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Microsoft Is Working On a Cloud Operating System For the US Government
SmartAboutThings writes "It seems that Microsoft is relying even more on the opportunities provided by the cloud technology. The Redmond behemoth is preparing to come up with a cloud operating system that is specially meant for government purposes. Government agencies already use two of Microsoft's basic cloud products: Windows Azure and Windows Server. But now it seems that Microsoft is working on a modified version of its somewhat new Cloud OS that could bear the name 'Fairfax.' Compared to Windows Azure, the 'Fairfax' cloud operating system would provide enhanced security, relying on physical servers on site at government locations. Given that CEO Steve Ballmer is striving to make Microsoft much more than a powerful software giant, such a project makes sense, especially because it would help in their lobby activities."
you mean like unix was a "cloud" OS and you could connect via dumb terminals to it?
every good joke has a punchline.
... and when the single, centralized mega-host of *every* government system gets compromised...?
"Given the fact that CEO Steve Ballmer is striving to make Microsoft much more than a powerful software giant, such a project makes sense"
So a cloud OS is not software?
Not only Microsoft collaborates with security agencies, any operating system has to be monitored by security agencies such countries.
You can find basic support possible to protect your privacy (the user) with possible toys and useful free tools.
But keep in mind that most online services will help close possibly under pressure from governments.
Greetings. )
http://amigodlosdebiles.wix.com/noun#!nethatters---netprotectors/cnjk
It will connect to 365 so that everyone can do power points and spreadsheets. Outlook. com for mail, and not much more.
I'm sorry, I'm to tired to be witty at the moment so this message will have to do.
Replace Windows by xBSD and it would make total sense.
But here it looks like the US govt. is really showing desperate signs of masochism.
seems we have now gone full circle, big servers in the basement and dump terminals is kinda where it all started
Lets hope this spurs some innovation into a big problem set. On the content side, I know there is a problem with soo many databases and so many branches not being able to communicate with each other, maybe this will help. On the application side, it will be good to have a system where the government deems as "secure" and "allowed" to run, but just how much control will MS design into this thing?
The troubling thing is the possible proprieties that could come with this. Does Microsoft control this cloud and what is available onto it? Will there be a open API for their servers to allow multiple clouds with multiple vendors?
Lets hope the government states some of these requirements upfront and the design of it allows for future growth into multiple vendors.
If it were possible to have laptops or computers that could connect to the network, but not save any of the data to the hard drive (or portable data devices) on those laptops or computers for any reason.
Maybe something like an encrypted virtual session or something.
And then make it so that the drives in the server won't function unless attached to the specific hardware in the room. Maybe even hard encode them with some data destruction code in the event that someone tries to steal them.
And put tamper-resistant explosives in the skulls of all government employees so that if they attempt to defect to another nation, you can remote detonate their heads.
A fairer way of rephrasing the last line might be "such a project WOULD make EVEN MORE sense IF it helped them in their lobby activities." The disadvantage being that it begs the question "How does selling software or any products to the government help in lobby activities?"
Since the cloud is for government, microsoft can provide a version without all the logging and backdoors, thus massively faster and less resource-hungry. It will probably run pretty well on a 486.
As long as I have time to relocate outside the country before it goes online, I'm ok with it.
Microsoft has become quite good at being last-to-market.
MS Recycle Bin 95 was Apple Lisa Wastebasket 82.
I'm so glad your post is full of factual information. If it hadn't been for all of those well-researched sources and big tables of actual performance data, I'd almost think you were speaking directly out of your ass.
US will start to replace rones with chairs.
I don't get it. How do they call it "in the cloud" if the servers are located on-site? Isn't that what we started with decades ago –– a server and dumb terminals (er, excuse me, a thin client)? And storage is so cheap these days!
Yes, it's safer to have everything physically in-house (or securely co-located). But, what I can't fathom is how any of the purchasing-department types and manager-types fall for this "new" setup that offers no advantages. It's just handcuffing your company to that one vendor.
