Live Mesh Live?
Live Mesh is a Microsoft technology that lets you synchronize data across the
Internet and keep it all current on different devices. This way your cell phone,
home PC and work laptop can all have your girlfriend's phone number, photo and
schedule. Oh, and Live Mesh apparently can also be used for business!
I've been worried that Live Mesh is too complex, will take too long to materialize,
that applications then have to be written against it and may, in the end, not
work nearly as well as promised.
I may get some answers soon. Microsoft
has four apps that show how the Mesh is supposed to work. The news that
apps exist is more exciting than the apps themselves, which include a bulletin
board (weren't these old hat in the '80s?), a polling program and a multi-user
crossword puzzle. Can't wait!
Microsoft Competing with Google-Obama
Alliance?
Web site Politico, which gained huge traction through the course of the election,
has
an article light on details and heavy on fear about Google CEO Eric Schmidt
and President-elect Barack Obama.
The theory is that Schmidt is Obama's de facto technical adviser, and
that an Obama administration would craft policies more to Google's liking than
to Microsoft's. It even quoted an unnamed source (and just one, mind you) who
said that Microsoft is "terrified."
I've covered Redmond on and off since 1985 and I've never seen Microsoft terrified,
or even really nervous; it's like the John Wayne of software. I don't think
Microsoft has any reason to worry, either. One of the key issues is whether
the Democrats will get tougher on antitrust, but these days there are just as
many Google antitrust issues as Microsoft.
Terrified? I bet Bill and Steve are sleeping just fine!
Azure Skies Not Pure Blue
Microsoft made its billions selling packaged software with basic, though sometimes
tremendously complex, licenses. You pay for the right to use the software on
one or more computers. Moving to the cloud, as the new Azure platform entails,
brings a whole new technology, a whole new business model and a whole new set
of challenges.
The self-professed brainiacs from Gartner now argue that Azure is the biggest
Microsoft event since 1996 when Bill Gates realized the importance of the
Internet.
Azure was a big an event, but this isn't the first time Redmond has talked
about the cloud. Ray Ozzie has been pontificating about the cloud pretty much
non-stop since joining Microsoft in 2005. A little Gartner hyperbole? You be
the judge. Send your conclusions to [email protected].
About the Author
Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.