"Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1610730.A6eGjFGze1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Ballmer: "The most important thing is the Live platform"
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | With Windows Vista and Office 2007 nearing completion, one would be
> | inclined to believe that those two products are currently the most
> | important topics at Microsoft right now. But according to Steve Ballmer,
> | that's not the case. If the focus isn't on Vista or Office, then where
> is
> | it?
> `----
>
> http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2006/10/11/5591
>
> This could open up a door of opportunities for Linux. Google and Yahoo
> will
> do their battle on the Web (with a Linux back-end, of course).
The focus is on web services, of course.
This was actually hinted at in the interview Roy posted of Ballmer
earlier. Ballmer was talking about the huge valuation of Web 2.0 when he
commented on Google purchasing YouTube.
There's a lot of talk in the tech industry about SOA, Service Oriented
Architecture. Without the marketting speak, SOA basically means putting all
your stuff on the web. Incidentally, one of the biggest appeals of SOA is
that it allows for homogenous platforms to work together seamlessly (i.e.
Sun boxes working with AIX boxes working with Linux LAMP boxes working with
Windows .NET boxes). Suddenly, a primarly Microsoft/.NET shop can now
experiment with PHP or Java or Ruby without worrying about integration
headaches, for example.
I don't know if Microsoft has a new strategy for SOA and Web2.0, but I
know that their previous strategy will NOT work here. So it's no surprise
that Ballmer is pounding his chest, announcing that MS is going to be the
king of Web services. The question is whether this is a bluff, or if they
really do have it all figured out.
And yes, as you say, SOA tends to favour the cheapest platform which
will get the job done, which is usually Linux.
- Oliver
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