In his first time speaking at University of Washington — the giant Microsoft - indue school in the society ’s backyard — Steve Ballmer explain “ the cloud . ”
First , there was a wacky picture prove how stoned most UW students are , conducted by a gal with shockingly platinum hair and bronze skin . Then Ballmer says it ’s something he ’s wager his company on , and that every companionship is betting their companionship on , and that it ’s a $ 3.3 trillion diligence . That ’s pretty serious . Here are his five key principle :
1 . “ The Cloud create Opportunities and Responsibilities ” ( In fairness , Ballmer admits it sounds like “ some blah bombast fustian line of work terminal figure . ” ) What he intend is that creators do n’t have to come from handsome - ass technical school troupe to market cool software program now . He says “ Apple ’s done a very nice business ” with the App Store , collapse opportunity to developers , and that Microsoft is piercing on supply those type of opportunities . How do developer who have crop on open - source or freeware apps finally get some money for their creations ? ( Does this mean Windows Phone 7 will keep an eye on a interchangeable developer strategy ? Who knows … )
He also articulate that the cloud is think to give more control to users , not just developers . mastery over concealment and anonymity , that is . Ballmer does n’t cite too many examples , but mention Facebook — aslant — as an example of the challenges of swarm - related seclusion .
2 . “ The Cloud Learns and Helps You Learn , Decide and Take Action ” Machine learnedness is central to cloud scheme . Ballmer says that when you look out at 83 million internet site and prove to find something bare but hard to look for for , like “ What do we as a society spend on healthcare ? ” you could easily get nothing . “ It ’s only eight numbers , ” Ballmer say , but they ’re severe to retrieve in one uncomplicated little chart . The swarm needs the intelligence to cognize what people are depend for , and experience how to go and find that information on its own , or collaboratively with users .
Here , to force back the pointedness , Ballmer invited a guy from the Bing team to demoBing Maps ’ explore lineament . It ’s lively , so you’re able to check it out for yourself . Drill down into the University of Washington , if you want a good representation of what they ’re doing .
3 . “ Cloud Enhances Social and Professional Interactions ” This Ballmer admits is kind of an obvious notion , as we ’re already immersed in it , but he says that the innovations here will improve to a point where “ virtual fundamental interaction through the cloud is as good as being here today . ” He does n’t mean “ as proficient ” in the sense of “ as utilitarian . ” He means that one day , an entire auditorium of activity would be able to be capture on 3D picture and streamed live anywhere , like Harry Potter diving into a Pensieve . ( That ’d be my Potter fanboy doctrine of analogy , not Ballmer ’s . ) He also means , of course , that realtime datum coaction tool will get better and better . He did n’t mention that they ’d have anything to compete directly with Google Wave , but if they do , hopefully they ’ll concentrate on ease of role .
As a near - term social instance , he brought a demonstration of Xbox Live TV , something already launched in England with the Sky Player . Imagine Mystery Science Theater 3000 done with Xbox avatars , under a screen playing a hot show . In the Sky example , of trend , sports are key . I am thinking there are very few alive television events anymore , but maybe a baffled episode or some ( non - Olympic ) sporting issue would be a good object lesson .
4 . The Cloud want Smarter Devices This column of the Ballmer argument is the one that probably shit the most sense to Giz readers and people who have keep up with Windows Phone 7 ( and Pink ) news . As a pupil sitting near me just pointed out , the “ smarter machine ” angle is antithetical to what Google and others seem to preach , but Microsoft apparently cares about processing at the consumer end , and they believe that as long as processing is cheaper than bandwidth it wee-wee sense .
Not surprisingly , his demonstration is Windows Phone 7 , so I ’ll dispense with you any crappy photo and just link you toour comprehensive insurance coverage .
5 . “ The Cloud Drives Servers come on That aim the Cloud ” We tend to discount the computer hardware requirement of the cloud , but evidently , Microsoft ’s host business is a key part of Ballmer ’s reason for promoting the cloud . He speaks of avail issues — system able to deploy software instantaneously worldwide , without a trouble . “ If a machine breaks , that should n’t be your problem . There should n’t be citizenry babysitting all these machines . ” A call for QA , perhaps , and aimed as much internally as it is externally .
An exemplar of the fruit of this is a UW projection called Azure Ocean , which is constantly aggregate the world ’s oceanographic data , expanding incessantly with sensor data every twenty-four hours , noting that it must have been a “ very exciting period in the last few weeks ” with the earthquake in Chile . No doubt no one will dispute the motivation for research tools of this scope now .
Ballmer also enunciate that part of this host business is people hold their own clouds . Governments and company want to purchase their own system . Sometimes this is obvious , like for military or strategic purposes , but sometimes it ’s just a matter of preference , and Ballmer wants hoi polloi to be able to buy “ refrigerator”-sized water - cooled system with last connections , if that ’s their preference .
Ballmer conclude with the sentiment that “ the Cloud fuels Microsoft and Microsoft fuel the cloud . ” Take that as you care .
My own fast take on this is that the cloud is as unfixed as you retrieve , but at least these are expanse deserving thinking about more . The cloud is n’t anything raw , but it ’s taking pattern , and clearly in the hand of only a few party . Google is the great , and arguably Microsoft is # 2 . In other speech , we need to listen to Ballmer , cuz he ’ll be driving it , at least for now .
Microsoft
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