Cloud Computing

December 16, 2007 by Vinny Lingham

I’ve been going on quite a bit recently about the changes in the economics of delivering software as a service, particularly relating to Cloud Computing - which leads me to a great article that came out this weekend from the New York Times, on the impending battle between Google & Microsoft.

SynthaSite launched our Alpha on Amazon’s EC2 cloud, and it held up perfectly - although it was not easy to scale the application architecture and we’re going to work on that - so in the interim we’re using some standard servers while we build out our virtualization infrastructure.

The future of the software is certainly in the cloud and delivered through the browser - Microsoft is not arguing about that - but they would prefer to ensure that it’s tied to the desktop in some way (and obviously IE). With the fragmentation that’s occurring as a desktop level (Linux, Mac, Ubuntu, etc), I doubt that this is a good long term strategy (in fact, they’re actually missing the plot totally) - especially given what a flop Vista is. That said, the article above is a great read!

The thing that really concerns me, is that if Microsoft really believes that applications should live in the browser - then why do they build IE only applications (such as Office Live). It’s really frustrating to not have cross browser compatibility - the browser is the new operating system, believe it or not…

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

This entry was posted on December 16, 2007 at 4:26 pm and is filed under: Startups

Subscribe to this post's RSS feed to follow responses / Trackback

Viewing 9 Comments

_Coderoid_ 9 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

"the browser is the new operating system, believe it or not…"...true, Vinny. The sooner MS gets the picture as to where the future of services lies, the better for them (and users, of course).

I'm sure that improvements in hardware efficiency and pricing will allow services such as Amazon's EC2 to be scaled at cheap rates. Then MS and other tech titans will realize how formidable the web is as a platform.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

http://www.entelligence.co.za

Martin 9 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Hi Viny, interesting post. I'd like to learn more about your experience with EC2.

But as for MSFT and where they believe the application should live, I think they truly understand and believe it'll live in the browser. On a financial point of view they're simply trying to maintain their revenue base from their desktop applications as long as possible.
As soon as they open it to other browsers their revenues will start declining rapidly. So in my point of view they know very well what they do; pushing back as long as they can opening up everything in other browsers.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

Vikas Hazrati 9 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Don't know if this is the right place to ask but " What is the difference between cloud computing and grid computing?"

Answer , any links would be helpful

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

MSN hacken 6 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

I don't believe really the browser will be the new operating system. I think that browsers need to be more mobile compactible.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

Ann Silverstone 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Thanks Vinny,
Very good point !
Also wanted to mention, that there's
Cloud Computing Group in LinkedIn.
If you are interested in future directions of Cloud Computing, please join the group at http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/61513/6213F13BB1AA

For discusssion join mailing list at http://groups.google.ca/group/cloud-computing

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

Coderoid 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Sidenote - Anyone test driven Google AppEngine? I just built a sample app with it and the ease of use is great. It reminded me of EC2, with a less complicated API.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

casino-man 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Synthasite needs a platform. I hope that the product becomes a tech-savy utility taht serious developers can use. .net intergration asp aspects and design elements and more templates that are commercially viable.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

http://www.casinosofchoice.co.za

south african 5 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

agreed synthasite needs to be upped to a tool taht a dreamweaver designer could use on the move.

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

http://www.casinosofchoice.co.za

sa 4 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

the tool defeinetly needs a few more notches in the tech dept

reply edit reblog flag record video comment

http://www.onlinecasinopicks.co.za

Trackbacks

blog comments powered by Disqus

Learn more about Vinny »

RSS Feed

Featured Articles

World First?: Creative Commons Licensed eMarketing Textbook - July 22, 2008 / Comments (15)
Synthasite launches into Alpha - June 4, 2007 / Comments (12)
The Road Ahead for me... - May 28, 2007 / Comments (22)
CJ Publisher Advisory Board Finalised - April 23, 2007 / Comments (10)
Yahoo! announces Affiliate Advisory Board - April 11, 2007 / Comments (31)
AOL Only Adwords - Marketplace & Revenue Impact - April 9, 2007 / Comments (18)
Return on Effort with PPC Campaigns - March 23, 2007 / Comments (13)
My Summit TV Interview - March 19, 2007 / Comments (6)
Financial Planning for Startups (Planning Tool) - March 16, 2007 / Comments (12)
Synthasite & My Venture Capital Blogroll - March 14, 2007 / Comments (34)
Top 20 Reasons why Web Apps are Superior to Desktop Apps - February 8, 2007 / Comments (17)
Special Report : Profit Sharing - The Performance Marketing Model of the Future - October 11, 2006 / Comments (20)
Special Report Released: Cookies detected by Anti-Spyware Programs - September 13, 2006 / Comments (13)
The Best Business Books of our Paradigm - July 31, 2006 / Comments (11)
The Clash of the Titans - A Fresh Perspective - May 4, 2006 / Comments (14)

Recent Categories	Archives
View All »	View All »
General	October 2008
Media Coverage	September 2008
Synthasite	August 2008
Web 2.0	July 2008
Conferences	June 2008
Startups	May 2008
Featured	April 2008
Blogging	March 2008
Search Engine Marketing	February 2008
Internet Strategy	January 2008

Cloud Computing