Microsoft’s Head is in the Clouds With Windows Azure
Microsoft unveiled a new web-based operating system at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, Windows Azure. This “Windows for the cloud” works under the same premise as Google Docs, a cloud computing suite of applications that stores a person’s data on the Internet rather than on his or her own computer. According to Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect at Microsoft, Windows Azure takes this idea a step further though, by creating computing infrastructure within the cloud rather than just applications on a computer.
It is now very common for people to have more than one computer in their household. Whether those computers are desktops or laptops, for personal use or business, it is becoming more and more burdensome to manage multiple computers at once. One great way of streamlining this management is through cloud computing.
So, what exactly is cloud computing?
Cloud computing “is an alternative method of storing data and programs that focuses on online storage.”
The cloud is a metaphor for the complex infrastructure of the Internet – for the science nerds out there, think the electron cloud with more precision!
In layman’s terms, when you log into your Google Docs account, add a number or two to the spreadsheet, log out and continue with your work elsewhere, you’re partaking in cloud computing – the application can be accessed from anywhere and the data is stored on the severs within their cloud. Cloud computing is fast, light weight, requires zero installations and lets you work with other people online.
With Windows Azure, individuals would be able to not only access applications on the Internet from exotic locales, like Starbucks, but would also be able to access their software and operating system remotely.
This new move is certainly important. Amazon and Google currently utilize cloud computing, and with another big player (loaded with money) hopping onto its own cloud it signals the potential for widespread adoption of cloud computing by the public at large.
There is a line in “The Clouds” by Aristophanes that reads, “But who is it that compels the clouds to behave this way? Isn’t it Zeus?” Zeus might still have something to say about the outcome of this development, but Microsoft is doing its best to usurp Google’s Internet supremacy and compel the cloud to behave as it sees fit.
