Steve Ballmer Shares Windows Azure With Me

The big Microsoft event going on this week is PDC 2008 in Los Angeles. The "PDC" stands for Professional Developer’s Conference and it’s Microsoft’s time to share lots of new information and insight on what they’re up to with their extended developer community.

I wasn’t able to attend the conference, although I’ve been hearing plenty about it through the various people I follow on twitter. Thanks to @DanRigsby, @DaveLeininger, @BetsyWeber, @larryclarkin, @timheuer, @davebost, @BradleyLJones and many more.

Windows 7 seems to be the topic du jour but I just received an email from Steve Ballmer and he’s sharing a lot about Windows Azure and the Windows Azure Platform. The basic gist of the service is that it’s a new platform and architecture that will begin to enable us to finally combine and access the computing power that we’ve already become comfortable (also interpreted as addicted) to everything else into one large, personal network of information.

At PDC, we announced the availability of an early preview release of a new technology called Windows Azure. Windows Azure will enable developers to build applications that extend from the cloud to the enterprise datacenter and span the PC, the Web, and the mobile phone. For the first time, we shared pre-beta code for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows 7, which is the next version of the Windows desktop operating system, will take advantage of software and hardware advances to help eliminate the boundaries between information, people, and devices.

We also previewed Office Web applications, which are light-weight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote that are designed to be accessed through a browser. Office Web applications will be part of the next version of Office and will enable people to view, edit, and share information and collaborate on documents on the desktop, the phone, and in a Web browser in a way that is consistent and familiar.

Windows Azure is part of the Azure Services Platform, a comprehensive set of storage, computing, and networking infrastructure services that reside in Microsoft’s network of datacenters. Using the Azure Services Platform, developers will be able to build applications that run in the cloud and extend existing applications to take advantage of cloud-based capabilities. The Azure Services Platform provides the foundation for business and consumer applications that deliver a consistent way for people to store and share information easily and securely in the cloud, and access it on any device from any location.

As you can see, Windows Azure seems to be working its way into and throughout lots of what we’re already working on and using and we’ll begin seeing more of the integration as new versions and releases of products and software applications continue to be released by Microsoft.

Exciting stuff in my opinion. I know connecting to and synching folders and information to and from each other just seems to be too convoluted than it should be at the moment.

If I’ve taken the time to burn my entire CD collection into my computer, why can’t I easily access and listen to that music from anywhere and on any device. Those devices could be my laptop from work on my favorite coffee shop, or my phone while I’m waiting for an appointment, or what if I could even stream all of my music to my car stereo through some type of satellite network technology like XM Radio?