With Live Mesh, Microsoft Firmly Embraces Cloud Computing

Microsoft announced yesterday that it is finally embracing a growing trend called "cloud computing," in which users access software and services online rather than via software that is installed locally on their PCs. Through a new initiative called Live Mesh, Microsoft will for the first time migrate its core computing platform off of the PC desktop and into the Internet cloud.

"This new software-plus-services platform enables PCs and other devices to 'come alive' by making them aware of each other through the Internet," Amit Mital, general manager of Microsoft's Live Mesh efforts wrote in a corporate blog. "Our goal is to provide a 'just works' experience by making it much easier to access the information, applications, people, and devices you care about."

This initial version of Live Mesh is currently in a closed beta aimed at developers but will be opened up to the public later in the year, Mital says. It will attempt to provide four key services: device interoperability; anywhere access to files, folders, and programs; simple sharing and interaction with others; and automated updates. Although none of this sounds particularly revolutionary, remember that this platform exists in the cloud, not on a PC desktop. Central management of devices and applications online, for example, is unexplored territory for Microsoft and its customers.

The first developer-oriented beta of Live Mesh includes a number of low-level technologies that will form the basis for the entire platform as well as enable programmers to create unique solutions of their own. From a foundational perspective, Live Mesh includes programmatic access to core services such as (online and offline) Storage, Membership, Sync, Peer-to-Peer Communication and Newsfeed. And the programming model is identical between desktop-based, device-based, and cloud-based Mesh solutions, meaning that a single Live Mesh application will run identically on any supported hardware platform.

I'll be writing more about Live Mesh in the coming days on the SuperSite for Windows. This is an important service that could one day evolve into Microsoft's core business model.

http://www.winsupersite.com/

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"This is an important service that could one day evolve into Microsoft's core business model."

so what of all this "they should virtualize legacy app support" stuff you're talking about Paul? seems to me that this would make it irrelevant in the days ahead, what with the underlying os being one big virtualized environment that only needs to support legacy apps, what with new software just moving to a unified web api.

XP

Waethorn April 23, 2008 (Article Rating:

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I'm not buying it! I cannot fathom how the licensing folks at Microsoft would ever make this worth while for an enterprise to look at. We are working on VDI currently and the "Centralized Desktop" license that they offer is really a license on any end-point that may access the software. If they do the same model for their "cloud" initiative, I hesitate to see any real cost savings that would drive me to look at it as an enterprise software option.

thorson.michael April 23, 2008 (Article Rating:

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Maybe a few Mom and Pop shops that cannot afford software and servers will hop on this model in the beginning...maybe even a few large companies that like to stay on the bleeding edge of technology...but like I said about what Google is planning...I cannot see any regulated industry utilizing this until it has been fully scrutinized by the regulating agencies.

--tayme

tayme April 23, 2008 (Article Rating:

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"I'm not buying it! I cannot fathom how the licensing folks at Microsoft would ever make this worth while for an enterprise to look at."

it's clearly not designed for large enterprises - they already have Sharepoint technologies for collaboration, and even Groove for more independant workgroups. even smaller groups can utilize even the functionality built-in functionality in Windows Vista - Windows Meeting Space.

i see this as being for "enterprising" individuals that have several computers, but need to occasionally collaborate on a few files from a project, while still being able to work mostly independantly.

it's also something else that IT admins would have to watch out for and possibly block - preventing users from accessing files from home.

XP

Waethorn April 23, 2008 (Article Rating:

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after 15 yrs, MS now starts to use the Internet only after Google and others have made business-on-the-Internet as possible under Software As A Service model?

Sharepoint was one complex thing for internal networks not really for Internet-based availablility. what new product would they make again? and licesing?

rostand April 24, 2008 (Article Rating:

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