We hear it in the news, and in our daily conversations all the time now… “the cloud.” This metaphor largely sums up where the future of technology is heading towards. For all companies, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve and to do so they must constantly innovate. Interestingly, Microsoft CEO said, “if you look at the co-evolution of hardware and software [that] is going to define what’s going to happen. We have a particular definition of mobile which is perhaps skewed to the mobile phone. But if you take the industrial Internet or the Internet of everything, everything’s going to be connected to the cloud, and data. So that’s the world that we are building for” [Source].

In comes the latest in mobile-focused initiatives, Starbucks will deliver your coffee or food straight to your desk starting in 2015.

Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, call its: “E-commerce on steroids.” It will be accessible through Starbucks’ popular loyalty program on their mobile app – giving customer’s their coffee fix without having to leave the office. As someone who works right beside a Starbucks, and does daily coffee runs for my entire team, I believe this concept will be highly successful.

Both Microsoft and Starbucks highlight the importance of cloud innovation. Customers should have one seamless experience across all devices, which of course are all connected to the cloud. This will determine whether corporate giants like Starbucks can stay ahead of their e-commerce game. The winning edge starts with the cloud by providing insight through data and increasing convenience for customers. How far can technology go?