Live Mesh - So, Whats that all about...

Live Mesh is a truly ambitious initiative — a combination of a platform and a service — and one that’s been more than two years in the making. So, what, exactly is Live Mesh and what do developers, customers and partners need to know about it?

1. What is it? As has become the norm with so many of our Software + Services products and strategies, we (Microsoft) are not the best at coming up with a succinct Live Mesh definition. The closest I found (in a Live Mesh reviewer’s guide) was this: “Live Mesh is a ’software-plus-services’ platform and experience from Microsoft that enables PCs and other devices to ‘come alive’ by making them aware of each other through the Internet, enabling individuals and organizations to manage, access, and share their files and applications seamlessly on the Web and across their world of devices.” If I were in charge of defining Live Mesh, I think I’d go with “a Software + Services platform for synchronization and collaboration.”

2. The buzzwords. All the new requisite Microsoft checkboxes get a tick. Live Mesh is open to developers (not just .Net ones). It’s going to be cross-platform and cross-browser, the Softies say. It will bebased on standard protocols and feeds — HTTP, RSS, REST, ATOM and JSON. And it’s chock full of Web 2.0 goodness, with a Facebook-like news feed about your contacts and your devices and lots of “social graph” info built in from the get-go.

3. How is it fitting together? I am an unabashed fan of architectural diagrams. At the base level, Live Mesh builds on the cloud storage, management, service and provisioning and computational fabric that other Microsoft Live services use. On top of that, Live Mesh uses the same identity, synchronized storage and connectivity services that Microsoft uses for other Live offerings. The “platform” services (aka the “developer stack”) include the new Mesh Framework, as well as both a cloud and a client software run-time Mesh Operating Environment (MOE). Live Mesh “experiences” from Microsoft and third-party providers will build on top of these layers. (Thanks to Ori Amiga, Group Program Manage for the Live Development Platform, for spending a lot of time walking me through this.)

4. What about sync? Wasn’t Live Mesh supposed to be all about sync? Early descriptions of Live Mesh focused on the service’s online/offline and cross-device/folder synchronization capabilities. FeedSync is definitely one building block of Live Mesh (as you can see in this architectural diagram showing the Live Mesh developer stack). And synchronized storage is a key building block of the platform/service. Instead of relying on many of the existing synchronization and collaboration products/technologies that Microsoft offers today — things like FolderShare, Windows live SkyDrive, Office Live Workspace, etc. — the Live Mesh team seems to be building its platform pretty much from scratch.

5. What about Silverlight? Even though the Live Mesh team went out of its way to emphasize that Microsoft sees Live Mesh as an open platform, and not just one designed to appeal to the Windows/.Net choir, both Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (Silverlight) are key elements of the Live Mesh developer stack. Support for Flash, Cocoa, JavaScript and other non-Microsoft-centric technologies is there, too. But given Live Mesh is from Microsoft, I’d wager Silverlight applications and services will look and work better as Live Mesh endpoints than apps/services built on and for Mac OSX/Safari, Linux and Mozilla ones.

6. Live Mesh-isms. In addition to the aforementioned MOE (Mesh Operating Environment), other Mesh-centric concepts that will be important to developers working with early iterations of Live Mesh include: Mesh Bar, a “fly-out” adjunct to Internet Explorer that will provide you with notifications and activity updates on your devices/folders; Live Remote Desktop, an extension of Windows Remote Desktop, giving you the ability to directly access and control other devices within your mesh; Live Desktop, a user’s view of his/her cloud storage mesh; Mesh Object, a feed or collection of feeds (member feeds, news feeds, custom feeds); and the “ring,” which is all of the devices in/on your mesh.

7. Consumer vs. Business. The Live Mesh service is definitely currently focused as a consumer play for Microsoft. In describing the kinds of scenarios users might rely on Live Mesh to provide, Microsoft execs mentioned being able to share photos across devices and with preselected contacts. In the near term, Live Mesh will support PCs and Web browsers. As time goes on, Im hoping to see it work on/with portable media players, gaming consoles, TVs, printers, cameras and more. Live Mesh allows users to choose to sync home PCs and personal devices with work PCs. But Microsoft also foresees a broader scenario, with Live Mesh being customized by various Microsoft development teams, as well as third-party ones, to be able to sync/share line-of-business data. Mac support is limited right now, but will build and windows mobile will also soon be widely supported.

So, What do you think? Im hoping most of you have now installed and started playing with the product - the flexibility actually allows for the product to be used in a mind boggling number of ways - from syncing web browers favoraties across multiple pcs - to syncing pictures directly from the camera (via a suitable eye-fi card) to family, backups, printers etc.