I’m not saying that Microsoft can’t lead us through the transition to the consumerized enterprise, but history isn’t on their side.

Last week I was fortunate enough to speak at the Microsoft Tech Ed Conference in Atlanta. Much of my presentation focused on the need to develop cross platform skills since the virtual monopoly that Microsoft had on the corporate desktop is rapidly coming to an end for a number of reasons (I won’t go into those reasons now). I represent some evidence of that as well, albeit a small sample size. After being a Microsoft user for years I now carry a MacBook and iPad. I’ll admit that I felt like a bit of an alien being at the Microsoft event with Apple products, but it is a sign of the times. I understand that a sample size of myself isn’t statically relevant, but just go into any airport, Internet cafe or board room. There are more non Microsoft devices than ever before. After my presentation I had a chance to talk to many of the attendees and I was surprised–maybe I shouldn’t have been–at the strong resistance from the Microsoft community in embracing the consumerization and multi operating system trends. IT can fight it all they want, but I firmly believe the trend is here to stay and IT, particularly the hard core Microsoft IT pro community, needs to learn to deal with it.

This week at Google’s I/O developer conference, the company announced the general availability of two Chrome OS Laptops.  Both Best Buy and Amazon will be selling the devices made by Acer and Samsung.  The Samsung “Chrome Book” will have a 12.1 inch display and have integrated WiFi and Verizon 3G and will be priced at $429.  The Acer device will only be $349 but will be WiFi only and have an 11.6 inch screen.  Both devices tout long battery life and are optimized for accessing content out of the cloud.

Google also announced a very compelling business package where organizations could lease the Chrome Books for $28 per month per user.  The $28 price tag includes the laptop, full warranty, support, service, end of life replacement and a device called the Chrome Box to allow companies to connect the Chrome Book to the corporate file systems.

In my opinion, this is an important evolutionary step for the device market, for both consumers and corporate workers.  Almost every part of technology has transformed to be web optimized.  To quote my colleague, Sandra Palumbo, “we access what we want, when we want” because we’re always connected.

Cisco, Avaya and the rest of the field should be embracing Chrome OS as a way to rip the Microsoft foundation out of companies that Lync will be built on.

All eyes are on Interop this week but there’s another significant conference running in parallel to it and that’s the Google I/O Developer Conference. Day two of the event was focused on Chrome OS and its release into the market. Six months ago Google released a handful of beta units to the industry and after only half a year of beta testing it looks like Google is finally ready to bring the Chrome OS laptops to market.

What Google announced was that beginning June 15, two laptop models, one made by Asus and one by Samsung and will be sold by Amazon and Best Buy. The Samsung laptop will have a 12.1-inch screen, have WiFi and 3G services, touts an “all-day” battery (you can do this when you’re not spinning a drive continually) and will retail for $499. The Acer Chrome Laptop will be WiFi only, have an 11.6 inch screen, also have an all day battery and be priced at $349.

The struggles at Cisco have been well documented over the past year or so.  Much of the reason for this is large number of executive departures that have left Cisco over the past few years.  Here is a list of the more notable ones in recent memory:

• Tony Bates, SVP of Cisco’s enterprise, commercial and small business division is now CEO of Skype
• Debra Chrapaty, SVP of Collaboration became Zynga’s CIO
• Dan Scheinman head of Cisco’s media business resigned when Cisco shut down Flip
• Nawaf Bitar, VP of Security is now a GM and SVP of Juniper Networks Emerging Technologies division
• Jayshree Ulall, SVP of the Data Center, Switching and Services business unit is now CEO of Arista Networks
• Doug Gourlay, VP of Data Center Marketing joined Jayshree at Arista to become VP of Marketing at Arista
• Jeff Hirschman, engineering manager of Cisco’s Gigabit Switching Business Unit also joined Arista to be VP of Engineering
• Ben Gibson, head of Cisco’s enterprise mobility solutions marketing business is Chief Marketing Officer of Aruba Networks
• Dayle Hall and Chris Kozup, both marketing managers that worked for Ben at Cisco joined Aruba shortly after
• Joe Burton, CIO of Cisco’s Unified Communications group is now Polycom’s CTO and GM of Enterprise and service provider

But the churn in executive talent started when Mike Volip and Charlie Giancarlo left several years ago.  Those departures coincided with Cisco’s implementation of its “boards and councils” management style.  The boards and councils approach isn’t the sole reason Cisco has had people leave.  The lack of growth in Cisco’s stock price has been an issue for some as well.  Looking at the list of places where the execs have landed, other than Bitar, it’s all start-ups or high growth companies.

Having Skype allows Microsoft to be more aggressive pushing UC and VoIP in the cloud.

Microsoft has confirmed that it is planning to buy Internet phone company Skype for over $8 billion ($7 billion plus over a billion in debt). It will be the largest acquisition Microsoft has made, trumping the $6 billion that Microsoft paid for online ad company, aQuantive, back in 2007.

So does the deal make sense or is it a desperate attempt to gain on Google in the Internet markets? There’s a tremendous amount of hype around Skype right now based on many events from the past few months. Longtime Cisco executive, Tony Bates, became the CEO, an IPO has been expected and there have been rumors of joint ventures with both Google and/or Facebook, so Microsoft could be making the move for defensive measures rather than offensive ones.