November 18th, 2009

So where's Microsoft's Live Mesh?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:38 am

Categories: Azure, Code names, Corporate strategy, Live Mesh, PDC 2009, Utility/cloud computing, Windows Live, Windows Mobile, Zune

Tags: Microsoft Azure, Ray Ozzie, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Web Site Development, Benefits, Channel Management, Operating Systems, Software, Internet

One noticeable no-show at this week’s Microsoft Professional Developers Conference is Live Mesh.

Live Mesh, Microsoft’s synchronization service that is the pet project of Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, was one of the main attractions at previous Microsoft developers’ conferences. When Microsoft first described the service, it was billed as a way to prove to consumers that Microsoft’s Azure cloud would have something of interest to them and not just business customers and developers.

Earlier this year, as part of one of the company’s many reorgs, Microsoft moved the Live Mesh team under the Windows/Windows Live group. Since then, things have gone quiet.

At the PDC this week, I (and others) thought Microsoft might give us a progress report on Live Mesh… or a demo of the latest version of it… or a roadmap for it… or something. But no.

I had a chance to ask Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie about Live Mesh during a one-on-one interview with him at the show on November 17. I asked Ozzie why there was nothing about Mesh at the PDC. He said:

“We’re pushing the Live platform stuff to Mix. Or I shouldn’t actually say Mix, in terms of that, it is going to be spring….The Live stuff and phone stuff basically is out in that time frame.

“But that (Live Mesh) will no longer be discussed in the context of ‘Live Mesh,’ but rather in ‘the Windows Live platform,’ which is now, as you know, which it’s now part of.

I asked Ozzie a follow-up: If you aren’t using Live Mesh any more as a way to get consumers excited about the Azure platform, what’s the new plan to push the “commercialization of IT” strategy with Azure? Ozzie’s response:

“(T)he reality is — I know this isn’t very sexy — but I don’t think people are really going to be aware that it (Azure) is there. I think when people go to Web sites, they’ll just go to a Web site. They won’t really know what it’s connected to. When they use a phone or a piece of client software or a TV or a cable box that happens to talk to a cloud back end, it will just happen. And the way they will experience it is it will be reliable, it will be fast, it will scale.

“Probably the most important thing is that we live in a very faddish culture,… Whenever there is a service that’s backing up something that’s very trendy, these things will just happen without any issues. There will be black Friday and everyone wants to just buy their Beanie Baby and they’ll be able to.”

So if Live Mesh isn’t the consumer proof point for Windows Azure, what is? Ozzie said:

“(T)he best example I have is this app that (Microsoft Online Systems Division President) Qi Lu announced at Web 2.0 some weeks ago with Bing/Twitter integration. That came together in a very short time.

“In just a few weeks, a few developers got together and they had the Twitter fire hose, because of our relationship with — an early relationship with Twitter, and suddenly because of Azure, they were able to ingest this whole thing and start to do some amazing analysis that they could have never done if they had to, let’s see, how many machines should we order? When do we get them configured? When can we have rack space in GFS (Microsoft’s Global Foundation Services)? Those apps just never would have happened. And that’s why I’m so excited about this Dallas stuff because even though it is obscure, it’s hard to give compelling examples of how to use that data, once people have the ability to make a discovery based on data and then scale it to lots and lots of data, I think new possibilities are opened up.

“I think consumers are going to experience the benefit of the apps. Just take the H1N1 thing that’s going on right now. I’m not sure exactly what the benefit will be, but when there are these large challenges, suddenly some new app may be overlaid on maps or maybe it’s an app on a map that brings together some health data with geo data or an industry that you work in or something like that will pop up, and we’ll take it for granted at the time when it happens, but it will never have been able to happen without all that data behind it.”

When I recently asked some execs in Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division — the folks behind Windows Mobile and Zune — about their plans for implementing Live Mesh, I didn’t get a sense they had any real, near-term plans (and I don’t think they were just being cagey).

I’m really wondering what’s going to happen with Live Mesh going forward. Any guesses/hopes?

November 13th, 2009

Microsoft opens up Windows 7 to advertisers via downloadable themes

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 5:01 am

Categories: Advertising, Corporate strategy, Windows 7, Windows Live, Windows client, Zune

Tags: Brand, Theme, Microsoft Corp., Advertiser, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Branding, Operating Systems, Software, Marketing

The same way that it already allows advertisers to buy placement on various Microsoft sites and properties, Microsoft may allow them to extend their brands onto Windows 7.

