… signs of a Microsoft that is newly focused.
Microsoft has lifted the lid on a new web service called Live Mesh, designed to connect a multiplicity of devices and applications online. The service is seen by many as a key plank in the company’s vision for the future of the web.
Live Mesh is designed to blur the lines between running software and storing data on a desktop and “in the cloud”.
Live Mesh pits Microsoft against companies like Amazon and Google which are already offering different varieties of “so-called” software-as-a-service systems.
Mesh will work on Windows and Mac; Microsoft looks like it is finally waking up to the fact that it cannot tie the web experience into the use of Windows. Microsoft is beginning to articulate the web as an operating system in its own right; an open platform of applications and services that sits about the traditional OS layer, be in Windows or OS X.
While initially offered for Windows XP and Vista users, Microsoft has said Live Mesh will also be rolled out to Apple Macs and other platforms.
Microsoft says Live Mesh can be used to create an online network of devices, from your PC to your mobile phone.
Files and folders, such as documents, music and photos, on those devices can be synchronised online and accessed via a web browser.
Live Mesh is also designed to facilitate the sharing of media online between different users.
Users will have 5GB of personal online storage and unlimited peer-to-peer data, for synchronising information between devices.
“Over the past 10 years, the PC era has given way to an era in which the web is at the center of our experiences.” - Ray Ozzie
sound like common sense – but it’s a huge statement for Microsoft to make.
Live Mesh, my verdict so far :
I just can’t believe that ” M$ ” will allow parallelism between the various versions of this service working on Mac, Linux and different Windows.
I’d love to be proved wrong but I am expecting to see this service spiced up with ‘extras’ that only work on the ‘latest version’ of Microsoft’s own OS ( . . . ok, i mean vista . . . M$’ another good old mean of persuading people to upgrade :) )
Given Microsoft’s very poor record with regard to security of data, it will be interesting to see how they propose to ensure confidentiality in a fully networked environment like this.
