Even though I’m still not quite sure what “the cloud” actually is (it’s the internet, right?), Microsoft has just announced that it will be releasing ‘Windows Cloud’ at its Professional Developers Conference later this month. Windows Cloud (a temporary codename) will apparently be based on Windows Server, but with new features and characteristics. Steve Ballmer made the announcement at a Microsoft-sponsored conference for IT managers in London.
Some of the new features include geo replication, management modelling, and an SOA model. “We’re not driving an agenda towards being service providers,” Ballmer explained, “but we’ve gotta build a service that is Windows in the cloud.” I must admit that I have absolutely no idea what that means. To me, the cloud is just a fancy name for the internet, and I can’t imagine how to put Windows in that cloud as a service. I could make a lame comment about how a cloud is basically vapour higher up in the atmosphere, but I’ll refrain.
More interestingly though, Ballmer acknowledged the existence of Midori, a rumoured post-Windows operating system. He emphasised it’s a research project.
Our big problem is there’s just no secret that gets kept in Microsoft. The guy in the office next door to somebody working on Midori is not supposed to know about Midori. The last thing we want is for somebody else to obsolete us, if we’re gonna get obseleted we better do it to ourselves.
Thom, according to Wikipedia it *is* the internet, but it’s really up there on my hatewordlist with “Blogosphere”.
Strange how the intarweb stole (inherited?) the name from Frame Relay. It seems that it’s an extrapolation made by, or perhaps for, PHBs who couldn’t understand “WAN link” or “Hub and Spoke WAN technology” so they assumed (or were told) that anything outside of their office (the internet for instance) was “the cloud.”
I guess the new featuers will be “borrowed” directly from Linux.
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last i recall a few years back a bunch os MS devs left the company and formed xcerion.com ( http://xcerion.com/ )
which already has a rather nice cloud os (as do a few others but theirs is easily one of the 3 best).
I wonder if MS ever goes, “damn, wish we had them back.”
They could just buy them back. Look at Apple, Steve Jobs, and NEXT.
For Windows Home Server? I know that this will be directed towards corporate customers, but I’m thinking that they’ve also been gunning in separate instances for a “home cloud” through Live Mesh.
*looks through Google*
On second thought, I see that Windows Home Server is “meant” to take some services away from the cloud (Live Mesh’s one, perhaps), so I guess that the two aren’t necessarily intended to mix.
But has anyone here actually tried using Live Mesh with WHS, or at least found a better or free-software based route towards a “home cloud” (in light of Stallman’s recent comments concerning cloud computing, privacy and data preservation http://osnews.com/story/20343/RMS_Cloud_Computing_Is_Bad_Blogospher… )?
Edited 2008-10-01 23:02 UTC
Where I have seen cloud computing take off is in small businesses. I work for a small counseling company and Google docs and calendar are used by most of the employees to discuss projects and keep track of schedules. It is easy to forget that the data is all being saved on Google servers. It concerns me a little that I will log in one day and not have free access to docs or that the files will get obliterated by accident. It really is a money saver for our company. It also makes it easier since everyone is using the same online applications. Of course, though, if the applications stopped working one day and we couldn’t get to our files we would be screwed.
The article on RMS’s response to Cloud computing made me think more about this. They really are proprietary applications. Someone joked to me about what are the chances Google would lose the data. Not likely. It wouldn’t ruin the company but it would be a pain having to switch to a new system.
Edited 2008-10-01 23:54 UTC
The other important thing to remember, is a lot of small companies use 0 backup systems at all. All the data is stored in their personal desktop system.
To be quite honest, online apps (i hate using ‘cloud’) usually offer more security to most smaller shops.
i would rather leave my data in Google’s servers than flimsy machines in the basement. i think they backup data better than i do.
They also index it better. I’ll take the box in the basement.
“i think they backup data better than i do.”
And don’t forget sell it for profit…
Nothing wrong with selling for profit, but it shouldn’t interfere as long as it doesn’t intefere with your *your* freedom.
Nothing wrong with your stuff being in the cloud, as long as you understand the level of service you’re gonna get is the same as with electricity or water (periodic outtages etc). If that is good enough for your business then go for it. For some of us (possibly outside the norm) this isn’t enough, so maintaining our own infrastructure makes sense (like hospitals with their own electricity generators).