The ads aren’t being foisted on Windows 7 users. Those who don’t want the branded themes don’t have to see them, as they’re opt in.

Microsoft announced on November 13 that it has begun test pilots with a handful of advertisers for ads on Windows 7. The two “theme experiences” they are offering are known as the “Windows Theme Experience” and the “Windows Personalization Gallery.” The trial is set to run through October 2010.

Advertisers participating in the pilot include Ducati, Infiniti, Porsche and Twentieth Century Fox, according to a Microsoft press release.

Via the Windows Theme Experience pilot, advertisers are going to be able to put their brand on Internet Explorer 8 add-ons; Windows 7 and Windows Vista gadgets; Windows 7 backgrounds and borders and Windows “audio elements.” Via the Windows Personalization Gallery pilot, advertisers will be able to push their brands “throughout the operation of their Windows 7-based PC including backgrounds, slide shows, borders and application audio elements.”

Users will have to download the branded themes and elements from Microsoft’s Windows Web site in order to add them to their PCs. Some of these branded themes and elements already are available for download, like the Ferrari theme, the Coca Cola “Happiness Factory” theme and the Porsche theme. They are available alongside of some of Microsoft’s own brand themes — such as the Gears of War theme, Bing screen shots theme and Zune characters theme.

“These new themes are intended for a brand’s most passionate fans and allow for a deeper engagement by letting consumers embed their favorite brand into their PC experience,” according to Microsoft.

I have to admit, I do like the Zune characters theme, but because I like the artwork in that theme pack, not because I want to tell the world that I’m a Zune fan. What about you? Are there branded themes you’d willing put on your PC — either ones already in the gallery or ones you’d like to see added to it?

November 11th, 2009

Bing 2.0 debuts

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:38 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, MSN, Search, Windows Live

Tags: Update, Microsoft Corp., Web Site Development, Web Technology, Business Structures, Strategy, Search, Internet, Finance, Management

Microsoft is rolling out over the next few weeks its first major release of Bing since the search engine launched in June.

(The Softies don’t like the “Bing 2.0″ moniker, but that’s how some zealous Microsoft employees who heard about the forthcoming update described it earlier this summer. When Microsoft rolled out its new visual search capability a couple months ago, officials did acknowledge a bigger refresh of Bing was on tap for this fall.)

Just to be really clear, if you go to the Bing.com page today, it doesn’t look or seem any different. It’s going to take a while for the Bing servers to be populated with the refresh.

On November 11, a  Microsoft spokesperson sent the following information about the new Bing update:

“The update includes a partnership with computational knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha, which will incorporate health and nutrition-related structured data from Wolfram Alpha into Bing results.

“We’re also rolling out a number of updates to Bing. This rolling update will include new features such as localized results for weather and events and City Slideshows. It will also include updates to existing features, such as an improved Bing Shopping experience and the next generation of Hover Preview, which lets people view a snapshot of a website or search within that website before clicking through.  Please note that all new features including the Wolfram Alpha integration will be rolling out to select groups and will not be fully available to our entire customer base for several weeks. “

In related news, Microsoft this week rolled out Bing Videos, a refresh of MSN Videos that incorporates the Bing search technology. Bing Videos is now the single hub for video content from MSN, Hulu, YouTube and other content sources.

Update: There’s more on the Microsoft-Wolfram partnership in a November 11 posting to the Wolfram Alpha blog. The Wolfram execs note that Microsoft is one of the first commercial customers for the recently introduced Wolfram Alpha application-programming interface (API). From that post:

“By using our API, Bing will be able to seamlessly access the tens of thousands of algorithms and trillions of pieces of data from Wolfram|Alpha, and directly incorporate the computations in its search results.”

Update 2: There are more details about the steps leading up to the bigger Bing refresh in a November 10 posting to the Bing Community blog.

“Since June we’ve released a bunch of new stuff to try and meet the demands of our users – Twitter integration, Visual Search, Twitter Search, better maps, and a host of user interface and index improvements. But being the true search geeks that we are, we knew we needed to keep our eye on the prize: we still need to help people make better decisions with more confidence. We are, after all, a Decision Engine not just a Search Engine.

“So we listened: we talked to people in small groups all across the nation, we worked with search pioneers outside the company to get their take on what we were missing, and we listened to the quiet and fleeting clues about what you want in search by analyzing reams of data.”

