Microsoft's Ozzie airs cloud views, backs Windows-based netbooks

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect, detailed Microsoft's embrace of cloud computing Thursday and also endorsed the concept of netbooks -- provided they run Intel x86 processors and Windows.

Perhaps best known for his pioneering development of Lotus Notes and as Bill Gates' replacement at Microsoft, Ozzie was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Churchill Club business and technology forum in Palo Alto, Calif.

[ Confused by cloud computing hype? Learn more about what cloud computing really means | Keep up with all the latest cloud news with whurley's Cloud Computing blog. ]

In addition to the cloud and netbooks, Ozzie briefly touched upon a number of topics, saying, for instance, to expect Microsoft to do the "right thing" regarding support of the critical HTML 5 standard, although he was not specific about what that right thing might be. Ozzie also described as "too complex" the new Google Wave tool for online collaboration and communication.

While Google Wave is nice technology, "It violates one principle that I hold so true right now, which is complexity is the enemy in the ethos of the Web," he said. He likened Wave to the Groove office software from Groove Networks, which Ozzie founded and was bought out by Microsoft.

Cloud computing, the main topic of the discussion, harks backs to the days of timesharing and utility computing and "is nothing new," Ozzie said. "The pendulum is swinging back," he said.

But the cloud is fundamentally transformational now that there are ubiquitous high bandwidth, storage and computation access, and inexpensive devices. User experiences can be transformed, he said. "[Cloud computing] can really be anything we want it to be," Ozzie said.

Microsoft is working on its Windows Azure cloud platform, which is in a pre-release phase in low levels of service. Commercial availability of low-level services is due soon.

Microsoft will offer its own cloud-based applications in a common infrastructure. The company plans datacenters around the globe and partnering with different companies, such as telco firms, to federate their cloud infrastructure with Microsoft's.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine