14 DAY TRIAL // At the start of October 2008, during a presentation at CIGREF – Club Informatique des Grandes Entreprises Françaises in Paris – Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer stressed the need for a new operating system beyond the Windows server and client platforms. Following the retirement of Bill Gates, with Ray Ozzie as chief software officer, Microsoft has adopted a new Software plus Services business strategy designed to bridge the desktop and the cloud. Windows Cloud is an integral part of this strategy, namely a new Windows operating system built for the Internet. Details published inadvertently on the Professional Developers Conference 2008 website indicate that Microsoft is readying to detail a product previously unmentioned, labeled Windows Strata.
We said inadvertently because the information unveiled by GeeksWithBlogs has been removed completely from the session area of the PDC2008 website since October 8. At the same time, Microsoft is not offering any details related to the new product name, and in this context there is no official confirmation that Windows Strata is actually the Windows Cloud that Ballmer mentioned. However, in less than a month, Microsoft is bound to unveil the first Beta for Windows Cloud as Ballmer promised, along with the pre-Beta bits for Windows 7.
At PDC2008, Microsoft will deliver, in two parts, the session "A Lap Around Cloud Services" with the following synopsis: "Hear about key problems that cloud computing is solving and how these services fit into the Microsoft cloud computing initiatives. Learn about the pillars of the platform, its service lifecycle, and see how they fit with both Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies. Also, hear about the services roadmap over the next few years. [And] Learn about the cloud services that enable developers to easily create or extend their applications and services. From consumer-targeted applications and social networking web sites to enterprise class applications and services, these services make it easy for you to give your applications and services the most compelling experiences and features."
Of course that there are additional mentions of the Microsoft Cloud platform, but none referencing Windows Cloud or Windows Strata directly. In addition to promising a Beta for Windows Cloud, Ballmer also revealed that Microsoft would have a trademark label for the platform by PDC2008.