Mix08 in Las Vegas (5-7 Mar 2008)
Ray Ozzie
[KYN0801, 0:00]
- Lots of great products during past year
- Many software projects finally coming to fruition this coming year
- Mix ’08 is 1st of key launch milestones this year, culminating at PDC in October
- Many key elements of Software+Services will be released this year
- Let’s look at big picture, put various products into context
- Two distinct aspects of Microsoft’s services strategy
- Things that we do to deeply embrace advertising, which is economic engine that powers the web
- Internet is reshaping & transforming Microsoft’s existing products and services
- Advertising
- Innovation in the experiences on the web provides fuel for ad-based economic engine
- Content, Commerce, Community web properties–key drivers of user engagement
- Innovation in community area transforms the other properties (content/commerce) on the web
- E.g. blogs, social networks, etc.
- Greater and greater user engagement
- This user engagement is why advertising is now huge economic force on the web
- Online ads projected to grow from $40 billion to $80 billion over next 3 yrs
- Advertising is going to be the primary way that we all monetize services/apps on the web
- Aspect 1: What is Microsoft’s role in advertising on the web?
- Ensure that there is vibrant advertising ecosystem on the web
- Based on highly competitive ad platform
- Significantly investing in search and in content/commerce/community innovation
- Goal: highly engaged, well-targeted audience
- Aspect 2: How is the web impacting Microsoft’s products/services?
- Look at 3 core principles that MS is using to drive reconceptualization of its software, to embrace world of services
- 3 core principles
- People — Think of the web as a hub – of social & technology experiences — our “social mesh” and “device mesh”
- (Fundamental changes impacting the individual)
- Business — provide power of choice as enterprise moves to embrace the cloud
- Developers — We need to embrace a world of “small pieces, loosely joined”
- Principle 1 — Think of web as a hub / mesh
- Social mesh — interpersonal nature of web will impact everything that MS does
- All applications will incorporate the “group forming” aspects of the web (linking, sharing, ranking, tagging)
- Device mesh — number & diversity of our devices is on the rise (phones, PCs, smart TVs, DVRs, media centers, game consoles, car nav systems, etc)
- Idea of “My computer”, single PC, is dated, quaint
- Give way to personal collection of connected devices, brought together by the web
- Web serves as hub for these meshes
- Principle 2: Power of choice in the enterprise
- Most enterprises are in early stages, transition from dedicated application servers to virtualization and consolidating apps on computing grids
- “Virtualization powered utility computing model”
- Spans from enterprise data center, to cloud
- Utility computing model will reshape enterprise applications
- All of Microsoft’s software will be re-factored to have symmetry between
- Enterprise-based software
- Partner-hosted services
- Services in the cloud
- Power of server-service symmetry, allows IT to choose
- Systems are distributed, and federated
- Principle 3: Small pieces loosely joined
- Fabric of software & service componentry, spans from cloud to to world of devices
- Applications are trending towards loosely-coupled compositions
- Cooperating systems
- Transparency, standards, interoperability are key
- Lightweight APIs ubiquitous, e.g. REST, RSS, between services across the web
- XAML allows repurposing UI components
- New apps needing to extend beyond the browser, beyond the PC
- Users expecting rich, seamless experiences, delivered across all of their devices
- Applications take advantage of unique strengths of each platform
- Multi-device UI environment
- At back-end, new design models, more appropriate for cloud
- Vast arrays of commodity computing resources–storage & software
- Need new skills to: write code on back-end; deploy across grid; debug remotely
- Developer skills changed by shift to utility computing model
- How will Microsoft products be impacted by these principles?
- Will talk about specific offerings in 5 major groupings
- Connected devices, connected entertainment, connected productivity, connected business, connected development
- Connected devices
- We’re juggling/managing more and more interconnected devices
- Many of them are internet-aware at birth
- Use software to bring them all together into your own personal device mesh with web as hub
- Devices report into central server for status, health, location
- Remote control of all your devices, from anywhere
- Transparent synchronization of data across all devices
- Bi-directional synch of arbitrary feeds
- Application mgmt–centralized web-based deployment of device-based applications
- App platform that is cognizant of all of your devices
- MS has been working on this already
- For starters, looking at PCs, bringing all your machines into single seamless mesh
- Using web as hub
- Live Mesh tech preview
- Connected entertainment
- Only license your media once
- Organized collections/subscriptions once
- Use any of your devices to access/enjoy your media
- On portable device, in living room, on desktop
- Each person has “media-centric web presence” — express your tastes, interact w/others
- Microsoft entertainment products/services will be progressively transformed by this connected entertainment vision
- Connected productivity
- Productivity (for MS) =
- Office for PC
- Office Mobile for phone
- Office Live for web
- Seamlessly enjoy
- Rich dynamic benefits of working on PC
- Mobility, capture capabilities of phone
- Work-anywhere ubiquity of Internet
- Devices seamlessly connected, using web as “experience hub”
- Office live extends productivity into social mesh, sharing/tagging, etc.
- Office Live Workspace — in beta, Mar08
- Focus on servicing individual’s productivity needs
- Also deliver connected productivity to people in enterprise (e.g. Sharepoint, Exchange)
- Connected business (enterprise)
- Services, e.g. CRM, CRM Live
- Well received by small businesses
- Biggest impact of services on business — will come from shift to utility computing within enterprise
- During past year:
- Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V
- System Center products, e.g. Virtual Machine Manager
- “Embrace utility computing in the cloud”
- Now releasing:
- Online business services, beta in Mar08
- Run Exchange, Sharepoint, Office Communications as either local servers or as services in the cloud
- Beta for SQL Server Data Services — API for online data storage; high-scale database services
- Connected development
- Realizing connected development environment through:
- .NET Framework
- Silverlight
- Expression Studio (designers)
- Visual Studio (developers)
- This year, delivering on potential promised w/Silverlight
- Devs have many amazing technology choices to pick from
- You should “bet on Microsoft” — can create extraordinary experiences across world of devices
