Om Malik has the skinny on Microsoft validating online storage. That blows previous (hehe) discussions around this topic out the water. I had a take at the time. Om leaves this tantalizing question in the air:
I have to wonder what impact it will have on dozens of online storage companies that are popping up all over the place?
My take – they either get hoovered up by Microsoft, Oracle or IBM. Or they die. Step one. Step two – it dawns on people that online storage is the starting point for using online services as opposed to desktop or client/server applications.
Why would you for instance create a document in Word and then upload it in the hope of it being shared? Surely you’d want to create a shareable document directly online with something like Writely. Or, if a relatively simple spreadsheet, the same would apply. I did this the other day and the spreadsheet is here.
But that then begs the question – why would you create and share information this way without using it as a long term knowledge resource? Which brings us neatly around to the idea of the blog/forum/wiki. These are not big steps but a logical sequence of events. And Microsoft has validated that first step.
Having said all of that, Microsoft remains conflicted. Simon Griffiths, down in South Africa notes that:
I got an inside perspective today on what Microsoft really sees as the role of its partners – that is to bring in as much software licence revenue as possible. Nothing else.
Which kinda sucks.
Mary Jo Foley has more detail on the Live Data storage service.
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