/CSB: At a former company, upper management studied options for getting off of Lotus Notes, the biggest heap of crap I've ever seen. The conclusion of their expensive study was that, "We can't afford to get off of Lotus Notes. The change-over would be too expensive."
I think IBM got wind of the study, and raised their price even more for the next renewal.
It sure sounds like Microsoft wants to be like Big Blue, making their big bucks in consulting services. It seems to be working out okay for them, I'm not entirely sure Microsoft however can manage not to shoot themselves in the foot in trying it.
Well, no, although that is interesting.
It's "Cloud", as in cloudy thinking, I'm guessing. It's cloud in the sense that you aren't allowed to know what the government is doing. It's cloud in the sense that Microsoft is not doing well lately, and is desperate for an easy contract for expensive stuff, paid by taxpayers.
That's pretty much the definition of "cloud"
there was a document that went out from DoD about two months ago; a thin-client/zero-disk initiative architectural overview. DoD's (public) plan is to transition to a majority thin client IS (information system) inventory by 2020. the servers will be Enterprise assets (meaning, theatre-level) so those at different installations (on-the-ground administrators) will not have a choice. case in point, there are authorized security baselne configurations for redhat, centOS, and other *nixes. there used to be one for Mac, but it was discontinued (dunno why). even when Mac was legally usable on the DoD network, it and *nixes needed waivers and by-hand security configuration out the ass to be usable for any normal work. you dont have your email classification application (ones ive seen were windows-only outlook plugins), no group policy, no HBSS (at the time), etc. you had your choice of operating systems, but everyone used Windows.
i was very excited to read the DoD overview, we spend way too much money on what are basically the same computers over and over (no functional need to upgrade from the first 64bit core 2 duos we bought years ago aside from product end of life, but that can be worked out with the vendor if the DoD put some effort into it) except for the fact that we keep upgrading to the latest and greatest Windows and then shitting on it with banners, some inane (and some not) security crap, and local clients (HBSS, remote desktop, AV, SCCM, etc...). put a thin client on everyone's desk and instead of a team of soldiers endlessly patching windows vulns that SCCM didnt hit (likely the client shitting itself for no reason), you patch the master image and everyone is GTG. save money, save time (more money).
god i hope this isnt what theyre settling on for their "thin client"
Blue Sky of Death?
Ha hahahahahahahahaha.....
For fuck's sake, "cloud" is not a technology, it's the latest marketing scam to get everyone relinquish control of their devices and data to the modern equivalent of the mainframe.
Ron Swanson said it best: "Never half-ass two things:. Whole-ass one thing."
This big government contract allows MS to report cloud profits to its shareholders, even as non-government users jump ship. In doing so MS helps keepo the government from answering for the economic damage it's spying has caused.
Whatever, dude.
Compared to Windows Azure, "Fairfax" cloud operating system would provide enhanced security, relying on physical servers on site at government locations.
This tells me all I need to know about Microsoft's cloud server solutions. It needs enhanced security to be used by an organization that has data it wants to keep and control access to.
Microsoft really are the new Apple, they claim to make the newest and best things ever.
Well, besides the fact that Microsoft has no fans, only shills.
Instead of the 'Start' menu, they will have the 'Spy' menu.
If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
You're correct. And you know what, I am not so sure about that moon-landing either.
AWS and EC2 are both complete dogshit in terms of I/O and general performance.
Several things could be going on here:
A. You're full of shit.
It's A.
The only people that care who had what first are those who struggle to justify their religious devotion to a company or product. Let's say you have a Samsung phone, would you care that Apple's smartphone operating system had rounded-rectangle icons before Samsung's smartphone operating system did?
Well, at least Microsoft was good enough to recycle it, rather than simply bury it in a landfill.
I 1st heard the term "cloud" back in the early 1990's using IBM midranges - & what I'm seeing NOWADAYS? Not much different, IF @ all!
