Recently in Cloud computing Category

That's a long title, eh? I suppose I should tighten up on it, but in the wild-west world of blogging, it's writer's choice, am I right?

Anyhow, the two big topics these days are the new apps.gov site which helps government agencies choose cloud-based applications, and Microsoft's unveiling of an early version of its Office Web suite, which brings longtime cash-generator MS Office into the cloud and accessible via a Web browser near you.

So if the federal government is recommending cloud-based applications, and Microsoft is making cloud-based apps, if only to compete with Google Apps (which is eating Microsoft's lunch and eyeing its breakfast and dinner, too), then apps and data in the cloud are starting to look a whole lot more mainstream.

And the city of Los Angeles' interest in adopting Google Apps isn't looking so out there.

I give Microsoft a whole lot of grief in this blog, and it's pretty obvious that the company has been reacting (instead of acting or innovating) since its founding. How can you argue with it? It's probably one of the most successful companies in American history.

And in this case, the development of Office Web is a reaction to the innovation of Google and others in developing browser-based applications.

Still, Microsoft is Microsoft, and Office is Office, and if you're a big entity like the City of Los Angeles, I encourage you to test out all the alternatives, including Google Apps, Microsoft Office Web, Zoho and anything else I've either forgotten to mention or haven't ever heard of.

Many of my fellow users of free, open-source software think cloud computing is going to take away our freedom, hurt open-source innovation and compromise our data. I don't know whether all, some or none of these things will happen.

What I do know is that in the near future, data and apps in the cloud is going to happen, government and the enterprise is already going there, and millions of others will soon follow.

And I believe that there's a place in this paradigm for huge makers of proprietary software, huge Web-based companies, plus companies and developers of software both free/open and otherwise to create new ways of creating, accessing, storing and manipulating the data that we derive from our personal and professional lives.

I don't think it's in my blogroll, but it should be (and will once I get to it). Webware, which subtitles itself "cool Web apps for everyone" is, indeed one of the best technology blogs out there.

The number of entries is astounding, and the quality of those entries is high.

If you want or need to keep up with what's happening — and going to happen — in Web-delivered services. The number of companies, devices and types of services they cover are too numerous to list.

Just read Webware already.

As an experiment, I decided to bring my Evolutionary Computing presentation on making the journey into free, open-source software — a slide show originally created in OpenOffice Impress 2.4 — into Google Docs, which happens to have a presentation app in addition to the better-known Docs and Spreadsheets components.

I revised the presentation — taking some things out, adding others and providing some updates on what I'm doing — and output it as a PDF.

Download that PDF for your reading pleasure by clicking on the image above or the link below:

Evolutionary Computing (revised July 2009)

Interesting note: I believe that no previous entry on this blog has been filed under so many categories. (And I've been considering dumping Categories entirely and just using tags ...)

Microsoft's aim to bring applications like its flagship Office suite to the cloud, making it — in one form or another — accessible through Web browsers and other interfaces is still too new (and not actually available) for anybody to see exactly what it means.

But to get a start on the new Microsoft push, start with this CNet package, Windows and the Cloud. Specifically, look here for Office and how Microsoft is trying to compete with Google's already established Docs offering.

From Ina Fried's Beyond Binary:

Microsoft will offer browser-based Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in two ways. For consumers, they will be offered via Microsoft's Office Live Web site, while businesses will be able to offer browser-based Office capabilities through Microsoft's SharePoint Server product.

The company has been pushed into this arena by Google, which has been offering its free Google Apps programs for some time. In competing with Google, Microsoft is touting the ability to use Microsoft's familiar user interface, as well as the fact that all of the document's characteristics are preserved.

...

Elop said that not all of the editing capabilities of the desktop products are in the browser versions. "The editing we are characterizing as lightweight editing," he said.

Although Google Apps has seen most of its popularity among consumers, it has started to attract attention from corporate customers. Google Apps got a strong look from Procter & Gamble, which only decided to stick with Office after a strong push from Microsoft.

One of the best — and longest running — Linux sites is LWN.net, which I should get into the blogroll, by the way, and it has an excellent interview with Ubuntu founder and leader Mark Shuttleworth.

On Ubuntu's push into the server market:

Given that Ubuntu's roots are on the desktop, what's behind the recent shift in strategy to address the server side too?

That's not a change in strategy, it's more a pull through. We started with a very narrow focus on the desktop, and that allowed us to punch in. As we've penetrated the industry, there's a natural pull through where someone who's started using us on their desktop has now started setting up Ubuntu on a server.

You could always run Ubuntu on a server; there was never a significant reason not to. That body of users has now reached a critical mass on the server, and so our server work is now more responding to that than a shift in strategy. We continue to make the desktop our labor of love, the server requires a very enterprise-oriented approach. We've built out a dedicated team that just handles that. We haven't re-assigned people who are desktop specialists and asked them to test a server.

You're not worried you're spreading yourselves too thinly?

That is a risk, and that's something we discuss here a lot. There are benefits to offering a platform that can be used in both configurations. We see companies often saying: "We love your desktop. We would definitely choose your desktop if we could also use you on the server."

Companies don't like to introduce arbitrary diversity in technology. Everybody has heterogeneous systems, but they don't like to make that situation worse without a very good reason for it. Ubuntu is a very good server for certain use-cases now, just like Ubuntu is a very good desktop for certain use-cases. Our challenge over the next couple of years is just to broaden the base to which it appeals on both fronts.