Microsoft Launches Windows Azure
Microsoft on Monday announced a version of Windows that runs over the Internet from inside Microsoft's own data centers.
Dubbed Windows Azure, it's less a replacement for the operating system that runs on one's own PC than it is an alternative for developers to write programs that live inside Microsoft's data centers as opposed to on a business's own servers.
"It's a transformation of our software and a transformation of our strategy," said Ray Ozzie, a computing industry pioneer who now serves as Microsoft's Chief Software Architect.
Microsoft first outlined a shift to "Live Services" at an event in San Francisco in 2005. The company has released a few things piecemeal, such as Live Mesh, but Monday's announcement marked the first real discussion of how Microsoft's disparate Internet strategies fit together.
The announcements come at the start of Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference here. On Tuesday, Microsoft plans to go into more detail on Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, due out by next January.
With the launch of Azure, Microsoft will find itself in competition with other providers of Internet storage and computing services including Amazon, Salesforce.com and Rackspace.
Ozzie praised Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for innovating the hosted computing model. Amazon "established a base level design pattern, architecture models and business models that we'll all learn from," he said.
Microsoft said that it is making Windows Azure in preview form to developers, with a limited subset of the features that Microsoft plans to have in the product before its final release.
The software maker didn't go into too many details on how it will charge for Azure, saying it will be free during the preview period. Final pricing, "will be competitive with the marketplace," Ozzie said
Microsoft itself plans to offer businesses the option of running over the Internet the kinds of software that has traditionally run on a company's own servers. Microsoft already sells its Exchange corporate e-mail software in this way, but that is just the beginning, said Microsoft vice president Dave Thompson.
"All our enterprise software will be delivered as an online service as an option," Thompson said.
By Ina Fried. CNET News' Elinor Mills contributed to this report
CNET Dubbed Windows Azure, it's less a replacement for the operating system that runs on one's own PC than it is an alternative for developers to write programs that live inside Microsoft's data centers as opposed to on a business's own servers.
"It's a transformation of our software and a transformation of our strategy," said Ray Ozzie, a computing industry pioneer who now serves as Microsoft's Chief Software Architect.
Microsoft first outlined a shift to "Live Services" at an event in San Francisco in 2005. The company has released a few things piecemeal, such as Live Mesh, but Monday's announcement marked the first real discussion of how Microsoft's disparate Internet strategies fit together.
The announcements come at the start of Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference here. On Tuesday, Microsoft plans to go into more detail on Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, due out by next January.
With the launch of Azure, Microsoft will find itself in competition with other providers of Internet storage and computing services including Amazon, Salesforce.com and Rackspace.
Ozzie praised Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for innovating the hosted computing model. Amazon "established a base level design pattern, architecture models and business models that we'll all learn from," he said.
Microsoft said that it is making Windows Azure in preview form to developers, with a limited subset of the features that Microsoft plans to have in the product before its final release.
The software maker didn't go into too many details on how it will charge for Azure, saying it will be free during the preview period. Final pricing, "will be competitive with the marketplace," Ozzie said
Microsoft itself plans to offer businesses the option of running over the Internet the kinds of software that has traditionally run on a company's own servers. Microsoft already sells its Exchange corporate e-mail software in this way, but that is just the beginning, said Microsoft vice president Dave Thompson.
"All our enterprise software will be delivered as an online service as an option," Thompson said.
By Ina Fried. CNET News' Elinor Mills contributed to this report
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Sun, IBM, and Novell will get their just revenge on MS by supporting Open source software and a Free operating system that''s more stable and customizable than the soldier''s of Chavez, er Microsoft will be allowed to create.
Microsoft products are about as welcome in todays computing world as Palin is welcome to any intelligent voter.
Their destruction of superior products through high price marketing shows that losers can be winners. Excel and Internet Explorer are two examples of how mediocre products and big marketing beat Lotus 123 and Netscape''s browser (the first real browser).
Microsoft is pouring tens of millions to fight open source software. If computing were politics, Microsoft would be Communist China in every business sense.
I find most of the problems, even with my clients,is that no one actually reads what''s on the screen. Thereby disabling any logical thought as to what to do next.
www.chilitoz.com is reporting that Sarah Palin has signed a deal with PlayBoy Magazine to posed partially exposed in a future release of the famous nudity magazine in exchange, Heffner will run a multi-million dollar anti Obama add a day before the election.
Microsoft is so greedy that it "says" it puts its products thru BETA testing, which it doesn''t, expecting the end user to do the BETA testing for them for free as they use it and destroy their other programs and computers.
I know a lot of geeks who tell me that working with Vista is a pain in the rear, which is why they are rushing Windows 7 out. The big shots at Microsoft knew they had a bad product when they shoved Vista on us, but they wanted to get rid of XP because it was too "reliable".
It all comes down to money and profit and Microsoft''s continuing march to be the ONLY software company out there!
SIG HEIL, I''LL BUY ANY COMPUTER THAT HELPS ME LOSE E-MAILS!!!, BUSH!!!
sig heil, WHAT''S AN E-MAIL???, McBush!!!
sig heil, I''D RATHER SHOT MOOSE!!!, Palin!!!
My friends and acquaintances tell me of MONTHS that go by without a re-boot. Contrast that with a re-boot daily (at a minimum). I am running XP with SP3 and it is pitiful. Soon I will take my own advice and drop off the Microsoft bandwagon. Oh, in case you do not know it already, Linux is f-r-e-e. Appears to be better beta-tested than Windows (which seems to have the world''s worst memory manager).