APK
P.S.=> Ecclesiastes 1:9 - "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun" (in other words, there's VERY LITTLE, if any, TOTALLY "original thought")...
... apk
Have gnu, will travel.
So why did they name it after a dying Australian newspaper company? Is it like naming Azure after the blue screen?
Wind Blows.
user@host$ diff
so tightly built into Active Directory it's near impossible to use anything
but windows. Arrg.
If things keep going the way they are going, then the US govt will soon be their only customer. So of course they are "working" on this ...
http://www.zerohedge.com/print/477053
Like you didn't see that coming.
How these people can claim to make anything that is cloud-worthy is beyond me.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
MS Recycle Bin 95 was Apple Lisa Wastebasket 82.
Well, at least Microsoft was good enough to recycle it, rather than simply bury it in a landfill.
The abundance of trash in Windows was so overwhelming that they had to push it off to landfills anyway.
Fairfax is the name of the local psych hospital nearest to the MS campus.
Blue Screen Of Death, greeting the President and all the Unelected Government Directors and hired succulent workers.
Made my day (night).
Vampire loves you. True.
Yeah that's because the Lisa actually was trash, but with a Windows PC you could recycle it as a Linux box.
This announcement is merely the professional* way for Microsoft to say that they have teamed up with the NSA to bring us Windows 9.
* Professional in the sense of B.S. office politics.
relax mr antiwindows, he was just making a joke at the representation of the deletion concept, no need to take it as anything more than that.
Since we're unfairly stereotyping a people:
Wah wah wee wah, in Kazahkstan we use Firejew. It is nice.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
As QWest found out the hard way, if you don't cooperate with NSA, you don't get government contracts.
Here is the background to the story.
So, MS gets lucrative government contracts. What does that say?
"I see you're spying on foreign dignitaries! Would you like help with that?"
How is it possible that the First Post didn't reference Skynet?
Slashdot is not what it used to be.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
...a cloud operating system that is specially meant for government purposes.
Cloud OS = vaporware, right? And an OS geared towards government would have to be slow, heavy, overly bureaucratic, doing things that you are not supposed to know about and sending information about your activities to somebody that you are told about - that's Windows, basically, isn't it?
THEIR clouds are security jokes because THEY sold backdoors to the NSA.
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles:
Assumption:
Going Concern: assumes that the business will be in operation indefinitely.
Kinda difficult when you're hanging from the gallows on your own rope.
"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Whoosh
I say old bean, looks like you're trying to dash off a missive to an aged aunt. Mind if I give it a bash, what-what?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
In other news,
Sales of gaffer tape rocket.
{duck tape to you colonials}
I think there should be a campaign to send false images and sounds to the NSA. If everyone (or as many people as possible) put a picture of say, Pres Obama
in front of their device cameras the usefulness of the data would soon become apparent to the NSA.
Then you could have his state of the union address playing on a tape loop.
After all, the government doesn't buy it - only rents it.
And MS gets to hold the entire government up for ransom.
It would let MS know ahead of time about any "problems" that might be solved by suitable "contributions"...
Especially if somebody tries to leave.
you might as well just send the chinese govern^H^H^H^H^H^H rogue hackers a copy of all our files because with microsoft's level of security, they'll have their hands on everything in a few days.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
True, except the new name is more expensive. Mod parent up.
It will be Windows. Its all they know, its all they do.
The most security flawed company in the world is providing enhanced security? No, it'll be garbage which will make us all vulnerable.
And they said it was dumb...
When it rains it pours.
No one here in Europe trusts the American services and companys anymore. Obama killed the trust.
"I see you would like to stop the missle countdown. May I help?"
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Kinda like today's congress! Argh...
Both companies still create a lot of hardware and software, but dont make truck loads of money in those sectors any more. Startups are more nimble at exploiting new computing niches. IBMs main revenue is from services.
What trust?
Are you really that dumb?
Oh right, this is /. ...
I am not so sure about that moon-landing either.
which one? there were six.
nice work, shill