Microsoft Talk

Microsoft began offering Tuesday a preview of enhancements to the company’s .Net Services platform for building cloud-based applications, focusing on Web standards and interoperability, the company said.

.Net Services is a component of the company’s Azure Services Platform for cloud computing. It also features Microsoft-hosted, developer-oriented services to help with building cloud-based and cloud-aware applications. The Community Technology Preview of .Net Services M5 (Milestone 5) offers improved support for standards including REST, ATOM, JSON, SOAP, and HTTP

“From the beginning, .Net Services was designed for multicloud, multiplatform use,” said Steve Martin, Microsoft senior director of developer Connected Systems Division product management, in a blog entry. “Developers can use the .Net Services in conjunction with any programming language (using support for industry-standard protocols, or via available SDKs for .Net, Java and Ruby) on any platform to create or extend federated applications.”

The M5 Access Control Service adds a management service supporting REST and ATOM for managing rules. Access Control Service provides capabilities for controlling user access to Web applications and services by federating with multiple standards-based identity providers.

The service bus in M5, for connecting and messaging between network endpoints, offers durable queues and routers supporting SOAP and HTTP, Microsoft said. Also, M5 REST-based activities are supported on the bus, including Put, Get, Post, Delete, and custom verbs for orchestrating messages.

Microsoft demonstrated cloud-to-cloud interoperability at the Mix09 conference in Las Vegas earlier this month, Martin said. “Specifically, we showed how the Access Control Service and Service Bus could be integrated with a Python application deployed into Google App Engine using just two lines of code,” he said.

From Yahoo News: Microsoft’s sharp criticism of an “open cloud manifesto” surprised drafters of the document, who plan to release it to the public on Monday, according to the founder of a company that helped to write it.

On his ElasticVapor blog, Reuven Cohen, founder and chief technologist for Toronto-based cloud-computing startup Enomaly, said Microsoft was among the first companies to review the manifesto, and he was surprised that Microsoft Manager Steven Martin spoke out so vehemently against it in a blog post that appeared early Thursday morning.

“Let me say, we’ve been in active discussions with Microsoft about the open cloud manifesto, which has literally come together in the last couple weeks,” he wrote. “It is unfortunate they feel this way. …Their 2:28 a.m. pre-announcement of the manifesto was a complete surprise given our conversations.”

Moreover, Cohen challenged Microsoft’s contention that the manifesto does not provide for an open forum in which ideas about revisions can be discussed. “If Microsoft is truly committed to an open cloud ecosystem, this document provides a perfect opportunity to publicly state it,” he wrote.

Cohen did not name the other companies involved with the manifesto, saying only that “several of the largest technology companies and organizations” are among its co-writers.

However, a document available on IBM’s Web site also refers to a manifesto on cloud computing — this one called an “architectural manifesto” about the “possibilities (and risks) of cloud computing” — hinting that IBM may be one of the large technology companies to which Cohen refers in his post.

Cohen said the goal of the manifesto’s authors was to “draft a document that clearly states we … believe that, like the Internet, the cloud itself should be open.”

“The manifesto does not speak to application code or licensing but instead to the fundamental principles that the Internet was founded upon — an open platform available to all,” he wrote. “It is a call to action for the worldwide cloud community to get involved and embrace the principles of the open cloud.”

EPIC filed a complaint urging the Federal Trade Commission to “open an investigation into Google’s Cloud Computing Services.” EPIC is dissatisfied with Google security and the possibility of data breaches.

From Microsoft Watch:

EPIC’s problem is much bigger than Google, and the organization has gone down this cloud-services-squashing path before. In August 2001, EPIC filed a complaint against Microsoft’s Passport service. A year letter, the FTC and Microsoft reached a settlement, and Passport was never the same. Microsoft abandoned its ambitious plans for the service as well as .NET My Services, previously called HailStorm.

Hangman Wants Google
Now EPIC wants Google’s neck in the noose, because of last week’s security breach that exposed 0.5 percent of Docs to unauthorized access. Let me ask: Are you worried? I get nausea over credit card and other breaches that expose social security and other account numbers. But Google Docs? Good riddance if someone wants to read the Google Doc poem, “Poo Poo Poodle’s Last Poo on the Rug.”

