Windows Azure

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10076204-75.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

I just read that article on cNet. I'm sorta confused as to why this OS is coming out.

Has MS ever released something like this before?

What exactly is cloud computing? And how will this OS differ from Windows 7?

It sounds all pretty and cool but does it actually mean anything for the everyday user?

 

I guess its probably directed more towards businesses.. I may be wrong though.. But I remember reading about this cloud computing somewhere else, here on NBR. Can't remember where / what the discussion was about.

 

Cloud computing is being able to do everything 'in the clouds' aka on the net. Amazon S3 is an example of cloud computing, they sell storage space and bandwidth to distribute your data. What it means is it gives you the ability to rapidly scale to your demands. Say you are needing 100GB of space, but then you need a few TB for whatever reason, cloud computing will allow you to increase your capacity quickly without having to launch more servers. It is also good for processing data because sometimes you need a lot of power and other times not, which gives you ability to scale without having to invest in capital which you may only need for a short period of time.

This really is more or less for businesses right now. For home users it would be the ability to run Office, but it would sit on a server. So you would have to worry less about backing up your data, but you would have connectivity concerns.

 

^ Ah yes, it was this.. Thanks ATB for that very clear n crisp.

 

Putting in Simple Terms

When you plug in a toaster, you're probably not thinking about who generated the electrons that power it. It's also unlikely that you'll wonder how far those electrons traveled to reach you and what source -- coal, nuclear energy, hydro, solar or other -- gave up BTUs to send that energy down a wire into your kitchen.

You don't really need to know the details behind provision of electricity services. After all, electric power has been around for more than 100 years, traveling over grids that have changed little over that time. With the exception of rare outages, you can pretty much trust that whatever electricity you need will be there when you need it.

Today, high tech players are hoping you'll develop a similar relationship with computing capacity.

Like electricity, the next big upgrade to your corporate systems department may be something you will use but never see. It could be "cloud computing," the next step in the evolution of software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology.

Through SaaS, companies can access applications and large amounts of virtual computing power without buying it. Rather, the application is hosted offsite by some other company, which cuts maintenance headaches and most of the setup costs for users. Some SaaS applications may operate via a connection between only two or three computers.

As an example, If you get a gmail account on Google, you're accessing the application via the SaaS model. But, when Arizona State University contracted with Google to run more than 50,000 student email accounts last year, the game changed from SaaS to cloud computing. Why? "Google is managing the infrastructure and software applications, the whole service," Demirkan notes. "You're getting all the functionality but none of the headaches of running the IT infrastructure in-house. No upgrades, no contract renewals, no security issues: The provider manages your service. You pay based on how much computing you use."

Why is this model called "cloud computing?" Some say it's because the computer functionality happens out there "in the clouds." Wikipedia's experts maintain "the term derives from the fact that most technology diagrams depict the Internet or IP availability by using a drawing of a cloud."

Regardless of its origin, experts are saying this isn't some pie-in-the-sky buzzword.

According to analysts at Gartner, a leading IT research and advisory company, "By 2011, early technology adopters will forgo capital expenditures and instead purchase 40 percent of their IT infrastructure as a service. Increased high-speed bandwidth makes it practical to locate infrastructure at other sites and still receive the same response times. Enterprises believe that as service-oriented architecture (SOA) becomes common, 'cloud computing' will take off, thus untying applications from specific infrastructure."

 

It should be noted, Microsoft is putting a lot of money toward cloud computing. They have three projects at $500 million each lined up for Iowa, Chicago, and Dublin Ireland. Their Chicago project is particularly exciting because they are using the 'shipping container' datacenter method and will have up to half a million servers there. That is a crazy amount of computing power.

 

Two things:

First off, electrons don't really travel that far in electrical transmission. Actual electron drift is something on the order of 8cm/hr. The piling-up effects travel at near the speed of light, though (think pool/billiards balls).

Secondly, I hereby predict that these cloud computing initiatives will only have marginal influence until we start getting 1GB to the home type connections. You need MASSIVE data bandwidth to give people the kind of experience from a cloud infrastructure as they're used to having a local infrastructure. Even 100Mbit networks are slow inside of a company any more... how are you going to communicate to a cloud except in a "batch" mode, which is not how most people use their computers?

This will see benefits for businesses who can deal with renting CPU cycles and applications, but depending on licensing and such for critical software, there will never be a move completely away from on-site computing. Oracle's not going to upgrade you to a better license just because it's on Microsoft's cloud, you'll have to port everything to use Microsoft SQL. Got a vertical market app of some sort? Fat chance getting that running in the cloud, their licensing won't stand for it. You'll have to develop your own app and push it to the cloud to make it work, which means it'll be a good idea for medium businesses (who can hire programmers, but don't have a huge infrastructure) and research instututions (same boat). Other than that, I'll bet this flops. We see how well it's worked out for Sun and Amazon so far...

 

Hey thats just an example mate not a Scientific Journal

 

SaaS is quite a revolutionary model. Rather than companies buying their own hardware, they buy the services of a company that provide the same service as a gargantuan server room, but without the room or the staff required to maintain it.

I agree that cloud computing is only useful to a certain extent. Some companies may find it cheaper to buy customized tools specifically for their needs. Some companies will find it cheaper to buy prebuilt software tools. Some companies are not comfortable with having someone else storing their data. Some companies are ok with it.

 

yet another article > http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/PDC_2008:_Microsoft_Aims_for_the_Clouds_With__Windows_Azure_

 

Windows Azure is a netbook OS similar to the watered down version of linux offered on netbooks currently.

 

Azure is a netbook OS? I must of missed that whole slideshow.

Azure is NOT a netbook OS.
It is a back end server software platform.
It will eventually targets the goal of making netbook's functuality, but that will be YEARS from now.

 

No, it's most definitely a software + services system for the cloud- http://community.winsupersite.com/b...osoft-unveils-the-windows-azure-cloud-os.aspx

Windows 7 will be designed to run on netbooks, Steve Sinofsky was running it during PDC

 

yay for cloud computing!

 

I think I see one shaped like a bunny!!!!!