With all the information Microsoft is releasing at its launchtastic Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this week, CEO Steve Ballmer sent out a honking long letter to customers who have opted into the software giant’s “Executive Email” program (who knew?).

Along with the Azure–at long last, a lovely and apt brand name from Microsoft–cloud services offering, the letter also outlines the inevitable and unavoidable path for the company, which has long struggled in getting its digital strategy right.

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BoomTown has been lagging in getting up this lovely video I did from a dinner party last Thursday, thrown for NetSuite’s tenth anniversary, which was held at one of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s many houses–this one in the tony Pacific Heights section of San Francisco.

NetSuite is one of the pioneers in the broadly termed software-as-a-service space, selling an “integrated web-based business software suite.” Sounds dull? Yep!

But the party was not and, actually, this is an important topic, as businesses actually do begin to embrace the idea of putting themselves increasingly in the so-called cloud.

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Next week in Los Angeles, Microsoft will kick off its Professional Developers Conference, a place the software giant likes to unveil all kind of news in a big launchtastic flourish.

For all the noise, it’s worth paying attention, because Monday’s outlook will be cloudy, as in cloud computing.

The day will include a speech from Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie, and others on, among other topics, its cloud infrastructure service initiatives–designed to match aggressive efforts from Amazon in the space.

But who knows what else is up Microsoft’s sleeve?

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