Scott Guthrie, currently the VP of .Net Platform at Microsoft, is now leading of the Azure Application Platform group, reporting directly to Ted Kummert in BPD, while the Azure team is still reporting to Bill Laing.
Microsoft is pushing more and more on the Azure platform, and the Cloud Application Platform is a key part of the overall strategy: if Microsoft can move developers to Azure, the game can quickly become more interesting for Amazon.
The full memo, as reported by zdnet, can be found here, and is an interesting insight in Microsoft reorg.
It is worth mentioning that the Azure Platform will now combine the former Web Platform & Tools team, the Application Server Group and the Portal and Lightweight Role teams from te Windows Azure team.
Scott gave an important contribution to one of Microsoft flagship products for developers, Visual Studio: the “exciting and important deliverables in the next 6-12 months” are just speculation for now. With Microsoft Research likely moving 90% of its effort to the cloud, the innovations in this field can be tremendous.