First Look At Microsoft Cloud Computing
I am now writing at my new site One .Net Way
Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Initiatives are taking shape. I expect a big bang launch somewhere around PDC 2008. Earlier I blogged about the whiff I got about Microsoft’s offering for developers in the cloud by looking at the list of PDC 2008 sessions. Today I will look at what it takes to get started with Microsoft Online Services.
At present you can access Microsoft Online Services beta by using your Live ID. The home page for MOS (Microsoft Online Services) says that there are three services available:
- Microsoft Exchange Online
- Microsoft Office SharePoint Online
- Microsoft Office Live Meeting
Clicking on the registration link takes you to Microsoft Online Customer Portal where you can user your Live ID to sign in for a trial. The customer portal is a place where you can track your subscriptions to different services offered by Microsoft Online Services or sign up for trials and most likely sign up for new services.
After signing in you are presented with a wizard where you are asked for some personal information like name, address, phone number etc. The second screen collects your company information. The third screen is just a confirmation screen.
Now you are signed in and you are taken to your portal which looks like this
This is where you can view/modify your subscriptions and trials. You will notice a link at bottom left which says "Buy Now". Clicking this does not do anything because there isn’t anything to buy at present. Remember the service is still in beta.
Signing up for trials is straight forward. Just click on the Try Now button and you are taken to a screen where you can enter a promotional code if you have one and a domain name. Microsoft creates a web address based on the domain name you enter here. At present you can enter any domain name you like. But the service is not provisioned until there are some verification checks done. Microsoft will send an email confirming the status of trial.
Note that I have entered a bogus domain name for my company. I wonder what my confirmation mail will say. This is what my Manage Subscription page shows. You can see that my service status is In Queue.
These services are currently only available in US. I used a fake US address just to look at the portal screen. I assume that my trial application will be rejected. But that’s cool. The service is still in beta and I was just testing it.
I think that overall design and workflow of the signup process is simple and intuitive. There are minor quirks which I am sure will be taken care of in coming days. I am looking forward to these services being available in Australia. I am quite keen on hosted SharePoint and how we will get around the evils of Active Directory.
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