Synchronizing Your Life in Microsoft's Cloud
Another theme at Web 2.0 Expo this week is that the Internet IS the
computer. The “computers” that you THINK are computers, e.g., the
various devices we use to interact and do our jobs, are simply
that—devices—that are connected (on and off) to the REAL computer in
the sky—the CLOUD. The concept of cloud computing isn’t new, but it’s
been getting a lot of attention recently as Google announced its App
Engine and Amazon dramatically increased the storage and utility of its
Elastic Cloud. I listened in anticipation as Microsoft’s Amit Mittal
unveiled Microsoft Mesh at Web 2.0 Expo. 
This first instantiation of Microsoft Mesh is a fairly simple concept.
It’s a utility that lets you synchronize all your contacts, calendar
entries, music libraries, and file folders across all of your devices.
Right now, these are Windows devices, and soon they’ll be Mac devices.
Next, add your set-top box, mobile phone, PDA, and your car’s music
library.
It’s not too surprising that Ray Ozzie, who brought us the best
offline/online synchronization services as instantiated in Lotus Notes,
would out-Lotus IBM with this “replication/synchronization in the
Microsoft cloud” utility.
It’s also interesting to note that Microsoft’s first mesh application
is about “my stuff”—synchronizing my stuff and sharing my stuff with
trusted colleagues. Eric Schonfeld’s post at Tech Crunch offers the best current description of the Microsoft offering and strategy:
“A hundred of Ozzie’s engineers have been working on Mesh for the past
two years. At launch, it may not seem like much more than a combination
of Windows Live SkyDrive and FolderShare,
but under the hood it is an ambitious platform play. Mesh is really
aimed at developers. Not only does it provide a framework for syncing
files between devices, it can also sync applications. The way it does
this is by using a two-way RSS or Atom feed developed by Ozzie called FeedSync, formerly called Simple Sharing Extensions.”
“The basic foundation of Mesh is this feed-centric programming model. A
Web developer can build an app using any programming language or tools
he likes (Python, Ruby on Rails, Flex) and then sync it across devices
and other applications using two-way feeds as the basic data and
communication channel. The promise for developers, says product unit
manager Abhay Parasnis: “If you Mesh-enable your application, we will
let you extend it to other devices.”
“Microsoft is offering a set of Mesh APIs that include storage
services, membership, sync, peer-to-peer communication, and a Newsfeed
feature that tells users the status of different folders and who’s
accessed them. The same programming model works whether a developer is
building an app for an offline device or for the Web.”
“In many ways this effort is a counterweight to what we are seeing with
Adobe Air or Google Gears, which are efforts to take browser-based apps
offline. With Mesh, Microsoft is in effect reasserting the primacy of
client-based applications. They need not be Windows-based, but I’m sure
that won’t hurt. Developers can customize their apps for whatever
device they originally reside on—whether it is a PC, a smartphone, or a
set-top box—and then Webify them by syncing them to other applications
across the Web. These apps could be more powerful than apps confined to
a browser-like sandbox without giving up the connectivity of the Web.”
Schonfeld goes on to compare the LiveMesh replication feature to Geni—a
non-Microsoft synchronization service. He also quotes from Ray Ozzie’s
internal positioning of LiveMesh to Microsoft’s employees and describes
Microsoft’s developer strategy. Take a look at his analysis and
description as well as the flood of comments that are already pouring
in.
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