The results of this “listening tour” are features like more shortcuts, more visual search results, more exposure to results via “hovering” functionality, a new event search feature and more. It sounds like the team is going to trickle out more details of what’s in Bing 2.0 over the next few days.

November 11th, 2009

Microsoft delivers new Zune HD games; Twitter and Facebook still to come

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:54 am

Categories: Apple, Corporate strategy, Gaming, Windows Live, Windows Mobile, Xbox, Xbox Live, Zune

Tags: Facebook, Twitter Inc., Microsoft Zune, Microsoft Corp., Games, Personal Technology, Mary Jo Foley

On the heels of providing a new firmware update to the Zune HD that provided support for forthcoming games, Microsoft is rolling out those games starting on November 11.

The firmware update, version 4.3, enabled 3-D gaming on the new Zune HD. The new six games that are available for download from the Zune HD Marketplace today for free (but ad-supported — there’s an ad at start-up) are:

Audiosurf Tilt: Audiosurf creates a rollercoaster ride from any song.

Checkers: A classic checkers game that can be played against a computer or a buddy.

Lucky Lanes Bowling: Bowl in different game modes: exhibition, blackjack, golf — either against the computer or up to four friends.

Piano: Play your own tune, or play along with music.

Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition: A racing game using multi touch controls and the built in accelerometer.

Vans Sk8: Pool Service: “Put these Vans skaters to the test with all the tricks in their bag and achieve hero status once you unlock their pro model skateboards.”

A spokesperson sent me the following update, as well:

“As we’ve said in the past, we will be delivering additional applications for Zune HD including Facebook and Twitter in the future.”

I bought a Zune HD a month or so ago and have been showing it off to some disbelieving Apple die-hards. “Are you sure this is a Microsoft product?” is often the reaction I’ve gotten. Being able to change the music I’ve got on it whenever the mood strikes (thanks to a $15 per month ZunePass subscription) has been a great way to sample lots of new content. If this device had been available a couple of years ago, when I was searching for any MP3 player as long as it wasn’t an Apple one, I’d have snapped it up long ago…

But, as I’ve noted before, Microsoft isn’t planning to put a ton of resources into developing apps for its dedicated Zune HD players. Microsoft officials have said the not-so-long-term plan for Zune is to turn it into a service. There will be “at least one more” player release coming, but after that, it sounds like Microsoft is planning to integrate the Zune music and video services into its Windows Mobile, Xbox and possibly other third-party platforms. (The new Xbox Live services including Zune video went into public beta on October 21. The go-live launch date is still to be announced. is November 17.)

Microsoft officials still won’t give a firm yes or no answer as to when or if the company will make the Zune HD available internationally. (I ask periodically but still can’t get an answer.)

October 28th, 2009

Microsoft's Windows 7 challenge: Selling Live services (without being sued)

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:57 am

Categories: Advertising, Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Live, Windows client

Tags: Antitrust, Microsoft Windows Live, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Corporate Law, Operating Systems, Software, Business Operations, Mary Jo Foley

I was wondering how aggressively — or not — Microsoft would market Windows Live services once it began selling Windows 7.

The answer seems to be somewhat aggressively. But is that tepid enough to keep the Softies out of antitrust hot water?

For more than a year now, Microsoft has been pulling certain features out of Windows and making them available as free “rich” services. The suite of these services is known as Windows Live Essentials (WLE) and includes Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Live Writer, Messenger and Mail.

Although Microsoft officials take care to avoid saying that removing features and offering them separately might be motivated in any way by the threat of antitrust suits, I’d think this would be one (big) definite upside for the WLE strategy/approach. The downside (for Microsoft) around this decoupling is that the company needs to find ways to get users to understand that these functions are available for free download, or, in some cases, preloaded by PC makers on new machines.

