At Tech•Ed 2010, Bob Muglia speaks to the potential of cloud computing for enterprises, outlines product updates and provides guidance for customers.

“Our job, simply put, is to deliver what customers need to take advantage of cloud computing on their own terms,” Muglia said. “Some vendors would have you believe that you must move everything to the cloud now and there is only one way to achieve cloud computing; don’t be misled and lose sight of the value of all the investments you have already made to enable the full promise of cloud computing.

“Microsoft’s strategy is to deliver software, services and tools that enable customers to realize the benefits of a cloud-based model with the reliability and security of on-premises software,” Muglia continued. “Microsoft is unique in that no other solution vendor has the same level of experience and expertise in software and services. We are providing the most comprehensive set of choices available to customers.”

Muglia acknowledged that organizations may differ on how and when to adopt cloud computing and said that Microsoft will use a combination of products, services and industry collaboration to help customers make the change when they are ready. Key to tackling the challenge, he said, is for customers to strike the right balance between traditional software-based server architectures managed by the customer or a partner, the vast power and near limitless scalability of cloud services powered remotely by giant server warehouses, and a hybrid model that blends the two. Muglia said that Microsoft will deliver a single platform that works across both on-premises and off-premises solutions.

The company has gained deep experience running some of the world’s largest cloud services — with more than 600 million unique users on MSN, 4 billion Bing search queries monthly, more than 500 million active Windows Live IDs, 20 million users of the rapidly growing Xbox Live gaming service, and 40 million paid users of Microsoft Online Services across 9,000 business customers and more than 500 government entities. Thousands of customers in more than 40 countries have moved to production environments with Windows Azure, an Internet-scale cloud computing services platform hosted in Microsoft datacenters. Customers can find more information, tools and white papers to help evaluate and implement cloud computing technologies at Microsoft’s website dedicated to cloud computing.

In closing, Muglia reiterated that Microsoft’s approach is about helping customers make the most of their existing investments while elevating the potential of IT through cloud services. “We’ve said it before, but we are all in when it comes to our offerings for the cloud,” he said.

Also in his keynote address, Muglia highlighted several areas of product momentum that support Microsoft’s commitment to delivering customers choice. The following is a quick overview; more information can be found at the Tech•Ed Global Pressroom and by following the news on Twitter via #TechEd.