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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.
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.
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.
" if they attempt to defect to another nation"
The primary concern of the US government seems to be that NSA employees will defect to the American public. Snowden has been charged with espionage for spying on our behalf, so I think we're officially the enemy.
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.
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"
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.
I'm not advocating the "cloud", but it should be considered in ones analysis that hardware is a constantly changing playing field and has changed radically since the '70s. Something that was less efficient or inefficient then might be perfectly fine or even desirable in 2013. In the '70s serial data throughput was extremely limited. As that becomes less and less true schemes that were slow then might have no noticeable impact on the systems of today. In some cases one might see a substantial performance improvement, in fact.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Ron Swanson said it best: "Never half-ass two things:. Whole-ass one thing."
Of course US citizens are considered the enemy by the US government. That's been true since at least the 1930s, if not earlier.
The nice thing about this MS/Fed deal is that the need for people like Snowden will be greatly reduced. If their shiny new system is made by MS, any script-kiddie with Wireshark, Backtrack, etc will be able to pwn it.
I'm just not looking forward to all the additional v14gr4 and stock spam that will come from places like the FBI, NSA, DoJ, CIA, etc.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
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.
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>
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.
Well, at least Microsoft was good enough to recycle it, rather than simply bury it in a landfill.
Have gnu, will travel.
Wind Blows.
user@host$ diff
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.
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=fairfax&hl=en&ll=38.89798,-77.095184&spn=0.283228,0.676346&client=opera&channel=suggest&hnear=Fairfax,+Virginia&t=m&z=11
I'm sorry that you took me seriously and have embarrassed yourself in this way. I thought the "naming Azure after the blue screen" would be enough for people to work it out, but it appears I need to attach a disclaimer or something.
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?
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.
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.
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.
"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?
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.
I'm sorry you're a sarcastic prig and have to talk down as such. Your comment was obviously a joke, but I thought some people might not be familiar with all the DC suburbs.
My mistake to try and add to your almighty contribution to humanity.
I thought it was your mistake to make fun of me by trying to point out my ignorance of something I do not care about, which happens a lot here. I apologise if it was not meant that way.
NP, shit happens on the internet.
Sorry if I reacted too strongly as well.