In its beta form, however, Live Mesh offers
only a small subset of the projected functionality.
Three basic services are available:
Web-based desktop. Exposed as a device
in your “mesh” of connected devices, the
Live Desktop is a Web-based version of the
Windows Vista desktop that you access from any Web browser, complete with RSS-style
“news” updates (really an ongoing stream
of information about any updates to your
mesh), ways to remotely connect to your
linked PCs, and access to the contents of your
shared folders.
Folder sharing. As with Microsoft’s FolderShare
service, Live Mesh offers folder sharing
capabilities between any and all linked
PCs (and, later, other devices) and the Live
Desktop. As documents and other files in
these shared folders are changed (or added
or deleted), any other PCs and devices that
are linked to the shares are updated as well,
automatically and almost instantly. These
synchronized folders reside online, in the
Web-based Live Desktop, and on linked PCs
in your mesh.
Remote PC access. Utilizing a browserbased
Remote Desktop-like experience, Live
Mesh lets you remotely access the desktop
of any linked PC, assuming it’s on and connected
to the Internet. It does this without
any configuration of any kind on either end
of the connection, and it even works with
non-business versions of Windows, including
XP Home and Vista Home Premium,
which don’t natively include Remote Desktop
functionality.
As noted previously, Microsoft intends to
be aggressive about supporting non-Microsoft
devices. The theory here is that most
individuals today don’t actually use just a
single device. Instead, people increasingly
use multiple PCs (and Macs) both at home
and at work. They own and access desktop
PCs and laptop computers. They have
smart phones, MP3 players, digital cameras,
and other mobile devices. And they have
a host of online personas via email and IM
services, social networking memberships,
e-commerce sites, and other online communities.
As users, we manage these disparate
components separately and with great
difficulty. Microsoft is seeking to take this
heterogeneous computing environment and
make it centrally manageable.
Live Mesh and Businesses
Coming as it does out of the Windows Live
group at Microsoft, the initial beta version
of Live Mesh is indeed somewhat consumer
focused. But don’t let that dampen your
expectations for its future. In October 2008,
at its Professional Developers Conference
(PDC) 2008, Microsoft will release the first version of its Live
Mesh Software
Development Kit to
developers, and the
company expects
Live Mesh to form
the basis for a new
generation of software
services that
will provide value
across all of its customer
segments. Most tellingly, perhaps, Live
Mesh is seen as a major platform initiative,
akin to Windows, Windows Server, and Office,
which will drive users towards cloud computing
in the coming years.
Even now, Live Mesh’s remote desktop
and folder sharing functionality is sure to
prove interesting to small and mediumsized
businesses. And though true enterprise
management of these and other coming
services is currently only on the horizon, it’s
not hard to imagine that Microsoft will begin
incorporating Mesh-based services in all of
its product lines.
Recommendations
Live Mesh is, perhaps, the most forwardlooking
project to emerge out of Redmond
since the first version of Windows NT back
in 1993. As with NT, Live Mesh is a repudiation
of past software initiatives at Microsoft
and a chance to start over with a modern
platform that’s unburdened by the compatibility
issues facing its mainstream computing
platforms of the day. Live Mesh works
with and integrates into core Microsoft
solutions such as Windows, of course. But it
also can stand alone as a cloud computing
platform that offers value far beyond the
confines of the software giant’s core markets.
In the enterprise, Live Mesh is currently
more vision than reality, but developers
especially should become familiar with the
platform as soon as possible. Stay tuned: As
Microsoft evolves this platform into something
more applicable to IT needs, I’ll keep
you informed.
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