Discussion
Microsoft previews Windows 8 (Azure). Promotes major costs savings for businesses and other organizations.

The economic downturn could serve to drive adoption within companies looking to cut costs, said Robert McLaws, chief blogger at Windows-now.com .

"Why pay for your own data center and staff when you can move it to Microsoft? Let Microsoft do the investment for you," he said. "It provides an interesting opportunity for start ups who are looking to build apps efficiently and to test ideas."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10076 ... riesArea.0

Posted 1 day ago
William Jeansonne, M.B.A.
William Jeansonne, M.B.A.

Business Development Manager - U.S. East Coast at Ephlux

See all William’s discussions »
Comments (10)

1.
Dr. Jennifer Lupo

Senior Computer Software Engineer and Systems Analyst
I don't know if I like the idea of having production data handed over to Microsoft. Not that they couldn't do it, but you are talking about possibly sensitive information and proprietary information. There would have to be a lot of legal negotiations. Also, what about down time. What if there is a problem with their servers?

I think the article is too vague, just as Microsoft is being about it. I would need a lot more information before I could even begin to have a strong discussion about it.

Posted 20 hours ago
2.
William Jeansonne, M.B.A.
William Jeansonne, M.B.A.

Business Development Manager - U.S. East Coast at Ephlux
Jennifer,

It is Service Level Agreements (SLA) that cover all the details about uptime, maintenance and security, to name few, that a business or organization can demand from Microsoft.

Your statement is kind of curious in that you view Microsoft as some sort of super secret private organization, rather than a publicly traded company with statements like "I don't if I can trust my data with them". It borders on many of the statements made by open source fanatics or just plain anti-Microsoft types. I can only guess that it emanates from the monopolistic practices of the past, but you are mixing apples with oranges in your argument.

You must understand that Microsoft can be sued for the mishandling of information, particularly when they have extremely deep pockets, so to speak. So they are going to be vigilant with your proprietary information. In other words, there are checks and balances in place, so long as there is an SLA in place.

Furthermore, I can personally attest that I have never had any of my private information exposed (as many of Microsoft competitors have) in the 15 years I've done business with them as a partner and consumer.

Posted 20 hours ago
3.
Dr. Jennifer Lupo

Senior Computer Software Engineer and Systems Analyst
Hi Will. Sorry my comments were not as clear as they should have been. You are right that it sounds very anti-Microsoft. I don't actually dislike Microsoft. I believe in using whatever technology best fits my business model or tasks at hand. (within cost ability).

I don't see where I stated "I don't if I can trust my data with them" . I did say "I don't know if I like the idea..." I just need more information on how they plan to make this work. As I said, I just want more information.

Posted 18 hours ago
4.
William Jeansonne, M.B.A.
William Jeansonne, M.B.A.

Business Development Manager - U.S. East Coast at Ephlux
Jennifer,

I was just reading between the lines, so to speak. Or that's the way I interpreted what you were saying. A lot folks flat out don't trust Microsoft because of their past monopolistic practices, so I was just recommending that you look past that ordeal and realize that the company can be held accountable through an SLA, if properly written and negotiated.

Posted 17 hours ago
5.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx you

Director - CoFounder at TIPPS
I agree with Jennifer lupo. I wouldn't trust my data to Microsoft either. Whatever the SLA says, you have 0 guarantee that they comply with whatever sla they make on confidentiality level. Who are you to check and confirm what they are doing with your data is according to the agreement??
Laws applicable to USA dont apply outside USA and they are bigger then USA alone. Hence suing Microsoft outside of the USA is a big problem, next to impossible. I've seen some nasty stuff from them in my career in Europe where laws are different in regards to their agressiveness on the market. I am not saying I know of events where they openly disclosed private information. Most people in europe are sound enough not to hand it all over anyway.

Monopolistic practices 'of the past'? Cant say that it has changed much lately, on the contrary. The bigger they get the more market segments they want to dominate and control. Why else would they ever want to buy Yahoo? They are only hungry to control, more influence. Want your site high in the rankings? It'll cost you... Try to make an offer to a customer with alternative technology they just roll right over you, and whether their solution is up to the task doesn't really matter.

