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Guess What: iCloud Uses Windows Azure Services For Hosting Data

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Re: Guess What: iCloud Uses Windows Azure Services For Hosting Data

#31

Post by pedalpete »

karl11 wrote: post #5

Wouldn't this make a successful iCloud even more embarrassing for Microsoft? They have the technology, but can't market it or make it easy for consumers to use?

Microsoft has 'cloud services' baked into Windows Phone, but doesn't have the market penetration for the product recognition.

In the current release, contacts are automatically synced, I'm not sure about calendars, and photos, video and I think office can be set to automatically sync.

From my understanding there is deeper integration in the next release (Mango).

So Microsoft is there and doing it, but they aren't competing in the same marketing space as Apple, and it seems few people know Windows Phone even exists.

Re: Guess What: iCloud Uses Windows Azure Services For Hosting Data

#32

Post by misuse-permit »

statictype wrote: post #30
karl11 wrote: post #5

Wouldn't this make a successful iCloud even more embarrassing for Microsoft? They have the technology, but can't market it or make it easy for consumers to use?

Of course not. It's akin to saying any successful Rails app is an embarrassment to 37signals because they had the technology to create it but didn't.

I think Karl meant infrastructure, not technology.

Re: Guess What: iCloud Uses Windows Azure Services For Hosting Data

#33

Post by statictype »

misuse-permit wrote: post #32
statictype wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course not. It's akin to saying any successful Rails app is an embarrassment to 37signals because they had the technology to create it but didn't.

I think Karl meant infrastructure, not technology.

Well, I think my reply stands. What I'm trying to say is that just because Apple made a successful product on top of Microsoft's infrastructure, it doesn't reflect badly on Microsoft that they didn't do it first - with Azure, it wasn't their intention to build a cloud-based product - it was their intention to build an infrastructure to support cloud-based products.

Re: Guess What: iCloud Uses Windows Azure Services For Hosting Data

#35

Post by pyre »

statictype wrote: post #33
misuse-permit wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Karl meant infrastructure, not technology.

Well, I think my reply stands. What I'm trying to say is that just because Apple made a successful product on top of Microsoft's infrastructure, it doesn't reflect badly on Microsoft that they didn't do it first - with Azure, it wasn't their intention to build a cloud-based product - it was their intention to build an infrastructure to support cloud-based products.

Your analogy would only make sense if 37Signals was actively trying to compete in the Rails startup's space.

Re: Guess What: iCloud Uses Windows Azure Services For Hosting Data

#36

Post by pyre »

jharrison wrote: post #7
karl11 wrote: post #5

Wouldn't this make a successful iCloud even more embarrassing for Microsoft? They have the technology, but can't market it or make it easy for consumers to use?

And how bad would it be if it wasn't so successful? Apple gets to point fingers at Microsoft for not being able to keep up if things go south.

That would only matter if Apple was having infrastructure problems. If people just didn't want the product, those claims wouldn't make sense.

Re: Guess What: iCloud Uses Windows Azure Services For Hosting Data

#38

Post by glassx »

mamp wrote: post #28

I imagine the SVP for cloud computing at Apple is happy to pay for highly redundant services so he doesn't invoke the Wrath of Jobs (TM). Steve Jobs probably pushed for multi-vendor redundancy so he could confidently say at the keynote that they stuffed up the Mobile Me launch, but wouldn't make the same mistake.

Your reply makes a lot of sense, considering we had a major Amazon outage just a few months ago. Redundancy is the way to go.

Re: Guess What: iCloud Uses Windows Azure Services For Hosting Data

#39

Post by cageface »

karl11 wrote: post #5

Wouldn't this make a successful iCloud even more embarrassing for Microsoft? They have the technology, but can't market it or make it easy for consumers to use?

It makes sense for Apple to outsource this but I wonder if this is going to limit them down the road. I think Google has a tremendous advantage with their in-house expertise and infrastructure here. My instinct is that it's harder to get that right in the long run than it is to build acceptably user-friendly interfaces. The real connaisseur may continue to prefer Apple UI but Google's good enough for the rest and I won't be surprised if cloud integration becomes the key differentiator down the road.

Sun was right on the money when they claimed that "the network is the computer". They were just a decade too early.

Re: Guess What: iCloud Uses Windows Azure Services For Hosting Data

#40

Post by dillona »

cageface wrote: post #39
karl11 wrote: post #5

Wouldn't this make a successful iCloud even more embarrassing for Microsoft? They have the technology, but can't market it or make it easy for consumers to use?

It makes sense for Apple to outsource this but I wonder if this is going to limit them down the road. I think Google has a tremendous advantage with their in-house expertise and infrastructure here. My instinct is that it's harder to get that right in the long run than it is to build acceptably user-friendly interfaces. The real connaisseur may continue to prefer Apple UI but Google's good enough for the rest and I w…

There is opensource software (via OpenStack) to run a distributed blob store like this at scale.

My guess is Apple just doesn't want the hassle of dealing with it and/or this is temporary while they get their hardware set up

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