Weekly #WhyMsft Round-Up 3/18/2011

Welcome to the Why Microsoft Weekly Roundup!  The roundup is a collection of news items from around the web this week.  Our goal is to share a variety of conversations about Microsoft products in the community…Enjoy!

Top 5 Picks for This Week:

The World's Most Ethical Companies
"The 110 companies that made the final cut this year include first-time recipients Adidas, eBay, Microsoft, Colgate-Palmolive and 30 other newcomers." 

Microsoft Exec. Says Cloud Strategy Is Right On Track
" MIcrosoft's hybrid on-premises and cloud-based collaboration and productivity applications strategy is on track." 

Microsoft Launches an Impressive IE9 at South by Southwest
" Microsoft rolled out the latest and greatest version of its Internet Explorer browser, IE9, here at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas."

Microsoft Accounted For One-Third of Retail Software Sales in 2010
" As measured in dollars, Microsoft accounted for one-third of US retail software sales last year. Office 2010 led the company's sales." 

Microsoft Exec. says Cloud Cost Savings are "Too Big to Be Ignored" 
" While many businesses are developing private clouds as a tentative first step into cloud computing, a Microsoft executive at a cloud industry conference in Silicon Valley said that, eventually, the company will plug into public cloud utilities because cost and efficiency benefits will be impossible to ignore. 

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