I asked Microsoft officials how they intended to let consumers know about the existence of Windows Live Essentials (WLE), a bundle of several Windows Live services meant to complement Windows 7, and received via e-mail this list of “ways we are educating consumers about the offering”:

• The most recent version of Windows Live Essentials (WLE) can be downloaded from download.live.com
• Most large OEMS will ship WLE on Windows 7 PCs.  For example, we have already announced that Dell will ship WLE on its machines, and we expect to announce other specific partners in the coming months.
• Windows.com and Microsoft.com both include information on WLE and where to go to download it
• Windows 7 users can find a link to download (download.live.com) WLE within the Control Panel.  An easy way to find this link is who search to type Windows Live Essentials into the Start Menu search bar
• We offer WLE as an Optional Update through the Microsoft Update program
• Customers who are enrolled in Windows Update will receive automatic upgrades to any WLE applications they have installed on their PC
• WLE is highlighted in the Getting Started experience within Windows for new PC purchasers

One way Microsoft also is getting the word out, which company officials didn’t mention, is by featuring WLE on new “Signature” PCs that are sold through Microsoft’s own Store.

As Todd Bishop over at TechFlash noted recently, the Windows 7 PCs that Microsoft is highlighting on the Microsoft online store come with a number of Microsoft software and service offerings — including WLE — preloaded. (The Signature PCs also include Microsoft Security Essentials, Silverlight, Bing 3D Maps, Zune 4.0, plus a few select third-party wares, like Adobe Flash and Reader.) Signature PCs include systems from Sony, HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and other vendors.

I’m surprised we haven’t seen Microsoft push WLE more than through some rather vague mentions by Microsoft spokesperson of the year, the now-five-year-old Kylie. But maybe the specter of looming antitrust busters is keeping the Softies from going all-out with a splashy WLE campaign.

Do you think any of the ways Microsoft is promoting WLE — including the new Signature PCs –might leave open loopholes for Microsoft’s competitors to run screaming to the authorities?

October 19th, 2009

Free Silverlight streaming service to be replaced by paid Azure-hosted service

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 10:31 am

Categories: Azure, Corporate strategy, Silverlight (wpf/e), Utility/cloud computing, Windows Live

Tags: Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Corp., Silverlight Streaming, Softies, Team Management, Microsoft Windows, Management, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is discontinuing its free Silverlight Streaming service and replacing it with a paid, Azure-hosted service before the end of calendar 2009.

Microsoft is confirming the report I saw on LiveSide.Net from October 18, which is based on a blog post from Microsoft’s Silverlight Streaming team. Silverlight Streaming is a Windows Live beta service that supports hosted audio/video content. Microsoft officials described the offering as a companion service for Silverlight for delivering and scaling rich media.

The Softies are saying Silverlight Streaming will be discontinued at some time in the future, with no specific timeframe offered.

“A new Windows Azure-based hosting and delivery service will be launched by the end of 2009, though this is not a direct replacement for Silverlight Streaming and will have costs associated with its use,” according to the Silverlight Streaming team.

Microsoft officials stressed that Silverlight Streaming is not the same as Smooth Streaming, “which is alive and well” and just released on October 8.

Microsoft is expected to remove officially the beta tag from Azure the first day of the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles on November 16. It’s not clear whether company officials will have more to say about the Silverlight Streaming replacement at that time.

October 7th, 2009

When will Microsoft's Live Mesh matter?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:16 am

Categories: Azure, Code names, Corporate strategy, Live Mesh, Red Dog, Utility/cloud computing, Windows Live, Windows Mobile, Windows client, Xbox, Zune

Tags: Team, Microsoft Corp., Team Management, Management, Mary Jo Foley

It was April 2008 when Microsoft rolled out a first beta of its Live Mesh synchronization/backup software. The promise was Live Mesh would help users more seamlessly integrate ther PCs, phones, digital picture frames, Xbox consoles — the whole gamut — and not just devices from Microsoft. It sounded almost as though Live Mesh was a precursor to, if not the heart of, the whole three-screens-and-a-cloud strategy Microsoft execs have been increasingly touting.

But maybe not. This week, I asked some of the executives and teams participating in Microsoft’s consumer open-house showcase in New York about how and when they planned to start making use of Live Mesh. The stammers and blank stares said a lot to me.

I asked Robbie Bach, the President of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division about how and when he expected teams in his unit to take advantage of Live Mesh. He didn’t have a whole lot to say. He noted that Live Mesh is more plumbing/infrastructure than something Microsoft plans to offer as a new product or service directly to consumers.

“My Phone (Microsoft’s new Windows Mobile service for provisioning and securing phones) is not using all of Mesh today,” Bach said. Sometime, Microsoft could use Mesh to help replicate files and other information across multiple devices, he said. But that’s going to happen “tomorrow,” Bach said.

