Microsoft cloud fits and starts.

CloudCamp Federal 2008 – Don’t miss out !!!

By G C Network | November 7, 2008

Tickets are going fast for CloudCamp Federal 2008 on November 12th in Chantilly, Virginia !! Representatives from the following organizations are already registered to attend. 3TERAAmazon Web Services (AWS)AOLAppistryApptisBooz Allen…

Private Clouds

By G C Network | November 5, 2008

Yesterday in eWeek, Chris Preimesberger, provided a very good read in “Why Private Cloud Computing is Beginning to Get Traction“. “Private cloud computing is a different take on the mainstream…

Important Cloud Computing Events

By G C Network | November 4, 2008

Mark your calendar for the following cloud computing events. These are specifically targeted to organizations looking to leverage cloud computing technologies and techniques in support of national security requirements. CloudCamp…

Forrester: Embrace Cloud Computing to Cut Costs

By G C Network | November 3, 2008

“Forrester Research advises CFOs to take a close look at cloud computing for messaging and collaboration and enterprise applications. The payoffs could be noticeable during the current economic downturn.” In…

Government still wary of cloud computing

By G C Network | October 31, 2008

Federal News Radio interviewed Ron Markezich, a corporate vice president of Microsoft, Mike Bradshaw, president of Google federal, and Michael Farber, a partner with Booz Allen on the government’s approach…

Microsoft Azure

By G C Network | October 30, 2008

With the announcement of Azure, Microsoft has finally made it’s cloud computing plans public. Maybe Larry Ellison is now ready to revise his opinion, huh? While this announcement is definitely…

Federal Grants from the Cloud

By G C Network | October 29, 2008

In case you mised it, the Department of Interior has announced that it plans to build a cloud computing platform to manage the processing and distributing of government grants. “Grants.gov…

Economist.com : Let it rise

By G C Network | October 28, 2008

This week, The Economist provides an insightful special report on cloud computing. From “Clouds and Judgement“: “Computing is fast becoming a “cloud”—a collection of disembodied services accessible from anywhere and…

Some More Cloud Computing Survey Results

By G C Network | October 27, 2008

As promised, here are some more results from the MIT/”Cloud Musings” on-line survey! Please remember, THIS IS NOT A SCIENTIFIC SURVEY !! The purpose is only to get a sense of…

Steve Ballmer comments on Microsoft’s cloud plans

By G C Network | October 24, 2008

On October 17th in the “Redmond Channel Partner Online”, a Microsoft Partner community publication, Kurt Mackie reported on Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer’s comments on the company’s vision for syncing up…

Microsoft’s dance with cloud comuting is very puzzling.

Point 1:

The June 5th Wall Street Journal article discusses the friction between Steve Ballmer and Bill Gagtes over NetDocs, described by WSJ writer Bob Guth as ” a promising effort to offer software programs such as word processing over the Internet.” Sounding very similar to Google Docs, the project died because it would have eaten into Microsoft Office revenues.

Point 2:

Microsoft’s plans to open up it’s entire lineup of Internet services to developers under a “Cloud OS” moniker. Alternatively described as “cloud-centric” Brian Hall, general manager of Windows Live describes this effort as “A lot of the data, a lot of the apps, a lot of the interesting things are on the edge. They are on the PCs. They are on the Xboxes. They are on the phones.”

Point 3:
The ongoing Microsoft/Yahoo dance which seems to be focused on search engines and ad revenue, not cloud computing at all.

If Microsoft is planning on participating in the next revolution in computing, it really needs to change it’s box-centric view and get on with moving it’s applications onto the network. Cloud computing is about reducing reliance on the user client, not increasing it!

You should also read Blaise Zerega’s view on the matter under his Portfolio.com blog “Did Microsoft Let Cloud Computing Slip Away”

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G C Network