iNsAnItY iNtEnSiFiEd
In the run up to this month's Professional Developer Conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has started talking up Microsoft's new cloud computing infrastructure. At PDC, MS will unveil a "cloud operating system" that will run .NET applications in the cloud.
Ballmer was reluctant to give away too many details to avoid preempting PDC. He did, however, outline the company's vision. Microsoft already has operating systems for PCs, servers, and mobile systems; the next market the company wants to get into is cloud computing, and so the company needs a new "Internet" operating system. As yet, the new OS has no name, though Ballmer reckoned it would be "Windows something."
The Microsoft CEO said that MS wanted to provide the benefits of browser applications—they're cross-platform and easy to manage—with the benefits of desktop applications—better user interfaces and greater integration. To do this will require a shift in development tools and techniques with the cloud OS forming just one part of the solution.
Some hints of Microsoft's "Software + Services" future have also been given. Although the software giant does not envisage its bread-and-butter desktop applications like Office disappearing any time soon, the company is nonetheless developing services to enable light editing of Office documents from networked locations. This is part of a broader strategy that will see many of its products (SharePoint, Exchange, Dynamics CRM) gain extended online capabilities.
Amazon puts Microsoft in the cloud
Microsoft isn't the only company wanting to put Microsoft products into the cloud. Amazon, earlier this week, announced that its EC2 cloud computing service would soon offer Windows (the real deal, not "Windows something") and SQL Server. The Windows EC2 product is currently being beta tested by a limited number of EC2 customers, launching publicly by the end of the year.
Amazon is citing customer demands for Windows media codecs and streaming media as a key driver for this decision. Windows has a rich selection of media software unavailable on other platforms, including support for many legacy formats. Other customer demands include the ability to run ASP.NET web applications on IIS and SQL Server, to take advantage of EC2's scalability.
This move by Amazon is likely to be more than just a response to customer demands. Microsoft is building cloud computing data centers, and with its cloud platform imminent, Amazon will soon face competition for its EC2 product. By offering Windows, Amazon will preempt Microsoft's entry into the market to retain its lead. And it's not just Microsoft that Amazon will be competing with. For high-volume sites, an EC2 ASP.NET platform is sure to be competitive with conventional web hosting facilities.
Microsoft has large data centers of its own, powering Windows Live Mail, Windows Update, and Live Search, among others; the company can certainly run Internet services on a huge scale and is sure to bring that expertise to bear on its cloud services. Amazon is certainly the more experienced company when it comes to offering cloud computing services to paying customers, though, and it's hard to see customers abandoning the tried—if not entirely trusted—EC2 for Microsoft's version 1.0 platform.
Ballmer was reluctant to give away too many details to avoid preempting PDC. He did, however, outline the company's vision. Microsoft already has operating systems for PCs, servers, and mobile systems; the next market the company wants to get into is cloud computing, and so the company needs a new "Internet" operating system. As yet, the new OS has no name, though Ballmer reckoned it would be "Windows something."
The Microsoft CEO said that MS wanted to provide the benefits of browser applications—they're cross-platform and easy to manage—with the benefits of desktop applications—better user interfaces and greater integration. To do this will require a shift in development tools and techniques with the cloud OS forming just one part of the solution.
Some hints of Microsoft's "Software + Services" future have also been given. Although the software giant does not envisage its bread-and-butter desktop applications like Office disappearing any time soon, the company is nonetheless developing services to enable light editing of Office documents from networked locations. This is part of a broader strategy that will see many of its products (SharePoint, Exchange, Dynamics CRM) gain extended online capabilities.
Amazon puts Microsoft in the cloud
Microsoft isn't the only company wanting to put Microsoft products into the cloud. Amazon, earlier this week, announced that its EC2 cloud computing service would soon offer Windows (the real deal, not "Windows something") and SQL Server. The Windows EC2 product is currently being beta tested by a limited number of EC2 customers, launching publicly by the end of the year. Amazon is citing customer demands for Windows media codecs and streaming media as a key driver for this decision. Windows has a rich selection of media software unavailable on other platforms, including support for many legacy formats. Other customer demands include the ability to run ASP.NET web applications on IIS and SQL Server, to take advantage of EC2's scalability.
This move by Amazon is likely to be more than just a response to customer demands. Microsoft is building cloud computing data centers, and with its cloud platform imminent, Amazon will soon face competition for its EC2 product. By offering Windows, Amazon will preempt Microsoft's entry into the market to retain its lead. And it's not just Microsoft that Amazon will be competing with. For high-volume sites, an EC2 ASP.NET platform is sure to be competitive with conventional web hosting facilities.
Microsoft has large data centers of its own, powering Windows Live Mail, Windows Update, and Live Search, among others; the company can certainly run Internet services on a huge scale and is sure to bring that expertise to bear on its cloud services. Amazon is certainly the more experienced company when it comes to offering cloud computing services to paying customers, though, and it's hard to see customers abandoning the tried—if not entirely trusted—EC2 for Microsoft's version 1.0 platform.
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