I find 'cost savings' and 'Microsoft' in one sentence together hard to believe, but it fits their marketing strategy just fine. They are a money machine just like any other business, and their ..... IK BEN EEN MIETJE ... interest is make you save money. It's called marketing and up to you if you believe it or not.

I find it hard to believe that a company releases a new OS every few years of which the price goes up ever time they release does this to make you save money by folowing their upgrade proposals, with to my knowledge zero added value in terms of productivity : our secretary still types a fast as she did back in 1992 when she was using wordperfect on DOS.

In regards to this article it would make more sense to share datacenter costs with multiple companies, preferably active in different markets , guarantee more confidentiality because all parties would have trusted engineers involved in the actual maintenance of the service, and you would eventually be able to reach a tco far below any hosted service deal, and ..... IK BEN EEN MIETJE ... but not least keep your valuable data out of their hands. There is allready enough data being passed back and forth with any consent from each computer running Microsoft products.

Those open source fanatics as you refer to have allready accomplished that third world countries and less wealthy people who can barely afford the hardware, can actually use decent software without having to pay for it. Opensource should be charished by everybody because it belongs to everyonem, even you. And you can be sure that there isn't a single os application that sends any data anywhere. I wouldn't bet my money on that on Microsoft products

Nice example here in Brussels at Fortis Bank about 2 months ago +-12000 out of 20000 computers refused to log on to the network because some field in DHCP client was dropped in XP SP3, which was automatically installed without any consent even with automatic updates turned off, just to name one silly example. Im sure that cut a lot of costs for Forits Bank! You do the math.

Just my opinion no flames intended

cheers

and sorry for bad english

Posted 17 hours ago | Delete comment
6.
William Jeansonne, M.B.A.
William Jeansonne, M.B.A.

Business Development Manager - U.S. East Coast at Ephlux
Jennifer,

I rest my case with Jan's post!

Posted 15 hours ago
7.
Adrian Lowe
Adrian Lowe

Director of Information Technology
I see this as a viable option for a small organization but for medium to large size business it’s not really doable. Essentially you’re going to trust the backbone of your company to a 3rd party. Yes it’s Microsoft but that takes control completely out of your hands. They have no clue as to what your organization needs and the impact that changes in technology can have in your business arena. Ultimately it’s going to depend on the direction of the organization to determine if the short term savings of azure is worth it.

Posted 15 hours ago
8.
William Jeansonne, M.B.A.
William Jeansonne, M.B.A.

Business Development Manager - U.S. East Coast at Ephlux
Adrian,

The only thing that's changing significantly is where the applications and data reside. And it doesn't preclude keeping the data/and or specifics apps at the customer's premise. The developers at your company, or you if you are one of them, will continue to develop and maintain the apps using a new version of Visual Studio designed to communicate both locally and on the cloud. Moreover, you can still keep super sensitive data and applications on your own servers using a hybrid approach and put lesser apps on the Windows cloud. This is what Microsoft's software + services framework is all about. Some folks here are assuming that it's all strictly cloud computing, when in fact most will run in a hybrid fashion, at least in the beginning to trust Microsoft's reliability in serving up the apps and protecting their data. I know I would!

And to answer your question specifically, Microsoft will indeed be able to support enterprise applications as they are porting all of their business apps to the Web according to Ozzie. This includes their Dynamics apps which include CRM, ERP, Accounting and host of other mid to large size enterprise apps.

Posted 15 hours ago
9.
Dr. Jennifer Lupo

Senior Computer Software Engineer and Systems Analyst
Will

You have a lot more information than was posted in the article. I still stand by my earlier comments. Having a substantive discussion based only on what was in the article just isn't going to happen.

I don't mind reading between the lines either. That is what we all do. You did use quotes though which made it look like I said something I didn't say. Not a problem since we clarified.

I just want to stress, that I have misgivings based solely on what little information is in the article. I need a lot more information and I would still want some form of hybrid as Will describes as possible. Basically, my view has been and will always be there is a right technology for every situation but not every situation can use a single technology solution. There are a lot of good choices out there and the business model needs to find what fits best short term and long term.

Posted 15 hours ago
10.
David M. Abouav
David M. Abouav

Executive Chairman, The Univex Group
Is Roger Zan on leave? LOL

Posted 20 minutes ago