“Nothing wrong with selling for profit, but it shouldn’t interfere as long as it doesn’t intefere with your *your* freedom.”
Well, in the context of this article, it interferes with your freedom by definition. Someone selling my data for a profit is a direct freedom violation.
I fail to see how using Google Docs and Calendar is “cloud computing”. Unless it is just another moronic name for “hosted application”.
You know, that service that was the hottest thing on planet earth just before the dotcom bubble burst.
shhh… Don’t let them know you figured it out. They’ll change the name again and we’ll wind up with a new buzzword with the same meaning to try and sell you something you didn’t want in the first place.
I fail to see how using Google Docs and Calendar is “cloud computing”
Whether you call it hosted computing, web applications or cloud computing it is all equivalent. The benefit of Google Docs and Caldendar web applications allows people to collaborate and see each other’s schedules. The same could be done on a LAN but our employees are working from home, offices, etc. Having a wireless broadband card with access to the cloud makes collaboration possible from any location.
So it’s the same ole with a new name. Impressive!
Or not.
So that means our Zimbra system running on one box in our office is cloud computing since it is accessible from anywhere. You know, it’s almost exactly like….how it always has been.
Cloud computing is apparently fskcing nonsense.
I’ve been a huge fan of using my DSL connection from anywhere, or a dedicated server, etc. I don’t really care if people want to call it cloud computing, since there’s probably not an easy way to explain it to most people though.
I assume they mean cloud as a platform, like LiveMesh is supposed to be? Maybe they mean an OS you can run that has some benefits in terms of distribution for a data center?
I think RMS has an OK point, but mostly he’s just insane. I think it’s fair for business (and us regular consumers) to ask for a way to get our data out of the cloud if we want. Also, it would be trivial to encrypt data that’s going in to some generic storage on the web if you don’t want it readable. The cloud and the client can take on whatever form is necessary. Maybe a good article would be someone investigating the top “cloud” companies, and how open your data is…
As far as companies doing more in the cloud, I think it’s a great idea. I’ve seen the shoddy quality of data centers, even for huge hosting companies. It’s a matter of price to reliability. For most small or medium sized businesses, using someone else’s infrastructure (I have to say Amazon’s EC is very cool to me) can probably save some money, and likely be more reliable.
I know Amazon has had problems, but I’m pretty sure they’re much more reliable than running your own data center. It’s very expensive to provide redundancy (that works), in terms of staffing, setup, networking and physical machines.
For me, I’m glad to have the Internet, err Cloud, to access my “stuff” from anywhere. I’m also smart enough to know that sometimes the browser isn’t enough, and for important information, I want to have it backed up locally in case the cloud does evaporate.
Ballmer: “We need a new operating system designed for the cloud.”
Maybe he should have looked at Plan 9. It’s built from the ground up for completely seamless access to devices, resources (printers, storage etc) whether they be local or somewhere distant on the ‘net. It uses the very clean and consistent approach of namespaces to do this.
“The cloud” just sounds like hype for pointy-haired bosses – a new buzzword, new name for an old thing.
Isn’t MS trying to make us watch the clouds through the windows?
IIRC QNX would be “cloud ready, too. IIRC it does not “know” whether a resource, a service, a * is local or anywhere.
Why on earth is Microsoft trying to sell cloud computing? To make money through control. They can market it as “your apps will run anywhere”, and “access your data anywhere”, but the bottom line is that someone else is holding your data and apps hostage. That someone is a company that has shown utter disregard for consumers time and time again.
I firmly believe an OS belongs on a client hard drive, and businesses should control their own servers, or contract this to a reputable company. Microsoft is not a reputable company, in my opinion. They make no decisions based on customer want or need, only decisions designed to make them money. One can watch monkey boy do a talk/presentation and see what kind of leadership this company has.
The sad part about this is there are people who actually believe this marketing garbage and will buy into it. When Microsoft loses interest, where will your data and apps be?
In related news, Microsoft announces a plan to corner the market on buzzwords.
This proves even more that plan9 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan9) was far ahead of its time.
Agreed. Although this cloud computing seems little more than client server with a html face. In about 20-30 years we count see a true plan 9 model on a large scale, email and web apps distributed across multiple serivce providers, msn as data store, yahoo as cpu etc, mounting a remote service tranparently, on boot, on any platform or device. Services not in the cloud, but right in the ether, some kind of ‘ether net’ i suppose?