Windows Azure

Microsoft tries plan B with Hohm energy app

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.--Disappointed with the uptake of its Hohm Web application for home energy efficiency, Microsoft is shifting the product focus to emphasize electric-vehicle charging, according to a company executive.

Microsoft launched Hohm almost two years ago as a free application for consumers to monitor energy use and get tips on how to improve efficiency. It has signed on fewer than 10 utilities which use Hohm to provide consumers with electricity data online and it has partnered to provide electricity monitoring using a home's Wi-Fi connection.

But despite those efforts, the reception from utilities and consumers has not … Read more

Microsoft's Windows Azure turns one

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Microsoft's Azure platform being available for public consumption.

To celebrate, Microsoft has announced two additional companies that have made use of the platform for consumer- and business-facing services. One of those is T-Mobile, which used Azure to speed up the development time for its Family Room collaboration tool for mobile phones. The other is Xerox, which used Windows Azure and SQL Azure to help build its cloud-based printing service dubbed Cloud Print.

Microsoft first unveiled its Windows Azure platform a little more than two years ago at PDC 2008. Then chief software architect … Read more

Microsoft flexes muscles on supercomputing jobs

Microsoft today unveiled its behind-the-scenes work on porting a popular suite of supercomputing software tools to its Azure cloud platform. It's work that culminated in an a test job that the company says would have cost an estimated $3 million if it had used traditional on-premises hardware, but it got the job done for a little more than $18,000 using a hybrid approach.

That job in particular, which is part of Microsoft's focus at Supercomputing 2010 conference in New Orleans, was done as a collaboration between Microsoft and the Seattle Children's Hospital. Together, the teams ran … Read more

Microsoft hopes to show its Cloud Power

REDMOND, Wash.--After spending the last several months touting itself as "All In" when it comes to cloud computing, Microsoft now plans to spend several hundred million dollars to convince businesses what that actually means.

The software maker is launching its largest-ever ad campaign targeting businesses, touting "Cloud Power" and its benefits over traditional server-based computing. The ads, which include TV, Internet, print, and outdoor ads, feature the line "cloud power" with actors portraying different types of customers and offering various takes on what products like Windows Azure, Office 365 and Windows Server can … Read more

Microsoft's server boss talks Azure and more (Q&A)

REDMOND, WA.--Microsoft is betting big on the cloud and wants businesses to do the same.

After two years of building Windows Azure, Server and Tools President Bob Muglia said yesterday that the cloud operating system is ready for business customers of all sizes to give it a try. At its annual Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft announced several new Azure features including the ability to move existing applications and virtual machines into Microsoft's hosted service.

In an interview with CNET, Muglia talked about the new cloud advances, small business server products, as well as the impact on Microsoft of … Read more

Microsoft updates Internet Explorer 9 test version

REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft kicked off its Professional Developers Conference today, releasing an updated test version of Internet Explorer 9, the company's effort to reassert itself in the Web browser market.

"We've tried to make the Web feel more like native applications," CEO Steve Ballmer said as part of a keynote speech this morning.

The update is a new platform preview that developers can use to test Web sites, but is not an update to the more full-featured beta version that Microsoft released earlier this year. Microsoft had said it would continue to update the platform preview … Read more

Microsoft hungry to eat VMware's lunch

As VMware prepares for this week's annual conference, Microsoft is looking to steal both the company's thunder and its customers.

In an advertisement in Tuesday's USA Today, Microsoft urges VMware customers to think twice before signing a new long-term contract with the virtualization company.

"VMware is asking many of you to sign three-year license agreements for your virtualization projects," Microsoft vice president Brad Anderson writes in an open letter to VMware customers. "But with the arrival of cloud computing, signing up for a three-year virtualization commitment may lock you into a vendor that cannot … Read more

Microsoft to build massive Virginia data center

Microsoft has confirmed plans to build a large new data center in Mecklenburg County, Va., as the company is once again expanding its data center operations.

In a press release from the Virginia governor's office, Microsoft said it will spend up to $499 million to open the facility, which will use its latest modular, fourth-generation approach and will be located near the town of Boydton. The governor's office touted the plant as "the largest economic investment in Southern Virginia history."

Microsoft was quite vague in its description of the center, saying only that it would use … Read more

Microsoft makes pitches to partners

The software giant makes a series of announcements to kick off its partner confab in Washington D.C., along with a faculty summit on its home turf in Redmond.

Ballmer talks up Windows 7 slates, phones Speaking at a partner conference, Microsoft's CEO reiterates that there will be thin tablets with Windows 7 this year. However, just having slates doesn't mean the company has an answer for the iPad. • Windows slates should come with Zune software (Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried) July 12, 2010 10:14 a.m. PDT

Microsoft ready to test Windows 7 update … Read more