Microsoft's Cloud
Copyright © by V. Miszalok, last update: 2009-07-28
| Index of Lectures |
|
Let me know what you think | |
Microsoft's Cloud
|
Over the past three years Ray Ozzie changes the culture of Microsoft to one where the company behaves more like a startup than a giant in order to innovate faster new products and services.
Previously, a big part of any development team at Microsoft was making sure its new product worked in lockstep with everything else the company produced. This "unification" criterion was something that Bill Gates had always hammered on.
Now Ray Ozzie pushes the developers to rush ahead and build new things without waiting for integration, unification and convergence. The result is a variety of brand new cross-over products that confuse the consumer. This problem is amplified now due to the nature of the “perpetual beta” where it’s socially acceptable to release preliminary beta versions for apps or services.
Consequence: The Office developers and different Azure teams offer their own gateways to the cloud and behave as real competitors do.
See: James Senior Blog.
  |
MOLW offers 5 GB of free cloud space. It's a service of the Office Live service portal bit it isn't restricted to Microsoft Office users nor to Office file formats.
The space can be shared with anyone. Many authors can work within one document and there is an automatic synchronisation service.
Whatever you upload with MOLW you will see it when you check in later under the same Windows Live ID in Live Mesh (see below).
Probably MOLW will merge one day with SkyDrive and later with the final release of the more powerful Live Mesh.
See: Wikipedia/Office_Live and Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta.
|
MOLSB extends MOLW by a free one-year website hosting and email service.
The free service just includes a fourth level domain such as www.myName.web.officelive.com.
A second level custom domain such as www.myName.com can be booked at $ 14.95/year (in Germany: http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/de-DE/pricing).
Additional cloud space and users are also available, but MOLSB doesn't support any server side scripting such as PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, SQL nor any other database, not even Microsoft Access.
Advice: You have to deactivate MOLSB's annoying web design tool when you want to host arbitrary HTML-, and PDF-web content.
See: http://ask.officelive.com/smallbusiness
|
SkyDrive is a file storage (25 GB free !) and sharing service. It'is a service of the Windows Live service portal, but it's available outside of Windows too. Sooner or later Microsoft will merge MOLW and SkyDrive with Live Mesh.
See: Checkin to SkyDrive.
|
Azure is Windows in the cloud. Users are charged per hour usage and per GB storage: Pricing Overview.
Windows Azure has the moniker 'Windows' because Microsoft is branding it the "Operating System in the Cloud".
That means Azure is the generic term for all services and tools that extend Microsoft Windows from a classic operating system into a cloud operating system.
| Single user view: | Azure is the internet portal Live Mesh which is a modernized mixture of the internet portal Office Live plus the portal Windows Live. All allow to write into and to read from my 5 GB cloud space and to synchronize the files among all of my computers. Behind the scene the single user is restricted to the Azure subset called Live Services. |
| Business view: | Azure are Live Services plus SQL Azure Database aimed to shift internet business into the Microsoft cloud. |
| Programmers view: | Azure is a layered set of services, SDKs and tools for writing Mesh-Enabled Web Applications. 1. The basic layer are the Windows Azure Services, with their SDK and the Tools for Visual Studio. 2. The second layer contains: 2a: Live Services, Live Framework and the Live Framework SDK and Tools. 2b: .NET Services and the .NET Services SDK. 2c: SQL Data Services (SDS) + SDS Library. |
Difference between Live Services and Windows Azure Services: Microsoft Cloud Computing Tools.
Introduction to Windows Azure Services on MSDN: About the Azure Services Platform and Windows Azure.
Introduction to Live Services on MSDN: About the Live Framework.
Synopsis: Wikipedia/Live_Services.
|
Live Mesh is more powerful than Microsoft Office Live Workspace and SkyDrive.
It offers a free 5 GB cloud space ( = the mesh) together with sync-, share- and remote access-services.
It focuses on a user who works with different computers at different places and with mobile devices.
On any computer Live Mesh installs a beautiful virtual desktop GUI called the Mesh Operating Environment MOE, written as RIA in WPF together with a sync program.
The sync program installs in Windows Explorer an additional line into the right click menu when you select a folder : Add folder to Live Mesh....
