Cloud envelops Microsoft's embedded products

Microsoft has extended its cloud strategy to its embedded line of products.

Kevin Dallas, general manager of Windows Embedded business at Microsoft, said on Monday that the software giant will add the Windows Embedded Server product to its embedded platforms product line, as well as set up a central online platform for its partner ecosystem and developers of embedded systems.

Under Microsoft's cloud strategy, what it calls 'software plus services', the company intends to extend web capabilities to the different flavours of its Windows Embedded operating systems - CE, Standard, NavReady 2009 and POSReady 2009 - so users and device makers can tap the online community to make the devices "smarter".

Microsoft is also making available MSDN Embedded and Windows Embedded Developer update subscription services to developers on its Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition product.

Dallas said this move is targeted at developers, who currently have to look for the latest software updates themselves, but are not assured of the quality of code they find. Searching for drivers is also often a manual process of "looking for partners to integrate with", he said.

"Many times, we've found that it is just one poor driver that will impact an OEM's [original equipment manufacturer's] time to market," said Dallas. With the subscription service, Microsoft is offering an online repository of Microsoft-created and third-party drivers that have been tested and "confirmed of high quality".

"It takes time to find a high-quality driver," Dallas added.

On its Windows Embedded Server offering, he said: "There is a definite need for dedicated and specialised servers in the embedded space." Dallas listed medical systems and video-surveillance systems as examples of setups where customers have the need for dedicated servers to process information and to pass data over secure networks.

Reiterating Microsoft's hybrid 'software plus services' stance, he said such systems cannot be fully cloud-based. It would be impractical for the data to be pushed to the cloud, only to be pulled back for processing; localised systems are required for the job, with the cloud providing storage, he explained. "You have to be very thoughtful of what you're building in the device and what you're doing in the cloud."

Dallas added that the demand for connectivity is directing users' choices of devices, not features. Such connected devices have to "reach out, access and discover web services", he said, adding that two-thirds of the three billion embedded devices forecast to be shipped this year will be "connected".

Visual Studio Professional 2008 with MSDN Embedded is scheduled to be available in July 2009, and the Windows Embedded Developer Update service is scheduled to launch in the first half of 2010.

Original article: Microsoft pushes embedded to the cloud from ZDNet Asia