I’ve posted the slides from the “Exploring Software + Services” presentation Mark Relph and presented May 28, 2009 at the Canadian Leadership Summit.

We had a great session as there were plenty of good questions throughout which was appreciated as it always makes the presentation much more engaging so thanks to everyone who came to the session. Also, thanks to everyone who caught up with us at the lunch roundtable as well!

As a reminder, you can check out Office Live Workspace, Live Mesh, Microsoft Online, and Windows Azure here:

• Mesh: www.mesh.com
• Office Live Workspace: https://workspace.officelive.com 
• Microsoft Online: www.microsoft.com/online
• Azure Services Platform: www.microsoft.com/azure
• Software Plus Services: https://www.microsoft.com/softwareplusservices

1. Skydrive is now 25GB (used to be 5GB) of free online storage. Not to me they did a great job integrating a nicer photo experience into the new page. check it out at: https://skydrive.live.com

2. Hotmail storage is now “ever growing” so no need to even worry about ever hitting a limit

Fact Sheets – Live Services, Azure Services Platform, Windows Azure, .NET 4.0 and “Dublin”, Oslo, SQL Data Services, Sql Server

• Live Services Fact Sheet (.doc file, 36 KB)
• Azure Services Platform Fact Sheet (.doc file, 40 KB)
• Windows Azure Fact Sheet (.doc file, 33 KB)
• Windows Communication Foundation 4.0, Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 and Windows Server “Dublin” - Fact Sheet (.doc file, 73 KB)
• Oslo Fact Sheet (.doc file, 40 KB)
• Microsoft SQL Data Services Fact Sheet (.doc file, 41 KB)
• SQL Server – Developer Focus (.doc file, 33 KB)

PDC 2008 Day 1 Videos

Clips from the day 1 keynote

• Introducing Windows Azure

  Ray Ozzie introduces the new Windows Azure platform and discusses how it’s key to the future of cloud computing and software plus services.

  Download: Zune-quality (.wmv) | Broadcast-quality (.mpeg)

• Key Features of Windows Azure

  Ray Ozzie provides an overview of Windows Azure and the key benefits it brings to cloud computing.

  Download: Zune-quality (.wmv) | Broadcast-quality (.mpeg)

• Key Services of Azure & cloud functionality

  Ray Ozzie discusses some of the key services that make up the Azure Services Platform, including the new .NET Services and SQL Services.

  Download: Zune-quality (.wmv) | Broadcast-quality (.mpeg)

• Windows Azure and Developers

  Bob Muglia talks about the relationship between .NET Services and Windows Azure.

  Download: Zune-quality (.wmv) | Broadcast-quality (.mpeg)

Channel 9 Interviews

• Lynne Hill: Parallel Computing Platform: The Vision and the Future
• Rick Rashid: A Researcher’s Researcher
• David Treadwell: What the heck are Microsoft’s Live Platform Services
• Scott Guthrie: PDC Keynote Preview
• Norman Guadagno: Visual Studio Team System
• Dave Campbell: Extending the Data Platform to the Cloud
• Amitabh Srivastava: Cloud Infrastructure Services

Speech Transcripts

• Professional Developers Conference 2008 Day 1 Keynote: Ray Ozzie, Amitabh Srivastava, Bob Muglia, Dave Thompson

  Remarks by Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, Corporate Vice President, Cloud Infrastructure Services, Amitabh Srivastava; Senior Vice President, Server and Tools Business, Bob Muglia; Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Online, Dave Thompson. Oct. 27, 2008, Los Angeles

You are also able to register to try the Community Technology Preview.

Here’s a copy paste from the “What is Windows Azure?” section on the www.microsoft.com/azure

What is the Azure Services Platform?

The Azure™ Services Platform (Azure) is an internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services that can be used individually or together. Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities. Its open architecture gives developers the choice to build web applications, applications running on connected devices, PCs, servers, or hybrid solutions offering the best of online and on-premises.

Azure reduces the need for up-front technology purchases, and it enables developers to quickly and easily create applications running in the cloud by using their existing skills with the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment and the Microsoft .NET Framework. In addition to managed code languages supported by .NET, Azure will support more programming languages and development environments in the near future. Azure simplifies maintaining and operating applications by providing on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web and connected applications. Infrastructure management is automated with a platform that is designed for high availability and dynamic scaling to match usage needs with the option of a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Azure provides an open, standards-based and interoperable environment with support for multiple internet protocols, including HTTP, REST, SOAP, and XML.

