There’s been almost too much examination of Microsoft’s Surface tablets and Windows Phone 8 this week, and most of it has been looking at entirely the wrong stuff – the technology, compatibilities, features, functions and price of both.

The Surface and WinPhone8 unveilings really signify massive strategic changes for Microsoft, with cascading impacts for its partners and customers. I’ve just published a Strategic Perspective for Saugatuck research clients that looks at the real reasons why Microsoft is making these moves, how they change what Microsoft is, and what the market effects will be.

What is Happening?  To great fanfare, Microsoft announced its new Surface tablets this week. The demonstrations showed a well-designed piece of hardware that shows tremendous promise to help Microsoft establish and grow a user presence, and therefore ecosystem and revenue presences, in the fastest-growing computing segment today.

The Surface tablets offer a few innovations, including a built-in kickstand and combined keyboard/face cover, along with a solid set of functional capabilities that should be expected in any competitive tablet device today. Pricing has not been set, nor has availability. Given that the tablets will require the widespread availability and use of Windows 8, and that Windows 8 has not been released (and is still building early developer and support ecosystem presence), it’s really up in the air right now as to whether or not the Surface line will succeed. It certainly looks competitive from our point of view. The Surface specs and functional details are outside the scope of this Research Alert.

What is Happening?  Verizon Wireless rolled out its anticipated “shared data” plan this week. The plan, which emphasizes tiered data usage pricing that can be distributed among multiple user devices on the same account, is set to go into effect over the coming weeks. Much like when ATT Wireless announced its own tiered plan two years ago, debate has begun among consumer groups, public utility advocates, and media regarding the perceived fairness and costs of such a plan.

What interests Saugatuck most about the Verizon plan is that it signals what the ATT plan implied: a fundamental shift in wireless carriers’ business models and strategy. We see Verizon’s core business proposition of this new plan as data first, with voice and text messaging “thrown in;” in other words, voice and texting become subsumed into data-first plans. This is a complete pricing and business model shift from traditional wireless carrier strategy.

The shift away from 19th-century business organizations and 20th century IT is a shift toward boundary-free enterprises that requires significant change, fundamental change, in IT and business architectures and models. As we move from the pre-Cloud era into and through a relatively short transitory period that emphasizes a blending, hybridized IT environment, we have to consider the massive impact this shift has and will have on enterprise IT organizations. It will change the mission, roles, and goals of IT organizations not only as they transition now, but again in a few years as they shift toward even more, new, Cloud IT.

IT organizations will be challenged by the need for Cloud speed versus the need to avoid the stumbles that come with an accelerated approach. Starting with a comprehensive vision of enterprise Cloud use is key to achieving this balance, and to enabling the scale of guidance that business orgs and users will require to understand what they have, how to use it, and how to work with IT to achieve that.

A new Strategic Perspective for Saugatuck research clients spotlights a significant change in enterprise IT and business leader expectations regarding SaaS/Cloud and business software applications. The net? They see a very quick shift from traditional apps to hybridized Cloud+on-premises models, and then another quick shift to pure-play Cloud-based software – all within four years. Here’s the highlight picture from Saugatuck’s recent survey data: