Extending the Mesh Cloud

One of the common questions I’ve been getting from developers and IT guys about Mesh is how we are planning to get the infrastructure, storage and platform in Mesh delivered in an on-premise scenario so that individuals or businesses can take advantage of the Mesh capabilities yet retain control over their data and devices rather than leveraging Microsoft’s infrastructure investments in the cloud. 

This is really all about choice.  For businesses these choices will be driven by cost and data security policies.  Over the coming years I see data security policies evolving to embrace cloud computing – including storage - as a viable solution with vendors that can provide assurances and SLAs on availability/security/redundancy. 

However, by providing on-premise cloud storage solutions like those in Mesh et al, businesses have the option to take it in-house and align online/offline capabilities and file sync across different devices with their data security policies, perhaps using Active Directory.  Therein lies an opportunity for Microsoft’s infrastructure partners.

The inspiration for this post really came from watching a session at PDC by Abolade Gbadegesin entitled: Live Services: Mesh Services Architecture and Concepts.  It was probably one of the most revealing about how Mesh works right now, and where we are taking the Live Mesh platform.  I suggest you check it out – goto 57 minutes for the relevant stuff.