But EPIC does care and insists that weak Google security will get your identity stolen. Disconcerting: Close reading of the complaint suggests that all cloud computing services risk the organization’s ire. From the 15-page legal filing:

The Google Docs Data Breach highlights the hazards of Google’s inadequate security practices, as well as the risks of Cloud Computing Services generally. The recent growth of Cloud Computing Services signals an unprecedented shift of personal information from computers controlled by individuals to networks administered by corporations. Data breaches concerning Cloud Computing Services can result in great harm, which arises from the centralized nature of the services and large volume of information stored ‘in the cloud.’
Past data breaches have resulted in serious consumer injury, including identity theft. As a result of the popularity of Cloud Computing Services, data breaches on these services pose a heightened risk of identity theft. The FTC should hold accountable the purveyors of Cloud Computing Services, particularly when service providers make repeated, unequivocal promises to consumers regarding information security.

Microsoft announced on Monday that it is going intercontinental with touch-screen Surface computers and a suite of business software offered online as services “in the cloud.”

Microsoft said it would expand availability of its surface computing platform to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The product is already available in Canada and the United States.

Surface computers feature multi-touch and object-sensing screens in table-top designs, allowing people to work collaboratively.

They can also allow businesses to automatically track what comes and goes. For example, a bottle of wine could be placed on a surface computer table in a cafe, with the price instantly posted to a customer’s tab.

“We’ve received an overwhelming response from companies worldwide that are looking for innovative ways to engage with their customers and developers who want to create applications that were not possible with other technologies,” said Surface general manager Panos Panay.

Microsoft says it has more than 120 partners in 11 countries developing ways to use surface computers in retail, health care, government, tourism, media, travel, banking, manufacturing and other sectors.

The US software giant is also stepping further into cloud computing, by letting businesses in 19 countries test its Business Productivity Online Suite.

The cloud computing trend has intensified as businesses struggling in dismal economic conditions reduce costs by using applications online as paid services instead of buying, installing and maintaining software on their own machines.

Microsoft is adding to its international menu Office Communications Online and Deskless Worker Suite software that handle tasks such as email, calendars, collaboration, and instant messaging.

Microsoft focuses on simplifying core tasks such as data and identity management, allowing developers to spend more time creating innovative applications and user experiences.

Building a Foundation for Innovation

In September, Microsoft outlined their vision for Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 by describing five focus areas: Democratizing ALM (Application Lifecycle Management), Breakthrough Departmental Applications, Inspiring Developer Delight, Riding the Next Generation Platform Wave and Enabling Emerging Trends.

This week at PDC, the dialogue around those focus areas continues, with details on ways to make it easy for developers to use their existing Visual Studio and .NET skills to develop for “the cloud” – software that resides primarily on the web but spans the server, PC and mobile devices as well.

Microsoft also provided a deeper look at the next generation platform opportunities by announcing that Visual Studio 2010 will be optimized to help developers build Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 applications and take advantage of new Web development features.

These highlights build on a series of recent announcements about new technologies designed to help developers create new software experiences, including:

• New enhancements to the Windows Server application capabilities, including Windows Communication Foundation 4.0, Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0, and “Dublin” extensions to Windows Server.

• Visual Studio 2010 programming models for concisely expressing “concurrency,” or the ability for applications to efficiently run multiple instructions on a “multicore” or “manycore” processing chip, including new .NET Framework libraries such as the Task Parallel Library and Parallel LINQ, as well as the Parallel Pattern Library and Concurrency Runtime for developing native applications with C++.

• Ongoing investments in the .NET Framework through the addition of new functionality in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). For cloud computing and services, the tools are available today as separate add-ons for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Standard Edition or better), and for Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition SP1. Support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 will be available in the near future.

According to Mendlen, the strategy is based on a high-level perspective of the development ecosystem, and the realization that the ultimate goal for every developer is to build engaging, practical new applications for end users.

“By working to make the process of developing simpler and more efficient, we’re empowering developers to focus on using the power of technology to address the needs of today’s marketplace,” he says.