Not to be a contrarian, but I’m actually not sure that My Phone is using Live Mesh today, either. I asked Aaron Woodman, Director of Product Management for Windows Mobile about the WinMo team’s intentions around Live Mesh and got a similarly vague statement.

“From a techncal standpoint, Live Mesh is important,” Woodman said. “But it’s more about plumbing. It’s not something we will put in front of consumers.”

A year ago, members of the Mesh team were contemplating how to make consumer devices like Zune and Xbox part of a user’s Mesh. (In other words, to make the kinds of scenarios highlighted in this much-shared Live Mesh marketing/promotional video a reality.) But how and when is this going to happen?

Microsoft has continued to provide beta updates to Live Mesh for the past year and a half. There’s a Live Mesh software development kit out there. Testers who are using the Live Mesh beta seem to really love it, from feedback I’ve gotten. Undeniably, something is changing with Mesh — strategy and/or technology-wise Microsoft has been moving supporting Live Services components of its Azure cloud environment around as of late. But the Softies claim Live Mesh is alive and well and not a victim of the product/head-count cuts Microsoft has been making.

Given the champion of Live Mesh is none other than Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie himself, you’d think product teams at Microsoft would be falling all over themselves to Mesh-ify their products and services.Maybe Microsoft will have something tangible to show and say at the Professional Developers Conference in November, given that it would be the perfect place to talk about Live Platforms Services and the “Live Mesh Cloud.”

But when Mesh will actually figure in Microsoft’s products/services line-up is anyone’s guess at this point.

October 6th, 2009

Microsoft opens Windows Marketplace for Mobile with 246 apps

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:38 pm

Categories: App Compatibility, Apple, Channel, Code names, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Windows Live, Windows Mobile

Tags: Phone, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Mobile, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Mobile Operating Systems, Operating Systems, Mobile Applications, Handhelds, Telecom & Utilities

Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Microsoft’s equivalen to the Apple’s iPhone App Store, opened for business officially on October 6 with 246 applications.

Yes, that is nowhere near the more than 85,000 apps in the App Store. But Microsoft officials claimed not to be discouraged by the disparity. At Microsoft’s consumer-focused open-house showcase in New York City today, company officials noted that the company has 753 independent software vendors working on Windows Mobile ports.

Robbie Bach, the President of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Unit, told press and analysts that he was upbeat about Microsoft’s progress.

“Apple had less than 100 applications when it first launched its marketplace,” Bach said. (I did a quick search and found a story claiming that number was actually closer to 500, when Apple launched its store in 2008.)

Bach also claimed it was “kind of goofy” to focus on the absolute numbers of applications in Microsoft’s Windows Mobile store, since the real measure of success is how many of those applications get used.

Bach told press and analysts who attended a private roundtable that there are more than 20,000 applications available for Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 phones — and even if the applications focused on specific business verticals and IT tasks are subtracted, there are still “tens of thousands” of Windows Mobile apps out there.

The newly launched Windows Marketplace for Mobile currently only works with Windows Mobile 6.5 phones, which launched today. Microsoft officials have said that the Marketplace will also be accessible to Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 phones before the end of the year. But that doesn’t mean the current crop of Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1 apps get an automatic berth in the Windows Marketplace; they still need to go through the certification and evaluation process.

Windows Live services – other than instant messaging — aren’t are going to be available via the Marketplace. Windows Live Hotmail will be included with all Windows Mobile phones, but the some other Windows Live services will be available preloaded on select phones, since “operators are trying to monetize this space separately,” as Aaron Woodman, Director of Product Management for Windows Mobile told me today. (Note: Corrected my misunderstandings here.)

Read the rest of this entry »

October 6th, 2009

Microsoft kicks off its Windows uber-branding campaign

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:06 am

Categories: Advertising, Apple, Azure, Channel, Corporate strategy, Utility/cloud computing, Windows CE, Windows Live, Windows Mobile, Windows client, Xbox, Xbox Live, Zune

Tags: Phone, Microsoft Windows Mobile, Mobile, Microsoft Zune, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Mobile Operating Systems, Mobile Applications, Handhelds

October 6 is the retail launch of Windows Mobile 6.5-based phones from a variety of handset makers and carriers. But it’s actually something bigger: It’s the kick-off of Microsoft’s plan to convince users that Windows is (or, at least, should be) everywhere they are.