After uploading the folder into the cloud, the directory icon turns blue to indicate the folder as being synced.
From now on the folder has another line in its right click menu: Live Mesh Options which expands to a second slide out menu that offers 4 command lines:
Change sync settings..., Invite members..., Manage members... and Delete folder....
After setting up Live Mesh on all of your computers, your synced folders and files will appear on all of them.
From a computer you connect to the MOE using the Mesh task bar icon or through www.mesh.com.
After logging on, you are presented with your synced folders so you can access any of your files through the web or you can transport yourself to another computer that is set up in your mesh.
Live Mesh Remote Desktop opens a window in the computer you are currently using and gives you access to even those folders you haven’t synchronized.
Copy and paste files between your remote computer and your local computer.
The remote window will appear exactly as your desktop looks including your desktop icons, taskbar and any opened windows or programs.
You use the remote desktop as you would normally use your desktop as if you are directly in front of your computer.
This comes in handy when you need to use a program on your home or office computer that is not available or installed on the computer where you are located.
You can also select a file on your computer that is not currently synced and drag it into a synced folder. This service is cool.
See: Wikipedia/Live_Mesh.
Platforms and Services
Both Azure and Live Mesh are said to be "Platforms" offering scalable hosting of applications and data.
The core content of a "Platform" are its services.
Both Azure and Live Mesh share a common foundation of services.
The Azure "Platform" is just a thin software layer which loosly unifies the access to the powerful Azure Services.
The Live Mesh "Platform" is a beautiful GUI around the Live Services which are a subset of the Azure Services.
| Hierarchical sets of services: | Azure Services contain Live Services contain Mesh Services and programming Mesh Services is the core of cloud programming. |
| Azure Services | all Live Services + .NET- + SQL Services |
| Live Services | all Mesh Services + Identity- + Directory- + Storage-Services |
| Mesh Services | Users- + Devices- + Applications- + Synchronisation-Services |
| Differences between | Azure Platform | Live Mesh Platform |
| User Interface | none, open access via Java, PHP, Ruby, Unix. | Windows Mesh Operating Environment MOE |
| Offers Access to | Azure Services | Live Services, which contains Mesh Services |
| Typical Owner | company | single person |
| Scope focused on | global business | two or more computers of one person |
| Main Behaviour | waiting for requests | active sync + integration of personal apps, data and devices |
| Software bases on | basic naming + registration + relay (relay = connectivity + event binding) |
.NET Service Bus |
| Programming Tool | Azure SDK | Live Framework SDK and Tools |
| Roles | Web Role, Worker Role, Data Storage | none |
| Database | SQL | none |
Links:
Ori Amiga: A Lap around the Live Framework and Mesh Services
Ori Amiga: Live Framework Architecture and Insights
Abolade Gbadegesin: Mesh Services Architecture and Concepts
Arash Ghanaie-Sichanie: Mesh Enabled Web Applications
The Future of the device Mesh
Feed Sync and Mesh Synchronisation Services
|
MEWA run online inside a Web Browser and offline on Windows.
A MEWA builds a rich client (Cloud-to-Client) to extend the web experiences into devices and desktop. MEWAs offer a much richer user experience than what can be delivered within the confines of a web browser.
Examples: Ebay Desktop, Amazon Unbox Video Player, Live Writer Beta, Blockbuster have a downloadable rich client to complement their web offering.
The data that the MEWA-user generates/updates on the client has to be synced with the cloud so it is available when you want to access the data from a device that does not have the MEWA.
MEWAs have an integrated identity management and MEWA-users can share their data with others.
MEWAs can run:
1. from a shortcut on Windows Desktop starting MeshAppHost.exe which invokes the application offline.
2. from the web page http://home.live.com which starts a Live Mesh instance of the application online.
3. as a mixture of 1. and 2.
See: MSDN: About Mesh-Enabled Web Applications.
Software as a Service SaaS (pronounced 'sass') means software deployment via the web whereby a provider licenses an application to customers for temporal use on demand. SaaS software vendors may
a) host
the application in the cloud and just download a GUI once (f.i. a browser applet) or
b)
download the complete application to the consumer device, disabling it after use or
c) download a mixture of a) and b).
Example: Write Online.
| top of page: |