Microsoft go 'all in' on the Cloud

Microsoft announced at the July Worldwide Partner Conference that the company is 'all in' on Cloud computing, effectively betting the long term future of the company on the online software model.

The term 'cloud' has become muddied (clouded? hah!) in recent months with the term being used to cover really what is traditional hosting and SaaS (Software as a Service) and also Virtualized server hosting.

When Microsoft use the term the meaning is software on the Azure operating system and paid on a per-use basis as opposed to purchasing product licenses and installing and maintaining software on-premise or at a hosted data centre. The best-known current examples of Cloud software from Microsoft are Xbox Live, Hotmail, and BPOS - The Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite. BPOS is a set of Microsoft hosted messaging and collaboration solutions including Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, and Microsoft Office Communications Online.

The Azure OS automatically scales software or web page computing power and delivery up and down according to needs, and the client pays for the usage, or a monthly fixed fee per user. The Azure platform is also automatically replicated across multiple data centres for back up and disaster recovery. BC CTO Geoff Ballard wrote a more in-depth article on what Cloud software is in January.

Virtualized hosting offers a lower-tech version of this with virtual servers able to be spun up and down rapidly with Administrator manual intervention, and back up and DR strategies still need to be managed in a more traditional way. 'Proper' Cloud hosting on Azure automates all of this for a full 'plug in and leave it' hosting environment that scales up and down and manages back up and DR automatically.

An important announcement at the partner conference was the Azure Appliance, hardware which can be deployed by other hosting providers than Microsoft themselves and which is expected to go live in 2011 with selected partners such as Dell and HP themselves. This extends the Azure platform to becoming a genuine potential replacement for Windows Server in the long term and opens up the service to other hosting providers in the mid-term.

As it applies to the Microsoft Business Application Platform - the technology that Ballard Chalmers is a UK leading expert in - a simple way to view the platform is to compare it to the current technology and product set:

Windows	Azure
Windows Server	Azure Server
.NET	Azure
SQL Server	SQL Azure
SharePoint Server	SharePoint Online
Exchange Server	Exchange Online
Office	Office Online
Office Communication Server	OCS Online

Effectively all current Application Platform software and custom development will eventually be able to be deployed in the Cloud as a service on Azure. Also hybrid deployments are very likely - with some parts of a system in the cloud on Azure, some parts at a hosted data centre on Windows and some elements stored on-premise in SQL data warehouses (such as for example highly confidential proprietary documents) with BizTalk Server or other methods used to integrate these elements into a single seamless business system.

'The Cloud' is here and here to stay there can be no doubt about that. What it means in practical terms today is still being determined. As we see it there are two immediate opportunities for customers with regard to Cloud software:

a) Developing or converting your custom .NET/SQL business application on Azure with Ballard Chalmers and converting the software licensing to a monthly peruse fee

b) Considering BPOS and SharePoint Online for your SharePoint deployment

Moving to the Cloud will be a decade-long process, but it has begun and it will continue to advance in the next few years as software and computing becomes considered more and more of a utility in the drive to reduce internal IT administration costs.

Ballard Chalmers can assist you in evaluating these options and to devise your Cloud strategy for Business Applications and help to determine what will be best for your organization in the short, medium and long term, particularly for your custom business systems, and SharePoint deployments.

For more information please contact Andrew Chalmers initially enquiries@ballardchalmers.com

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