From Worst to First (A perspective on Cloud Computing @ MSFT)

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A recent survey found that Microsoft ranked first in Web 2.0 for Developers. Specifically it focused on things like Web Services, API's, ease of use, and how much money one can make. Unfortunately last year we ranked last, but with all the new items coming out, we are certainly giving it a turnaround. I talk about these things all the time to my customers, but its really pretty amazing the number of things that we have available today. I decided to put together a comprehensive list of web based capabilities that Microsoft offers today. Right now this is just targeted at Developers, but maybe I will expand it in the future.

Our most prominent set of Web 2.0'ish developer oriented things are surface at dev.live.com, and the fall into several broad categories:

  • Authentication - Think LiveID (formerly known as Passport). We already have 300+ million users on LiveID. Its a proven system.
  • User Data - Contacts, Photos, Spaces. Store simple application data as well (based on ATOM).
  • Search and Maps - Virtual Earth. There are some really great applications out there using VE. See one of my posts below, on The Weather Channel's usage.
  • Messaging - Messenger, Alerts, Agents. Agents have been around for a while, but now they are getting really easy to use! Great for help desks and the like.
  • Infrastructure - Silverlight Streaming (think content streaming over Microsoft's CDN), FeedSync. This stuff really enables the Live Mesh platform. Live Mesh gives you 5GB of storage so that you can sync up your computers everywhere (work, home, mobile devices, phones, etc...), Custom Domains
  • Resources - some really great SDK's, .Net controls, etc.....

And thats just the Live team. There are also a whole lot of initiatives underway with other teams like SQL Server, Biztalk, and Exchange:

  • Internet Service Bus - think publishing services without regard for firewalls. Think the ability to make callbacks to smart client apps that are behind firewalls.
  • SQL Server Data Services - Store your data in the cloud. Sounds interesting? Check out the web site.
  • Exchange Hosted Services – Not only can we do your inbox storage, but you can also outsource lots of other common email type tasks, such as encryption, filtering and archiving. Coca-Cola is doing it, why not you?

And I can forget to mention these applications that really haven’t fallen into a category in my mind:

  • Popfly - Create games, mashups, or web pages! A wonderful mashup tool that is really targeted at non-developers.
  • Silverlight - create RIA's using .Net!
  • AdCenter - Advertise on our properties using adCenter. It’s really much more than that, but its a great start of an explanation.

 As I mentioned before, I will continue to update the list as new things come along and as I find out more. There is no way that I have listed everything that falls into this category. Also, note that there are lots of things that I can not even mention right now. Things are in the works that will make this list look puny, and rather boorish. Good luck, and let me know what I have left out!