Steve Ballmer Speaks of “Windows Cloud”

The cloud computing concept is gaining more followers each passing day, as major companies in the IT industry, including Google, Intel, IBM and others have already made the initial steps in the development and future adoption of a cloud computing solution. Microsoft is also highly interested in the phenomenon, a fact that has been recently confirmed by the company's CEO, Steve Ballmer, who, during a conference with IT managers in London, said that the Redmond, Washington-based company was going to release a new platform for web-based applications dubbed “Windows Cloud.”

 

Not to be mistaken with a new operating system, in addition to the company's upcoming Windows 7, the new platform is aimed at web developers in search for cloud-based technologies to help them create next-generation web applications. The initiative of the software giant initiative is rather interesting, as it confirms its position in the emerging cloud computing segment, where it hasn't been making any major incursions.

 

However, the company is now expected to make a considerable effort in its cloud initiative over the upcoming months, with the release of new offerings oriented at enterprise users and developers. Still, Microsoft maintains that the purpose of cloud computing, of replacing today's desktop computing isn't a solution. The software giant's plans are, however, to adopt an “S+S” model (short for “software-plus-services”), which will basically allow users to benefit from an extension of their desktop applications, through an online service. This actually means, as the company's CEO Steve Ballmer explained, that users would soon be able to do simple editing of their Office documents directly through public Internet terminals. “That's all I can say on that,” was Ballmer’s response, refusing to further expand on it.

 

Referring to Google Docs, the online-only office suite from the Mountain View, California-based Google, Microsoft's CEO said that it had a “relatively low usage” due to the small features set. “We want software more powerful than software that runs in a browser,” Ballmer explained.

 

In related news, 3Tera announced today the beta release of its AppLogic 2.4 distributed operating system. The new version now includes virtual appliances running Microsoft's Windows Server, in addition to the existing support for Linux, Sun's Open Solaris and Solaris 10.

 

“Windows support is an important requirement for an open cloud computing environment robust enough to take on any Web or enterprise application,” said Bert Armijo, senior vice president of Sales and Marketing, 3Tera. “Solutions like .net, IIS, SQL Server and Exchange have made Windows a critical part of IT infrastructure.”

 

As mentioned above, Microsoft is expected to be aggressively pushing its cloud computing initiative, thus joining all the other major companies that have already announced their cloud computing-related projects.