deploying, like Shell, Continental, Banco Brandesco, Infosys and Cerner.

SP1 also brings a number of changes that continue to improve the Windows Vista experience and with its availability, we believe more customers will move into the adoption phase.