All I can say is Oy! That's short for Oy Vey...which is actually short for Oy Veysmir (vayz-meer). It's been one hell of a week. I have been working on a couple of projects that are taking way too much of my time, but (especially these days) you will NOT hear me complain. One of the random things that happened last week is that I officially joined the advisory board of a Cloud Computing company. There will probably be some news coming from them soon, but what it did do is make me think a little more about Cloud Computing and mobility.
I'm thinking about this especially given the recent announcement from Microsoft regarding developing applications for the forthcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Mobile Widgets. While Microsoft has always had an interesting naming convention (think Windows Marketplace for Mobile), I think there's something to pay attention to.
The Cloud is all about AJAX. AJAX is HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This is the core of what iPhone applications are based upon, and this is what webOS applications will be based upon. Historically, Windows Mobile applications have been built on the .NET or .NET Compact Framework. The thing is that most of those applications have done the processing on the device. As cloud computing becomes even more pervasive (don't get me started on how this is so similar to clien/server or mainframe computing from the late 60s/early 70s) you'll see more and more of the processing occurring in the Cloud. With this annoucement, Microsoft is giving developers yet another level of choice.
This is a very smart move in my opinion for the folks in Redmond. They have always been known for providing a flexible programming environment, but I think this takes it to the next "hip" level. All the hype - right or wrong - is on AJAX and what the Cloud can do. Now, Microsoft is providing developers tools to develop in that paradigm. But what Microsoft has not done is talk about how this plays into Azure...
This is the key (and so far missing) link. Once Microsoft can tie all the pieces together - a lot easier said than done for them - I think they could have a very compelling story to share for (enterprise) mobility.
They key of course will be for them to actually put all those pieces together. Do you think they'll be able to do it?
