The Synchronizer : Mix

MIX08 – Unified Web Platform in the Making

Rafik — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:59:00 GMT

Apart from MIX08 big announcements about Silverlight 2.0, Silverlight for mobile and IE 8.0, there were an interesting collection of announcements that if you put them together a picture of a unified API layer on top of Windows Live services will emerge. In my opinion, this is huge.

There are three main components in realizing this new unified platform:

Cloud Data Services

Live: Spaces Photos, Application Data
DB: SQL Server, SQL Server Data Service

Protocols

AtomPub
Atom

Programming Frameworks

The really really new announcement in MIX08 was the SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) which is in private beta right now. ADO.NET Data Services is the new name of the project Astoria that was announced for the first time back in MIX07. Microsoft Sync Framework was first unleashed back in November of 2007. What was so exciting though is the adaption of these technologies by Windows Live Services. With that you can reuse the same tools and techniques to access new services. Your focus won’t be on how to make calls to a certain services (Data Access) but on what to do with the data you get (Business Logic).

One might ask, will this go all the way to cover services like Live ID and Messenger, for example? The answer is NO. This unified model suites better the type of services that is solely data centric. In which, you main purpose is to access a store with basic operations of Get, PUT, POST and DELETE. Services like Live ID are operation centric thus the model does not apply.

I am pretty excited about the direction of the API and the adaption of the model by Windows Live Services. It won’t take long to see cool new apps built quickly and easily against the Live Platform. I want to write one myself!

Update: Just to let you know, I left Microsoft to start a new company, Raveable Hotel Reviews. See Examples: Romantic Hotels in Myrtle Beach, Top 10 Hotels in Seattle, 5 Star Hotels in Miami, Hotels with in-room jacuzzi, Family Friendly hotels in Anaheim and Best Hotels in Fort Lauderdale. Your feedback is welcome on twitter.com/raveable, raveable blog.

I am not actively blogging about Sync Technologies. Please see Sync Team Blog for more updated content.

The MIX08 Factor

Rafik — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:55:00 GMT

I am not going to miss MIX this year, period.

Last year, MIX07 was a phenomenal event. Unfortunately, I did not get to attend. I kept following the announcements every day and watched some of the really good recorded sessions as they became available on the mix web site. I kept saying to myself, “Man, I should have been there”!

This year, it might be even better, a lot of folks are preparing demos, announcements ...etc. I cannot disclose anything I know coming. But I know so little, despite being at Microsoft. Yes, strange but true :)
Conferences tend to be rather confusing, too much activity that you cannot follow it all. For this reason, I like to have a plan. So, let me share my plan with you:

The keynotes this year are of particular interest. Ray is speaking this year and I am keen to listen to what he has to say. Steve keynotes are always good too.
Windows Live … what are the next cool things that are coming up
Sync Framework … I know few things are coming to those who love sync
FeedSync … I personally need to understand to what extend FeedSync is going to be used across Live properties, if any
Mobile development … what’s new in VS2008 and next coming up

It is sure to be fun. See you there.

Update: Just to let you know, I left Microsoft to start a new company, Raveable Hotel Reviews. See Examples: Romantic Hotels in Myrtle Beach, Top 10 Hotels in Seattle,Best Hotels in Miami, Best Hotels in San Francisco, Hotels with in-room jacuzzi and Best Hotels in Los Angeles. Your feedback is welcome on twitter.com/raveable, raveable blog.

SaaS = Web Component + Desktop Component + Sync

Rafik — Tue, 01 May 2007 21:45:00 GMT

I tuned to Mix07 yesterday to listen to the keynote from Ray Ozzie. Ray draws the picture for the software and service model. One important statement in the keynote made feel really good, Ray said “Even software as a service vendors have found a need to expand their offering to include offline edition”

This is a fact. There is growing interest in building offline applications especially with the new breed of web 2.0 applications. It is much faster to edit your documents on the desktop, yet it is more convenience to store them on the web and be able to access them anywhere. Web based everything is a weak vision and won’t materialize given that SaaS vendors are building offline experiences.

If you buy into this new world of software plus service then you must look at synchronization as the enabling technology. The Synchronization Services of ADO.NET is one step in this direction. Using web service or WCF you could easily expose your data to your web clients.

Building rich applications on the client that takes advantage of the processing power, storage, and graphics on the desktop for better user experience and reduce the load on the web server for better scalability is a great model that is gaining momentum everyday. For this vision to materialize, synchronization technologies have to become mainstream and part of every developer toolbox. With that, I think you know why I feel good … [tip: my team is responsible for sync technologies across Microsoft!] ….

Update: Just to let you know, I left Microsoft to start a new company, Raveable Hotel Reviews. See Examples: Romantic Hotels in Myrtle Beach, Top 10 Hotels in Seattle, 5 Star Hotels in Miami, Hotels with in-room jacuzzi, Family Friendly hotels in Anaheimand Best Hotels in Fort Lauderdale. Your feedback is welcome ontwitter.com/raveable, raveable blog.