TimmyH
Microsoft bets on Cloud Computing
August 13th 2008 04:00
Cloud Computing, a service that provides scalable Internet-based software distributed across disparate datacentres, is the new vogue for Microsoft. Major industry players are investing in Microsoft’s latest brainchild. Amazon’s S3 storage service and EC2 computing have been online for a few years now.
Cloud Computing applications and services have been a little slow in the up-take. The biggest users until recently have been spammers, using the service to send bulk emails. But momentum is changing and now Microsoft is planning to stick its head in the clouds.
Microsoft has, for some time, been attempting to create a subscription service for Software on demand. The main attraction for the Internet giant is a constant stream of revenue and a reduction in the total cost of ownership for customers. Microsoft’s most popular service at present is the Exchange Online.
Cloud Computing more generally, is an off shoot of SaaS. Where SaaS offered services that were owned and managed by a single provider, Microsoft’s Cloud Computing model provides a mesh of infrastructure that can be used to develop SaaS while remaining robust and scalable.
Microsoft’s initial venture will involve a hosted solution for software vendors as well as a basic toll to deploy these services. The goal is reportedly to have a set of tools which developers can use to create programs that work as well on a single server as they do on a datacentre of servers.
CEO Steve Ballmer is promising staff that Cloud Computing is one of the biggest targets for the company in the coming years. Ballmer commented that "Some people think software plus services is all about search. But it's really about changing the way software is written and deployed. The future is about having a platform in the cloud and delivering applications across PCs, phones, TVs, and other devices, at work and in the home."
But while Microsoft sees a huge benefit in Cloud Computing, business could prove hesitant. Not long ago, Amazon’s S3 storage service suffered a major defect and ceased servicing requests and didn’t come back online until eight hours later. Although Amazon assures users that the problem has been remedied it does confirm that Cloud Computing is still risky.
While many of the initial Cloud Computing ventures could have teething problems, the S3 system is quite reliable. The industry is promoting cloud computing as the Next Big Thing; if these aspirations are to be achieved, companies like Microsoft and Amazon must ensure that events like the S3 outage are not repeated on a regular basis.
Cloud Computing applications and services have been a little slow in the up-take. The biggest users until recently have been spammers, using the service to send bulk emails. But momentum is changing and now Microsoft is planning to stick its head in the clouds.
Microsoft has, for some time, been attempting to create a subscription service for Software on demand. The main attraction for the Internet giant is a constant stream of revenue and a reduction in the total cost of ownership for customers. Microsoft’s most popular service at present is the Exchange Online.
Cloud Computing more generally, is an off shoot of SaaS. Where SaaS offered services that were owned and managed by a single provider, Microsoft’s Cloud Computing model provides a mesh of infrastructure that can be used to develop SaaS while remaining robust and scalable.
Microsoft’s initial venture will involve a hosted solution for software vendors as well as a basic toll to deploy these services. The goal is reportedly to have a set of tools which developers can use to create programs that work as well on a single server as they do on a datacentre of servers.
CEO Steve Ballmer is promising staff that Cloud Computing is one of the biggest targets for the company in the coming years. Ballmer commented that "Some people think software plus services is all about search. But it's really about changing the way software is written and deployed. The future is about having a platform in the cloud and delivering applications across PCs, phones, TVs, and other devices, at work and in the home."
But while Microsoft sees a huge benefit in Cloud Computing, business could prove hesitant. Not long ago, Amazon’s S3 storage service suffered a major defect and ceased servicing requests and didn’t come back online until eight hours later. Although Amazon assures users that the problem has been remedied it does confirm that Cloud Computing is still risky.
While many of the initial Cloud Computing ventures could have teething problems, the S3 system is quite reliable. The industry is promoting cloud computing as the Next Big Thing; if these aspirations are to be achieved, companies like Microsoft and Amazon must ensure that events like the S3 outage are not repeated on a regular basis.
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