You may think what does an Xbox module have to do with manufacturing? The answer is simple, it is the intuitiveness and rich experience it provides that made many software providers to the manufacturing industry rush to use the Kinect SDK for Windows . Kinect provides great ways for users to interact...

This is another post in our series about the Chemical Reference Architecture (ChemRA). We will examine how the next release of Windows, code-named Windows 8 , fits in the overall architecture. The best way to do this is compare how Windows 8 supports and enhances some of the architecture principles....

In my previous post , I hinted to the five main principles of the Microsoft Chemical Reference Architecture (ChemRA). In this post, I will dive a little deeper into one of these principles, user experience (UX). As I mentioned in my previous post, chemical customers use different applications acquired...

Several reference architecture initiatives in the manufacturing area started at Microsoft more than two years ago. The first of these initiatives was the Smart Energy Reference Architecture (SERA), followed by the Microsoft Upstream Reference Architecture (MURA). Early this year, the Discrete Reference...

Many trends in the economy in general, and in technology, in particular, face resistance due to initial risks and unknowns associated with them. Cloud computing is not immune to such resistance, especially in the manufacturing space including process manufacturing. However, looking back at some historical...

You may have seen Microsoft's Kinect accessory for the Xbox in the news lately. It has just launched in the US, with other parts of the world about to follow. For the uninitiated, Kinect is a new way to interact and play games on an Xbox without using any controller. It's a camera that sits on top of...

As I reflect on another Industry Solutions University, having returned from Barcelona, it is interesting to note the progress that we, Microsoft, are making in our efforts to make ourselves more relevant to our customers needs by understanding their business more. Industry Solutions University...

In time-honoured fashion in the computing industry, I start this blog with a "Hello world" message. Corny, cheesy or clichéd it could be, but it just seems so "right". Now, in a more serious vein, what is this blog all about you might be asking. Well, it's the official blog of the Microsoft...