Microsoft also offers cloud applications ready for consumption by customers such as Windows Live™, Microsoft Dynamics™, and other Microsoft Online Services for business such as Microsoft Exchange Online and SharePoint® Online. The Azure Services Platform lets developers provide their own unique customer offerings by offering the foundational components of compute, storage, and building block services to author and compose applications in the cloud.

The Azure Services

Windows Azure

Windows® Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage internet or cloud applications. Windows Azure supports a consistent development experience through its integration with Visual Studio. In the early stages of CTP, .NET managed applications built using Visual Studio will be supported. Windows Azure is an open platform that will support both Microsoft and non-Microsoft languages and environments. Windows Azure welcomes third party tools and languages such as Eclipse, Ruby, PHP, and Python.

Learn more about Windows Azure.
Live Services

Live Services is a set of building blocks within the Azure Services Platform for handling user data and application resources. Live Services provides developers with an easy on-ramp to build rich social applications and experiences, across a range of digital devices that can connect with one of the largest audiences on the Web.

Learn more about Live Services
Microsoft SQL Services

Microsoft SQL Services extends the capabilities of Microsoft SQL Server into the cloud as a Web-based, distributed relational database. It provides Web services that enable relational queries, search, and data synchronization with mobile users, remote offices and business partners. It can store and retrieve structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.

Learn more about SQL Services
Microsoft .NET Services

Microsoft .NET Services make developing loosely coupled cloud-based applications easier. .NET Services includes access control to help secure your applications, a service bus for communicating across applications and services, and hosted workflow execution. These hosted services allow you to easily create federated applications that span from on-premises environments to the cloud.

Learn more about .NET Services
Microsoft® SharePoint® Services & Dynamics® CRM Services

In the future, developers will have access to SharePoint & CRM functionality for collaboration and building stronger customer relationships. With the flexibility to use familiar developer tools like Visual Studio, developers will be able to rapidly build applications that utilize SharePoint and CRM capabilities as developer services for their own applications. Developers can expect a breadth of SharePoint & CRM capabilities across the spectrum of on-premises, online & the Azure Services Platform.

Who Benefits From the Azure Services Platform?

The Azure Services Platform is designed to help developers easily create applications for the web and connected devices. The services platform offers the greatest flexibility, choice, and control in reaching users and customers while using existing skills.

Easy developer on-ramp to the cloud - Millions of developers worldwide already use the .NET Framework and the Visual Studio development environment. Utilize those same skills to create cloud-enabled applications that can be written, tested, and deployed all from Visual Studio. In the near future developers will be able to deploy applications written on Rubyon Rails and Python as well.

Enables Agile & Rapid Results - Applications can be deployed to the Azure Services Platform with the click of a button. Changes can be made quickly and without downtime, making it an ideal platform for affordably experimenting and trying new ideas.

Imagine and Create New User Experiences - The Azure Services Platform enables you to create web, mobile, or hybrid-applications that use the cloud with on-premises applications. Combined with Live Services ability to reach over 400 million Live users, new opportunities exist to interact and reach users in new ways.

Standards-Based Compatibility - The services platform supports industry-standard protocols, including HTTP, REST, SOAP, RSS, and AtomPub, for consuming, exposing, and integrating with third-party services. You can easily integrate applications built on a variety of different technologies and operating systems.

How Can I Use Azure?

Explore the benefits of the Azure Services Platform for your role:

• Web developers
• Corporate developers
• Independent software vendors (ISVs)
• Systems integrators and value added partners
• Business decision maker

Benefits for Business

The Azure Services Platform offers a range of businesses flexibility, control, and an affordable solution for running Web-scale applications. The services reduce tedious and expensive infrastructure management and planning and are built with security and reliability in mind, along with the option of a pay-as-you-go model.

Whether you’re a software vendor, corporate IT group, or a start-up, by using the services platform you can focus on your business and the needs of your customers.

Simplify Capacity Planning – Additional computing and services capacity can be available for your needs, eliminating the need for planning, purchasing, and provisioning expensive hardware to meet unpredictable spikes in usage.

Simple Infrastructure Management – The services platform manages critical operating system updates and management tasks, giving you control of the environment while letting you focus on the needs of your users.

Give New Life To Existing Investments - The services platform can be used to provide new capabilities to existing on-premises and Web applications. The Azure Services Platform can be integrated into existing applications or used to expose on-premises application services to consumers, business partners, or other organizations.

Key takeaways so far on what Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform are:

Windows Azure:

- A set of cloud-based technologies such as storage, identity, and multi-device sync that extend software development for both enterprise server and PC/browser/phone applications with services on the Web.

Azure Services Platform:

- A component of the Azure Services Platform that extends the Windows environment to the cloud for developers who want service hosting, scalable storage, and automated service management of their software applications.

