SharePoint Architect’s Workspace & Thoughts on Microsoft’s Leadership, Today & Beyond

Sun Discloses Plans To Enter Cloud Computing (InformationWeek)

Migrating to cloud computing? Don’t forget DNS (NetworkWorld)

Should Your Windows Apps Move To The Cloud? (Forrester)

Selling Web 2.0 To IT (Forbes)

Is Cloud Computing the Wave of the Future? (Sys-con)

Test Center preview: Windows Azure Services Platform gives wings to .Net (TMCNet)

Microsoft’s Billion-Dollar Cloud Business (InformationWeek)

Cloud computing to the max (Infoworld)

Micro Focus Snatches Relativity, Expands App Modernization (ITJungle)

IBM Unveils New Version of Its Web Conferencing Service (ITBusinessEdge)

Microsoft Data Center Pro to Amazon (TheWhir)

Microsoft: The top 5 risks; Will it cut 2009 outlook as PC market stumbles? (ZDNet)

I cannot remember the last time I worked on Cobol but I know there are lots of systems that still rely on this archaic technology. Microsoft Azure allows applications and development platforms to run in the cloud which include non-Microsoft platforms like Eclipse and yes, even Cobol.

Mark Haynie who is the Vice-President of Product Solutions at Micro Focus has a product called Microsoft Focus Enterprise Cloud Services which allows running Cobol transactions to run easily in the cloud. In Mark’s question and answer article from DDJ,

Q: A recent player in the cloud computing arena is Microsoft’s Azure. Can you tell us a bit about it and how it fits in with COBOL, if at all?

A: We worked with Microsoft for months preparing for the Microsoft Azure platform, announced in October 2008. At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, Micro Focus demonstrated a managed .NET version of a COBOL accounting transaction running in the Azure development fabric where the COBOL keyed sequence dataset was stored under SQL Data Services. This was demonstrated after Micro Focus and Microsoft made a joint announcement on July 2, 2008, laying out our plans for a full .NET implementation of our runtime. The other big advantage is that Micro Focus Enterprise Cloud Services is cloud-agnostic. Just as Micro Focus Server (the COBOL, CICS, JCL, IMS, VSAM, DB2 compatibility layer) has run on Windows, UNIX and Linux for years, we are now bringing the same level of portability to Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2 and other public clouds.

Even before the launch of Windows Azure, it is obvious that players are moving into this space in preparation for a possible huge growth. Even if Microsoft is late in the game, they are still Microsoft and their strategy has always been to copy their competitors, make it better and sell cheap.

Continue reading the full article here.

The whitepaper for Micro Focus Enterprise Cloud Services is here.

Microsoft’s Wave 3 is a brave bet – but will it work? (TheGuardian)

Live Webcast: Microsoft: The Year Ahead (ZDNet)

Cloud Databases May Gain Ground in 2009 (eWeek)

Multiple Service Configurations for a Windows Azure Cloud Service (JNak)

David Chappels presentation on Windows Azure (borge)

Cloud Mashups – Web 3.0 or Cloud 2.0 ? (AzureJournal)

Developer Starter Guide for Windows Azure (MSDN)

Peering into Microsoft’s Azure sky (InfoWorld)

Windows Azure (BeFolks)

Batch Processing Live Mesh Data with Windows Azure or Live Framework (DannyThorpe)

Cloud Options – Amazon, Google, & Microsoft (Simpable)

More Azure Hypervisor Details (VirtualizationReview)

More Azure Hypervisor Details (VirtualizationReview)

Company ports COBOL to Windows Azure cloud (SDTimes)

With Azure, Microsoft Makes Big Bet On Cloud Computing (CNN)

Microsoft Free “Morro” Antivirus for Windows 7, Vista SP2, XP SP3 (Softpedia)

Microsoft seems silent on the release of the next version of SharePoint believed to be SharePoint 2009 as part of Office 14. While I am pretty excited on the release of this version and the more my colleagues (sorry internal communication) talk about the things that might be included in it, the more I want Microsoft to release publicly their plans on SharePoint 2009.

Given that they have already announced Windows Azure, their cloud computing vertical market and the release of SharePoint Service Pack 2, I feel that SharePoint 2009 might be pushed to SharePoint 2010 instead to add features for seamless activity with Windows Azure? Also, since SharePoint Service Pack 2 is going to be released sometime in April, it’s possible that there is no need to rush the release of SharePoint 2009.