Bill Gates
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Yes, it's on YouTube. It's great. It is great. So there's Windows, which he calls one business. There's NT slash back office. There's office, which he calls a $4 billion a year business. And those three businesses together are over 90%. So you can think about it as Windows. And he said NT slash back office, but this is the enterprise and office.
Yes, it's on YouTube. It's great. It is great. So there's Windows, which he calls one business. There's NT slash back office. There's office, which he calls a $4 billion a year business. And those three businesses together are over 90%. So you can think about it as Windows. And he said NT slash back office, but this is the enterprise and office.
It really exposes that Steve was the one who had the passion for the enterprise. Bill was like, it's like this stuff that businesses buy, but I'm going to refer to it by its Microsoft product name of one of the products we sell, which is NT. And then the last 10% is everything else. So there's MSN, e-commerce, games, encyclopedia, maps, joint ventures, DreamWorks, and NBC.
It really exposes that Steve was the one who had the passion for the enterprise. Bill was like, it's like this stuff that businesses buy, but I'm going to refer to it by its Microsoft product name of one of the products we sell, which is NT. And then the last 10% is everything else. So there's MSN, e-commerce, games, encyclopedia, maps, joint ventures, DreamWorks, and NBC.
So he's talking about the interesting thing, the server business, which is a different way he refers to NT slash back office. All the way back in 96, it's the fastest growing business, even faster than Windows or Office. So they sort of know they're onto something, but they haven't quite cracked the go-to-market motion, the pricing, the service, organizationally, how do they sort of fit it in?
So he's talking about the interesting thing, the server business, which is a different way he refers to NT slash back office. All the way back in 96, it's the fastest growing business, even faster than Windows or Office. So they sort of know they're onto something, but they haven't quite cracked the go-to-market motion, the pricing, the service, organizationally, how do they sort of fit it in?
NT basically was enterprise-ready. It was very networked for workgroups. It ran on only the most high-power PCs. But you're right, David. It was designed for the thing that the first 25 years of Microsoft was all about, which is PCs. It's not like, oh, we're a systems company that makes stuff for all use cases all over your enterprise. No, we make stuff that runs on a box sitting in front of you.
NT basically was enterprise-ready. It was very networked for workgroups. It ran on only the most high-power PCs. But you're right, David. It was designed for the thing that the first 25 years of Microsoft was all about, which is PCs. It's not like, oh, we're a systems company that makes stuff for all use cases all over your enterprise. No, we make stuff that runs on a box sitting in front of you.
Well, it wasn't zero, but... They were fighting Sun, IBM, Oracle.
Well, it wasn't zero, but... They were fighting Sun, IBM, Oracle.
And one benefit from this, which of course, if you're Microsoft, you don't want to lean on this benefit, but they end up doing it, is if you make everything integrated together work well and come from one vendor, nothing actually has to be best of breed. And so you're no longer competing with any point solutions. You offer the whole thing.
And one benefit from this, which of course, if you're Microsoft, you don't want to lean on this benefit, but they end up doing it, is if you make everything integrated together work well and come from one vendor, nothing actually has to be best of breed. And so you're no longer competing with any point solutions. You offer the whole thing.
Sure, yeah, you can consider going and buying that other vendor's directory service or that other vendor's email server. But are you really? Because you buy everything from us and it all works pretty well together.
Sure, yeah, you can consider going and buying that other vendor's directory service or that other vendor's email server. But are you really? Because you buy everything from us and it all works pretty well together.
It all has Active Directory that syncs across everything. In doing all this research, it seemed to me that once a enterprise adopted Active Directory, they were going to tip and they were going to buy the rest of the software too.
It all has Active Directory that syncs across everything. In doing all this research, it seemed to me that once a enterprise adopted Active Directory, they were going to tip and they were going to buy the rest of the software too.