Idea #2: Get familiar with cloud computing

The days of dedicated servers are winding down. Sometime in the next 10 years, there will only be main two types of servers: those which exist as virtual servers in the cloud, and personal servers. Services like Amazon EC2 Clouds which offer pay-as-you-go server time are going to completely change the face of hosting and how we look at servers. When it only costs $70 a month for a dedicated virtual server with fantastic connectivity around the clock, and you can turn them on and off as needed, why would you want to mess with hardware?

This is also going to be the nail in the coffin for Microsoft unless they start giving away Windows servers or something. The fact that I can’t create a cloud of Windows servers to run my app is definitely outweighing any benefits to developing for Microsoft to me right now. I love the .NET framework, but the barriers to entry are dropping left and right for the opposition. Time to wake up and do something, Microsoft.

Part of the 60 Ideas in 60 Days series.

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http://www.60ideas.com/story/10/ Anonymous

Get familiar with cloud computing

The days of dedicated servers are winding down. Sometime in the next 10 years, there will only be main two types of servers: those which exist as virtual servers in the cloud, and personal servers. Services like Amazon EC2 which offer pay-as-you-go…
http://xmlhacker.com M. David Peterson

I have a strange sense that MSFT will be providing their own cloud computing service. Have *ZERO* insider information on this (and if I did, I wouldn't be broadcasting that information due to the fact that it would have come via an NDA), but the combination of LiveDrive, Live Office, and for that matter, Live* WAY TOO TEMPTING not to offer their own service.

At least it seems that way to me, anyway.
http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/11/idea_8_use_host.html JasonKolb.com

Idea #8: Use hosted storage

A relatively new development in Web technology is the appearance of hosted storage services like Amazon S3, OmniDrive, and Box.net. Instead of writing your application to a RAID drive or a storage area network (SAN), your data is hosted by
http://www.jasonkolb.com Jason Kolb

Yeah, I would imagine that they'll eventually do something along these lines too, but I think it's going to be too little, too late, and I can't imagine how they'll deal with the licensing. Right now they make money every time somebody has to scale up, and not by the computing hour, they get a nice several thousand-dollar hit for another operating system license and CALs. If they start offering cloud computing priced by time used that's going to take a huge chunk out of their Windows licensing revenue, and I just can't see them doing that anytime soon.
http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/11/idea_12_microso.html JasonKolb.com

Idea #12: Microsoft has a BIG decision to make

I hadn’t really thought extensively about it until I wrote my post on cloud computing, but Microsoft is staring a HUGE decision in the face right now that will determine what kind of presence they have in the marketplace for