Microsoft Cloud

[Decode]

Packaged-software king Microsoft on Monday took to the computing "cloud" with a platform for offering programs as hosted services on the Internet.
Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie unveiled Azure at a Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles and gave the software specialists advanced access to what he describes as "Windows in the cloud."
"In many ways it is a turning point for Microsoft," Ozzie said during a speech kicking off the four-day conference.
"It's a transformation of our software; it's a transformation of our strategy and our offerings across the board to fundamentally embrace services."
Microsoft's fortune has been built on creating and selling packaged software such as its ubiquitous Windows operating systems that people install on their machines or are pre-installed on computers.
Faster Internet networks and more powerful computing devices have given birth to cloud computing, a trend in which programs are hosted online as services with software maintained on machines operated by technology companies.
Microsoft originally responded to the trend with a "software plus services" strategy that combined its original tactic of selling packaged programs while providing cloud-based features and support.
The Azure platform, which was code named Project Red Dog during development, lets developers build online services and websites to operate on machines updated, maintained and protected by Microsoft.
"Windows Azure is not software you run on your own servers, but rather it is a service running on a vast number of machines housed in Microsoft's own data centers, first in the U.S. and then worldwide," Ozzie said.
Benefits of the platform touted by Microsoft executives include companies having massive room for storing data and vast reserves of computing power to tap into during spikes in website visits caused by good or bad news.
"We have built a platform to let you build your killer apps (applications)," Microsoft vice president of cloud infrastructure Amitabh Srivastava told the assembled developers.
"It's a scalable hosting environment for you to deploy your apps in our cloud."
Microsoft has been increasingly under pressure as arch-rival Google has rolled out free Web-based applications that compete with text, spreadsheet, calendar and other packaged software from the Redmond, Washington-based firm.
Azure is also a direct response to an Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) online application platform recently announced by Internet retail giant Amazon.
"It provides you with complete control of your computing resources and lets you run on Amazon's proven computing environment," the California-based Internet firm said of its EC2.

This does seem to be the way forward. I assume this will be the thing after Windows 7.

[scottish]

ERm i already made a thread on this, its called Microsoft Azure.

[habtasia]

ERm i already made a thread on this, its called Microsoft Azure.

Yea but youve only posted the link but this thread has posted the story, i wouldnt be bothered to just click on the link you gave and wait for it to load.

[scottish]

Then he could have posted in the proper thread

[DaveTaylor]

I found this interesting as microsoft claimed in an interview they where the first to try this whole new cloud concept however MobileMe from apple was the first "cloud" format.

[Jordy]

I found this interesting as microsoft claimed in an interview they where the first to try this whole new cloud concept however MobileMe from apple was the first "cloud" format.

MobileMe didn't bring anything new so how could that be the first "cloud" format. Microsoft Exchange server has been doing the same for years and accessing files over the internet has also been possible for a lot longer.

[Earthquake]

Isn't this the internet application for Microsoft software applications?

[Robbie]

Isn't this the internet application for Microsoft software applications?

offering programs as hosted services on the Internet.

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[Earthquake]

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So basically, I was correct?

[Nereo]

I heard about this ages ago. Sounds like a good idea if its done right.