From to 'Red Dog' code-name to the announcement of Microsoft Windows Azure (very blue), Ray Ozzie with his friends delivered a deft 2 hours presentation that opened the kimono to Microsoft's Web-tier operating system. Frankly much of the content washed over me, I am not a developer and the significance of some of it was hard for me to fully appreciate. Although not a developer the theme that came across to me throughout the pitch was controlled scalability: from the desk, to the server and on to the federated and inter-federated enterprise, Microsoft is seeking to deliver something that is new, valuable and a logical development of existing technology.
Ray tipped his hat to Amazon with their first mover offering in this space but I suspect the MS project is deeper, wider and more far-reaching than anyone else has to offer. It will be interesting to read Mary-Jo Foley's analysis of the keynote.
Tomorrow sees a keynote focussed on the user experience, should be fun.
