Microsoft is preparing to take its most ambitious step yet in transforming its personal computer business into one tied more closely to software running in remote data centers.
The software giant announced on Tuesday a data storage and Web software system, called Live Mesh, that is intended to blur the distinction between software running on the Windows operating system and an elaborate array of services that will be delivered to a growing collection of electronic gadgets.
Live Mesh is Microsoft’s late entry into the rapidly growing market known as Cloud Computing. The term refers to the movement of software applications and services from PCs to centralized data centers, where they are made available via the Internet.
Companies like Amazon.com, Google, Salesforce and dozens of others are building computing centers that will effectively outsource data processing and make it a commodity that companies purchase as they would electricity.
The introduction of Live Mesh is a significant strategic shift for Microsoft, whose operating system helped popularize personal computers.
Ray Ozzie, one of the Microsoft’s two chief technology officers, set the stage: “The Web is the hub of our social mesh and our device mesh,” he wrote. That statement is the first of a set of three “guiding principles” that Mr. Ozzie outlined.
15 components of the new Live Mesh service have been debuted, including a notification feature, a news feature and an information window displayed by the service, but only two are user-oriented applications. One synchronizes files on multiple computers. The other, Live Mesh Remote Desktop, is a free software service that will permit users to control computers and other devices over the Internet.
A private beta preview and waiting list line is forming here: <https://www.mesh.com/Welcome/Welcome.aspx>
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