Sunday 2 November 2008

2. Cloud computing - Windows Azure



Microsoft’s Window Azure is the latest "cloud" system to announce itself to the world. Launched a couple of days ago, The Cloud is the new term (yet another new term) which refers to storage of information on the web as opposed to on our computers. Having rejected this concept years ago, it seems Microsoft are finally realising its importance and potential, especially in protecting existing products. They are hoping to rival the likes of Google Docs and Zoho, and thereby protect their established products. It remains to be seen as to which strategy they adopt, but hopefully they will build in offline working from the outset.

Implications for the dyslexic user? Only that it adds muscle to the online use of software, decreasing the potential to loose documents. But it will also allow Microsoft to redevelop applications which have got hugely cumbersome. Online usage required compact, fast programming. This Azure may help to improve all aspects.

Hopefully the use of assistive software like text-to-speech will not be affected, though I am still hoping Google will announce at some point they are going to give away text-to-speech to everybody free. Or maybe I have my head in the clouds.

For the technically minded, you can find out more at the following website:
Windows Azure

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like this blog and would like to try many of the recommended software. I do not know how much more work it would be to put more direct links to mentioned software - just to make it easier for me to find them.
Thanks.
D.

ianssmythe@googlemail.com said...

Thanks for the comment.

I try hard to be dyslexia friendly and add direct link where possible. However, sometimes I do this on the road, when the links are more difficult to create. I have added one for Azure now I have returned to the UK.

:-)

That said, I have not put the links into the monthly summary as I want people to explore the blog.

Best wishes, Ian

digital certificate said...

Grateful to check out your website, I seem to be ahead to more excellent sites and I wish that you wrote more informative post for us. Well done work.