Mon, Sep 29, 2008 16:46 EDT

Microsoft Cloud Computing Vision: Self-Serving and See-Through

Topic: Infrastructure

Current Rating: Comments: 8

At MIT's Emerging Tech conference last week, I listened to frighteningly smart people debate the future of this old-is-new technology concept that we call "the cloud." Microsoft showed up too, to share its vision for cloud computing. Memo to Microsoft: From what I've heard, you don’t know cloud.

I looked at your early vision for the cloud, and frankly, I think IT veterans will see right through it.

Unfortunately for IT leaders and users, we are still very much in the land grab phase of cloud technology (You might say sky grab, but I have put a firm personal moratorium on cloud puns.) Almost every technology vendor is loudly trying to articulate its definition of cloud computing and strategy for it. This group ranges from VMware, with its elaborate plans for a cloud partner ecosystem unveiled at the recent VMworld show, to Microsoft, with a talk given at the MIT conference by Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer.

I am convinced Microsoft has the most to lose if the vision of cloud computing as an on-demand extra data center and go-anywhere user office comes to pass.

I am also convinced that Microsoft continues to ignore some of the reasons why end users and IT leaders are drawn to the idea of Web-based computing and the cloud in the first place.

VMware, Google, Amazon and a slew of others are working diligently to tap into the millions that can be made from enterprise IT departments who want to simply not deal with so much hardware infrastructure and software maintenance, or contract with cloud providers to tap into extra compute and storage capacity on demand.

When enterprises can be convinced of cloud computing on the availability and security fronts, which are both still very much under scrutiny today, we will see a select group of "super utility" sized companies dominate the cloud, agreed a group of panelists at the MIT conference, including VMware co-founder Mendel Rosenblum (fresh from his public departure from the virtualization giant); Amazon's CTO and VP Werner Vogels; and Salesforce.com's executive VP of technology, Parker Harris.

It's a when question, not an if question, whether this select group of super-big cloud providers becomes viable enough for enterprises, Rosenblum told the MIT crowd.

"The question is how far off is that," he said, noting that while the death of the IBM mainframe has been announced many times, on it ticks in the backrooms of many enterprises.

One really interesting question for both enterprises and consumers, of course, is what is the future of the operating system as we know it today, if the computing model changes to enterprises running even some, not all, of their work via the cloud, and consumers using mostly Web apps and apps and services in the cloud.

"The OS is going to go from thing that was really crucial…to this thing that the application developer chooses," Rosenblum said. OSes aren’t going away, he noted, but they're not going to be front and center for users. When, he asked, do users ask about items like BIOS anymore? Virtualization, one of Rosenblum's passions of course, has long abstracted hardware from the OS.

Assuming the industry can handle the security issues, the combination of virtualization and viable cloud computing providers could, in a few years, create a Texas-sized neon exit sign for consumers and enterprises dying to leave Microsoft operating systems behind.

And between Linux and Apple, non-Microsoft OSes will continue to flourish.

On the enterprise IT side, one reason that IT leaders get excited about the cloud is that the model could free them from the giant sucking

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All Comments Comments

Tue, Sep 30, 2008 11:52 EDT

Info, not ideology

Posted by: Eric Blair
Rating: 56.6667

This passionate but uninfected-by-fact piece would be better published in the "Rants" column. The writer must be unaware that (a) Microsoft has already become one of the premier cloud providers, hosting billions (yes billions) of IM messages each day (Messenger, world's largest chat platform), hundreds of millions of emails (hotmail, live, etc), and now the Live Online suite of apps, all from worldclass cloud datacenters. And as for her shrill proclamation of CIO "freedom" from software licensing, all the serious enterprise CIOs seem to be realizing that, guess what, you get what you pay for. See for example http://tinyurl.com/3go8v7

This ideological slant against Microsoft is best left to the teenage nose-ring crowd... Oh wait, now their demon is the newly-evil Google...

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Tue, Sep 30, 2008 23:43 EDT

Cloud Computing Still Open For Discussion

Posted by: Mark Cummuta
Rating: 56.6667

I must disagree with Mr.Blair's assessment of Laurianne McLaughlin's article. Or perhaps more accurately, note to Mr.Blair that he is using the same "name calling" tactics that he accuses her of.

As the article highlights from the conference and other sources, the definition of "cloud computing" is still not established, let alone agreed to. So one firm's hosted data center as the cloud may not meet another firm's open source applications on demand as the cloud.

There are still pros and cons to each of the three examples of cloud computing that this article lays out. And yes, Ms. McLaughlin did put more emphasis on Microsoft's negatives. But to deride that one example as indicative of the entire person, or worse, an entire generation, lessens your own argument.

Personally, I would be interested in learning more from Ms. McLaughlin's research on the subject, especially in comparison and contrast of the major providers' solutions in her future articles.

Mark Cummuta

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Thu, Oct 2, 2008 13:36 EDT

Guys, grow up!

Posted by: Eugene Nizker
Rating:

Mark,

It looks like for the first time i have to disagree with you and side with someone else. I too saw this article rather unbalanced and light when it comes to facts.

It's a slam dunk these days to talk about how bad MS is. One doesn’t need anything but emotions to win the audience. Well, I would expect a bit more maturity from a publication like “CIO Magazine”.

My company, Evident Point Software, works with MS’s cloud computing. Although they have plenty of room to improve, so do other vendors of this very young market. I would say it is time for a serious discussion, not for slamming rants.

Eugene Nizker
www.evidentpoint.com

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Fri, Oct 3, 2008 12:10 EDT

Good Journalism

Posted by: Michael Hugos
Rating:

Laurianne McLaughlin's article is good reporting on a timely topic and she raises valid points. She also picked a title and used a writing style that made us want to read the article all the way through. Pretty good writing I'd say.

Eric, it's beside the point to make snide comments about the person raising the issues because the point is really what we think about the issues themselves. You do state your opinion but you confuse your point with the personal aside. Why get personal? I grow weary of the nasty personal tone of public discourse that now seems to pass for normal.

Mark, as usual, your comments are clearly worded and thoughtful. Since we both live in Chicago I think we should do a radio show modeled on the Public Radio show called "Car Talk" hosted by the Tappet Brothers. We can call it "Doing Business in Real Time" (great title right?). It would be Mark and Mike the Business Brothers here to talk about companies, computers and the answer to last week's puzzler question...

Eugene, you are right on. It is an easy shot to take a swipe at Microsoft - the company we all love to hate. They do have some very good technology and we would all remember that more quickly if they would just stop antagonizing customers with their new desktop operating system that they are forcing on us whether we want it or not.

Come to think of it, Eric, Mark, Eugene what if we pitch CIO.com on the idea of promoting us all as the Business Brothers and we do a weekly internet radio show moderated by Laurianne called The McLaughlin Group?

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Tue, Oct 7, 2008 10:25 EDT

You lack vision

Posted by: Sri
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The author of this article clearly is a MSFT hater and listening to Craig Mundie's speech with a pre conceived notion that " MSFT will not get it".

My problem is not that the author does not get it. My problem is that the author cannot get it. And this is clearly an article from a someone who CANNOT GET IT.

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