Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is doing his Power to Developers shtick in Sydney today. I’ll be live-blogging it right here.
The Big Deal is that he’s talking about Microsoft’s strategy for cloud computing or “software as a service” (SaaS) — which I notice Microsoft is calling “software-plus-services”. Is there a difference? I think an essay could be written on that point alone!
Now I must admit I’m fairly sceptical about this whole “cloud computing” thing. Not that it’s a Bad Idea, just that it’s nothing new.
Unless your computer isn’t connected to the global grid we call the Internet, then it’s always been about having a service running on a remote computer (“the server”) and some software on your own computer the mediate your access to same (“the client”).
It seems to me, though, that every few years someone wants to make some big song-and-dance about the idea that they’ve put stuff in their data centre for you to access… and this year’s buzzterm is “cloud computing”. Wow.
Still, it’ll be interesting to hear what Mr Ballmer has to say. And probably more amusingly, how he says it.
I think the difference is that Microsoft are pushing desktop apps that can talk to “the cloud” to sync / update / share data. They obviously don’t want the desktop to head down the commodity path.
Having followed your link yesterday morning to Microsoft’s pitch for this ‘event’, and given what we already know about how they like to do business, it comes as no surprise that this was nothing more than a hot gust expelled from the MS arse-crack. Now I’ve just had a flick through your commentary and I quite like your evangelical preacher analogy. Of course, in such a paradigm, cynical cunts like you in the media section who look for substance beneath the hype would be conveniently backhanded as “un-believers”.
Here’s a thought, though: why don’t you write an essay on the evolution of evangelical mentalities in corporate America — from the convergence of Protestant Christianity and the show business sensibilities of P.T. Barnum? That’d be a good read.
Stilgherrian @Stephen Stockwell: Why don’t you just write it yourself? Do I have to do everything for you lot?
@Stephen Stockwell: Well there is that, yes. I’m still looking forward to a nice essay from you rather than just sniping from the sidelines. Not that sniping isn’t fun, but…
I suspect that essay has already been written by someone. Maybe half an hour on The Google will reveal it?
@Stilgherrian: I’ll give it a crack. Soonish.