I’m not going to repeat what lots of other blogs and sites already have, in terms of a feature-by-feature review of Windows Mobile 6.5. (Gizmodo’s review has screen shots and details and ends by noting that the Zune HD team has completely one-upped the Windows Mobile team — kind of ironic, given the Zune software team is now part of MediaRoom/Media Center and the Zune Hardware folks are part of Windows Mobile.)

Today is the day when Microsoft and its phone partners start using officially the “Windows Phone” branding for Windows Mobile phones. Windows Mobile is still the name that will be used for the operating system powering phones; Windows Phones is the uber-brand for all phones running Windows Mobile, regardless of the carrier.

That change may seem like semantics, but it’s not. It’s key to the three-screens-and-a-cloud mantra that Microsoft officials are repeating these days. The idea is you have Windows on your PC, Windows on your phone, Windows on your TV and Windows in the cloud and because it’s one big Windows world, everything works seamlessly.

The reality is not quite like the ads. The operating systems powering these different Windows platforms aren’t all the same. Windows Mobile — for now, at least — is still based on the Windows Embedded CE core. CEO Steve Ballmer lamented to TechCrunch recently:

“We have one and a half operating systems, Windows and Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile is kind of a half because it’s not entirely the same as Windows. And everyday, I say I’d love to get those two things to share more.”

But until Microsoft can figure out how to do that, the company will have to rely on user-interface similarities and common services to further the company’s “One Windows’ message.

Example: Notice the way that Windows Media Center, the Zune HD and Windows Mobile 6.5 all use the same kind of vertical text menus as their primary interface. (However, because OEMs can and do layer their own interfaces over Windows and Windows Mobile, this UI consistency, in cases where it does exist, often gets buried.)

There will be more examples going forward, as Microsoft makes its Zune Video Marketplace, Zune music-subscription service and other premium services common across multiple Windows platforms. But until then, Microsoft’s “Life Without Walls” message still has some pretty solid walls in its path.

Do you think Microsoft will ever get to the point where Windows is the one and only OS that the company is supporting across platforms? Does it actually matter whether the Softies can do so?

September 30th, 2009

Microsoft opens Chicago and Dublin datacenters; preps for more hosted offerings

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:32 pm

Categories: Azure, Corporate strategy, Google, Management tools, System Center, Systems integrators, Utility/cloud computing, Virtualization, Windows Live

Tags: Data Center, Microsoft Corp., Chicago, Data Center Knowledge, Data Centers, Storage, Hardware, Data Management, Mary Jo Foley

Just a week after celebrating the opening its “chiller-free” Dublin datacenter, Microsoft is turning on its $500 million, 700,000-square-foot Chicago one.

Phase one of the Chicago datacenter opened on September 30. Microsoft is turning on power in phases there so “customers today will enjoy top-notch performance and availability while we control costs for Microsoft and its shareholders,” according to a September 28 post on the Microsoft datacenters blog.

The Chicago datacenter is one of the largest datacenters in the world to make use of shipping containers, according to the company. Each of these containers holds 1,800 to 2,500 servers, which Microsoft officials have said enables the company to better conserve energy and take advantages of new power-effiency mechanisms.

“(T)he isolated nature of containers enables Microsoft and its vendors to research new approaches around power and cooling alternatives to reduce energy consumption even more in the future,” according to the blog post from Arne Josefsberg, General Manager of Infrastructure Services for Microsoft’s Global Foundation Services unit.

The Chicago center Chicago also is focused on “water-side economization, which enables us to cool the facility without requiring the high levels of electricity typically needed to power large chillers,” according to Josefsberg.

Dublin, which is aimed primarily at fulfilling the cloud-service needs of Microsoft customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, officially began operations on July 1. According to Microsoft, it covers 303,000 square feet, and currently is providing 5.4 mega watts of critical power. It can expand to a total of 22.2 mega watts of critical power. Data Center Knowledge has photos of the Dublin datacenter here.

Speaking of Microsoft and its hosting plans, here is an interesting Azure roadmap slide from a September 2009 PowerPoint deck from Microsoft Application Architect David Gristwood. (Click on slide below to enlarge.)

This slide shows some of the features Microsoft is planning to offer as part of its Azure cloud platform this November, when it moves from beta to its first official release. It also includes information on what’s on the team’s plate for inclusion in Azure in the future, including System Center integration, enterprise ID federation, Common Language Runtime (CLR) support and analytics and reporting functionality.