Does MS even know what the "cloud" is?

grant sarver

Well-known member
The two Microsoft "To the Cloud" advertisements I've seen don't really demonstrate the cloud to me. One is just photo re-touching (making it look far more simple than it is) and the other is remote access of a home computer. Neither seems to be "in the cloud". Is it just my mis-understanding? Microsoft claims 70% of the company is working on cloud related projects. They sure need a different advertising firm. They just never connect.
 
The two Microsoft "To the Cloud" advertisements I've seen don't really demonstrate the cloud to me. One is just photo re-touching (making it look far more simple than it is) and the other is remote access of a home computer. Neither seems to be "in the cloud". Is it just my mis-understanding? Microsoft claims 70% of the company is working on cloud related projects. They sure need a different advertising firm. They just never connect.

Reference please so we can understand the rant?
 
Microsoft do actually have some very good cloud (I hate the term 'cloud' :p) products, unfortunately they seem to be awful at advertising them as hardly anyone seems to know they exist.

Just a few of their more user aimed cloud services:
SkyDrive
Live Mesh
Docs
Project Emporia

Unfortunately their user aimed ones vary massively in quality and appeal and unfortunately they seem to have issues with linking up their services into a coherent offering. Though that is slowly improving, for example Windows Phone 7 takes advantage of the various cloud offerings and does it in a very nice way which neither Android or iOS do out of the box yet.


Edit: Also I'm assuming the ads you are refering to are aimed more at the general public who may not be so drawn to file sync services or Azure. Showing them fancy photo-editing etc is likely to draw in more people.
 
I don't like cloud products much. Sure, it sounds very nice, but it also means everything is stored on servers somewhere..
 
I don't like cloud products much. Sure, it sounds very nice, but it also means everything is stored on servers somewhere..

Yep. Only use the cloud for stuff you can afford to lose*.


* Equally true for stuff you do locally if you don't have backups of course!
 
The cloud is basically a famous buzzword, one that would qualify as a joker when playing a game of bsbingo :)

It actually serves a lot of purposes, like

  • a) you can use it to tell people how cool you are. The fact that everyone else does the same isn't relevant, it's still cool to have a cloud.
  • b) you can use it to blame it for anything going wrong. A "failure in the cloud" sounds much better than having to admit your server was hacked by evil pink aliens (yes, MY aliens are pink, I don't like the green ones). Of course, all pro-cloud people will tell you a cloud cannot fail in the first place, but we technicians and engineers very well know that even the most sophisticated and carefully designed systems can and will fail, there are plenty of examples in history. Murphy doesn't sleep. Ever. And you can be damn sure, he already knows where to find all the clouds and how to fsck them up. But with all his cruelty he will wait and strike when it hurts most and - of course - when nobody expects it.
  • You can use it to get cheap storage and services, not realizing that it always comes down to "you get what you pay for".
Edited to change the url in the first sentence. Didn't know the forum also censors URLs :)
 
Does anyone know where I can buy shares in "the cloud"? It sounds really exciting ... so should be worth a punt!!
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Also, can anyone advise on which is the better investment: Stratus, Altostratus, Cirrus, Cirrocumulus, Cumulus, Cumulonimbus, Lenticular?

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Oh, and WTF! regarding the MS ads - if anyone gets what "the cloud" is from those ads, then they're as mad as the ad-men that created them ... ;)

I'm reminded of a time 10 years ago when my small business customers were coming to me for online shops to rival Amazon - and all for a few quid - because they'd read in all the business and computer mags that selling online was dead easy and cheap to setup.

I could feel their disappointment when I pointed out the technicalities and costs, and most all of them dropped the idea when they realised what was involved. Of course it is easier nowadays, with the likes of Yahoo stores and lots of payment gateways, and no doubt the "cloud" will level out and become something useful and understandable, but boy those marketing men don't half know how to oversell things ... :eek:

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Oh, and another oh! - what happens when one of these giant "cloud" service providers goes bust and no one can access all their precious data anymore? Scary prospect!!!
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Oh, oh, oh ... and can you REALLY stream movies from your home HDR to your laptop in the airport, can you? really?

I DEFINITELY want some of THAT!!!!
biggrin.png
 
Google is said to be the largest 'grid' in the world, so there !!

lol ... but Barings Bank was the oldest merchant bank in London until its collapse in 1995!!!

I must admit though, Google is the one company who's finances I'm not too worried about just now ... they've got a few quid in the bank (not Barings though ...
wink.png
).

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
The Fairy Tail of Cloud Computing

In the beginning there was the business unit and it had a budget and it was good. The CEO spoke unto the business unit saying, Go forth and buy what thou needs to be profitable. The business unit examined it needs and bought a computer, and it was good.

But then came the users, hords of them, more than was planned for. The computer was overwhelmed and the business unit suffered, their budget was depleted.

