Open@4: Cloud Computing
Sep 8, 2010 12:45 pm by Sunshine | Add comment
Yesterday I attended the very first Open@4 Press Event at Microsoft headquarters here in the Netherlands. Open@4 (the meets start at 4 PM) are informal press meetings to be held quarterly, with a different topic each time. This time the topic was Cloud Computing. What can Cloud Services do for you?
Introduction
First there was a general introduction about the Cloud and Microsoft Cloud Services.
IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service (to move to)
Infrastructure and storage capacity to host and manage applications and services.
PaaS – Platform as a Service (to build on)
Windows Azure is a platform existing of an operating system, (relational) database and web services with on-demand scalability (pay for what you use).
SaaS – Software as a Service (to use)
Subscription based on-demand applications and services. For examples:
- Business productivity Online Suite (BPOS)
- Exchange Hosted Services
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
- Office Web Apps
Also think about Hotmail, Messenger, Windows Update, MSN, Bing and Xbox Live.
There are 3 kinds of Clouds:
- Public (all can see)
- Personal (only I + those I allow can see)
- Private (think Corporate, employees only)
Announcements
There were also some announcements made. First announcement made was a partnership agreement with Regus in the Netherlands: Customers of Regus in the Netherlands will be able to make (fully web based) use of BPOS.
Furthermore we can expect the following in the next months:
- Windows Live Release 4
- Windows Intune – PC management client, currently in beta
- Dynamics CRM Online – Customer Relationship Management
- Business Online Services
- Live@EDU
- Windows Azure Appliance – turnkey cloud platform that customers can deploy in their own datacenter
Windows Live
After the introduction and announcements it got divided into 3 groups (Business, Customer….).
Of course I attended the Customer session as this was about Windows Live. A presentation was given about the new Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail.
Taking notice of anything that could be new I only found one thing you may or may not have discovered yourself yet, if you are using the beta: Starting this week you can also find MSN in Messenger’s full view, so you can keep up-to-date with the latest news!
Afterwards there was some time to mingle/network. I very much enjoyed this informal meet and look forward to the next one.
