Microsoft promises details of Internet ‘cloud’ project

Microsoft has promised that details of its Internet ‘cloud’ project will be available this year.

Speaking at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver, Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, pledged that information would be shared with partners and developers in the not too distant future.

The plans involve the development of a platform for running current and future services, which lives on Microsoft’s servers, rather than the set of discrete services in operation today.

During 2007 Microsoft plans to deliver the first version of a set of developer tools to build on top of Microsoft’s Windows Live. The tools will be based on .Net.

This will require a complete restructuring of the company’s computational, storage and virtualisation models.

Microsoft also plans to re-brand its existing Office Live product as a small-business solution, while a separate set of Office Live services will be introduced for individuals.