The business unit when back tot he CEO to request out of cycle funding. Our computer is too small, we need another that is bigger, faster and more and we need it now or the users will turn to our competitor, the Golden Calf Company and worship them. The CEO relented.

The business unit learned from their mistake. The adopted the "times 2 plus 10%" strategy. If their computer had to be capable of X to meet their needs, they would buy a computer that could do 2.2X. Soon, this became corporate canon law, adopted by all business units.

Thus ended the first age of corporate server computing. Computers were everywhere, much larger than they needed to be. The computer vendors where lighting cigars with 20's.

But the CEO was distressed. As he looked out upon his empire, he was surround by computers. Some running hot as the sun, others so idle that a frost set upon their art deco cases. He consulted the book of financials as saw that soon his gold would run out and his kindgon would crumble. The age of consolidation was upon us, the second age of corporate computing.

The CEO called forth his vendors, questiong their loyalty, their vision and their craft. He decided upon the few he could trust, knighting them "trusted advisors" and "vendor partners", and the rest we financially beheaded.

Then he called forth the business unit leaders, looking for the sage among them. The chosen one was elevated to nobility, taking the title of CTO. Being of proven skill, he would provide compting services to his former peers and they would do him homage in return. This was to be known as "chargeback".

The CTO gathered unto himself all computers into one location. He gave the name datacenters to his computer fortress. While he merged and melded smaller computers into larger ones, using the archane computer alchemy knowns as capacity planning and workload consolidation, hw also secured his fortess with dual power grids, dual long-haul carriers, and redundancy of all methods.

But he fell pray to his own methods. His initial attempts to create large computer beasts proved difficult. Some were too big, others too small. Some workloads spawned off gremlins, called daemons which fought among each other. Soon business unit leaders fought openly to be the primary masters of their beasts to the exclusion of others.

The CTO fell back upon old, bad practices, the "times 2 plus 10%" strategy. If he gave the business units a large enough field upon which to work, perhaps they would not notice others. It worked, but it proved costly, which did not go unnoticed by the CEO.

Distressed once more, the CTO called forth his vendor knights and the noble CTO to discuss the matter. Gold was once again being drained from the Kingdom's coffers at an alarming rate. If they did not get it under control soon, they would have to raise taxes on the serfs, who would leave for a better life with the Golden Calf Company.

This was a problem that required strong magicks, so the vendor knights appeals to their mages, called engineers, to develop a solution. The age of virtualization was born. This is the third age of corporate computing.

The engineers and their apprentices, called technicians began taking measurements, temperature readings and mixing potions, poultices, salves and balms. They wrote new spells, created to magical arts.

When they were done, the datacenter fortress was transformed. Workloads were encased is a magical shell called a virtual machine. It could reside in any computer and could be moved between them with the right spell. These shells kept the daemons confined, so that virtual machines could coexist in harmony, even if they were tightly packed into a computer.

The datacenter storage was also tiered. No longer would common items be kept in golden chests no precious jewels in burlap sacks. Items would be kept in the proper storage container based on its value. As it tarnished a rusted, it would be moved to a more approporate container. Some would even be discarded when no longer of value.

Some would have copies made, using the backup spell. Some would have the mirror spell caste upon them so that they magically resided in to containers at once. If one where ever lost, the other woudl still be there. Others that weren't as value would have a parity chest given to them where the recipe to recreate its contents would be stored.

When the mages and their apprentices completed their task, the datacenter was transformed. The computers remained, but more than half stood idle. Almost half of the storage containers were empty as well.

The CEO, CTO and business unit leaders stared in disbelief at all the gold they had wasted. The mood was sullen.

Then the CTO had a brilliant idea. He has made is fortress strong and secure. His mages new many strong spells of storage protection and computer monitoring. What if they sold their spare capacity to others? They could offer them a virtual machine and storage containers at a the cost that commoners would pay, but also include the safety and magical protection of the datacenter fortress?

They got together and agreed that the it could bring gold back into the coffers, but the serfs wouldn't want to place their valuables into a corporate fortress.

So lets call it something else, the CTO replied. Something that makes it seem like no one controls it and anyone can use it. Something free, like the sky above us or the clouds...clouds....cloud computing!

And this is born the newest age of computers where large computer companies find ways to make a profit from their bad practices, while marketing it as providing us the added security of their good practices.

It remains to be seen who will have their heads still stuck int he clouds, when they make their next bad decision and the rains come. But that, my friends, is a story for another time.
 
The two Microsoft "To the Cloud" advertisements I've seen don't really demonstrate the cloud to me. One is just photo re-touching (making it look far more simple than it is) and the other is remote access of a home computer. Neither seems to be "in the cloud". Is it just my mis-understanding? Microsoft claims 70% of the company is working on cloud related projects. They sure need a different advertising firm. They just never connect.
I just saw the videos and I don't get it. I'd be surprised if anyone really does.
 
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