Recently in Cloud computing Category

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.

I've wondered before why WordPress limited users to 50 MB of space in their blogs. I guess they were wondering, too, because they've increased that limit to a whopping 3 GB:

... everyone’s free upload space has been increased 60x from 50mb to 3,000mb. To get the same amount of space at our nearest competitor, Typepad, you’d pay at least $300 a year. Blogger only gives you 1GB. We’re doing the same thing for free.

Our hope is that much in the same way Gmail transformed the way people think about email, we’ll give people the freedom to blog rich media without having to worry about how many kilobytes are left in their upload space.

How are we able to do this? Over the past year we’ve developed our file infrastructure, replication, backup, caching, and S3-backed storage to the point where we don’t feel like we need to artificially limit what you folks are able to upload just to keep up with growth. We’re ready for you. :)

What about the space upgrades? They’re still important. You still need a space upgrade to upload certain file types, like movies, and we’re also increasing the limits of the paid upgrades, so if you bought a 1GB upgrade before it now adds 5GB for no additional charge.

First of all, I'd like to find out what they mean by "certain file types." Second, I think we can count the days until the Google-owned Blogger matches this. (Blogger stores your uploaded images in Picasa, and the limit for a free account remains 1 GB.)

We've heard a lot about the Amazon/Red Hat cloud computing intitiative -- that's where Zonbu users store their files -- but now Google is thinking about getting into the cloud storage business as well, according to eWeek via the Wall Street Journal:

The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, claims Google is finishing up a service that would let users store word-processing documents, digital music, video clips and photos on the Mountain View, Calif., company's servers.

With this cloud approach, users could access their data, ideally through a Google search box, from multiple computers and handheld devices with a password, breaking the traditional computing barriers of allowing users to access their data only from their machines.