Ray Ozzie has kicked off PDC 2008 and is delivering his keynote right now. You can follow along at home/work by watching the keynote live.

For those of you that attended the Canadian Strategic Architect forum a couple of weeks ago, Live Mesh is what I would have loved to be able to speak with you about during my talk on Windows Live Platform. Unfortunately the timing was two weeks off for me to be able to share this info with you.

On Tuesday evening we released Live Mesh Tech Preview (important to note that this isn’t the product launch. just a tech preview) and there’s quite a bit of good coverage to help you dive into understanding what Live Mesh is all about. The key thing I’ll say is that it is critically important to understand the “big picture” here. That being the fact that this is a platform. Some people get focused in specifically on the folder sharing and syncing capability of Live Mesh. This is an awesome part of the tech preview experience,  but misses the platform element which is HUGE news. Folder sharing and synchronization across devices is an example of a great experience built on top of the Live Mesh platform.

So what is Live Mesh? (remember the platform piece I mentioned earlier though! :-) )

Well, here’s a description from the website:

Imagine all your devices—PCs, and soon Macs and mobile phones—working together to give you anywhere access to the information you care about.
With Live Mesh, you can spend less time managing devices and data and more time connecting with family and friends or collaborating with colleagues.

What I’d get you to focus in on first is understanding the importance of “your devices” in Live Mesh. When you sign up for Live Mesh you are able to go and add your “devices” to your Mesh. This is important because what we all deal with day to day right now is all sorts of devices that aren’t aware of each other or connected in a way that makes it easy for me to access my information across all of these devices. For example, your work laptop, home PC(s), and eventually your Mac(s) and Mobile phone. By adding these devices into your Mesh, Live Mesh enables all sorts of interesting scenarios across your devices like synchronizing content, being able to access your various devices remotely, and another key point, having one of your “devices” be a Live Desktop in “the cloud”. So you are accessing what looks like a desktop through your browser, but all the files on it are stored in the cloud. Also pay attention to the “stay informed” aspect of this. It’s not just syncing and accessing the information, but Live Mesh also surfaces “news” related to the activies (someone added a file, posted a comment etc) across your mesh. Again, don’t think just in terms of file/folder sync and news.

Here’s a great (and quick) video tour if you want to quickly grasp this:

https://www.mesh.com/Welcome/Tour.aspx 

Here’s some more info (again from the www.mesh.com website)

All your devices working together

No more e-mailing attachments to yourself. Instead, synchronize the information you need across all your devices. The most up-to-date versions will be at hand when you need them—at home, at the office, and on the go.
Just install the Live Mesh software on each device. Then add folders to your mesh. Folders are automatically synchronized, always available.

Access from anywhere

Anything you add to Live Mesh is available from anywhere, including the web from your Live Desktop. Your Live Desktop comes with 5 GB of free storage, and can be used from most web browsers.
Need a program that's only on your home PC? With Live Mesh, access to all your devices—and any programs on those devices—is at your fingertips, no matter where you are.

Simple to share

Easily share files and photos with friends, family, and colleagues—invite them to a folder. Everyone is kept up to date because files can be synchronized automatically with all your devices and all their devices.
Update documents, post comments, or send instant messages, all right from the folder. The Live Mesh bar helps you connect instantly with other folder members.

Stay informed

Keep track of all the activities in your mesh. See the online status of friends and colleagues, find out who has updated which files or folders, post and read comments, and check the status of your devices.
News about your mesh is easy to access. You can view news items in the notifier, from the mesh bar, and on the Live Mesh website—available whenever, wherever you are.

Protection you know

Your mesh is password-protected with your Windows Live ID, so only you have access to it. When you share a folder with family and friends, they sign in with their own Windows Live ID to access it.
All file transfers are protected using Secure Socket Layers (SSL), the same technology your online bank uses.

If you want to dig deeper, here’s some more great coverage 

• Read the Live Mesh team blog
• Watch the interview with Ray Ozzie introducing Live Mesh on Channel 9
• Watch an interview with Abolade Gbadegesin on Live Mesh Architecture on Channel 9
• Watch the demo of the Live Mesh application on Channel 10

Can I capture a snip of a menu, such as a shortcut menu or the Start menu?

Yes. Here's how to do it:

1. Open the snipping tool

2. Press ESC, and then open the menu that you want to capture.

3. Press CTRL+PRINT SCREEN.

4. Select the type of snip you want, and then capture the menu.

As an example, here is a screenshotI wanted from the IE menu so I could show how to check to ensure the IE Safety Filter is on.