Microsoft to launch 'Windows Cloud' this month
Microsoft will launch an operating system for the 'cloud' in four weeks, chief executive Steve Ballmer told delegates at a Microsoft-sponsored developer conference in London on Wednesday.
Tentatively entitled 'Windows Cloud', although Ballmer suggested it would have a "snazzier name" at launch, the product is designed to make it possible to "just... write an application and... push it to the cloud", Ballmer said.
'Cloud computing' is a term used to describe a situation where applications are based on web servers and accessed through internet connections, rather than being installed on clients. This leads to a new business model of subscription-based applications, generally known as 'software as a service' (SaaS) but dubbed by Microsoft as 'software plus services'.
