Comment by kridsdale3

I just listened to the Acquired podcast guys talk to Balmer. Steve actually deserves a huge amount of the credit for Azure that Satya enjoys today.

- Created the windows server product

- Created the "rent a server" business line

- Identified the need for a VM kernel and hired the right people

- Oversaw MSFT's build out of web services (MSN, Xbox Live, Bing) which gave them the distributed systems and uptime know-how

- Picked Satya to take over Azure, and then to succeed him