Microsoft News Tracker

Today at a partner event in London, Steve Ballmer revealed that Microsoft will be releasing a Windows Cloud OS at the Microsoft Professional Developers conference scheduled for late October:

“We need a new operating system designed for the cloud and we will introduce one in about four weeks, we’ll even have a name to give you by then. But let’s just call it for the purposes of today ‘Windows Cloud’,” said Ballmer.

“Just like Windows Server looked a lot like Windows but with new properties, new characteristics and new features, so will Windows Cloud look a lot like Windows Server.”

Ballmer also hinted at what would be built into the new OS, including geo replication, how to design apps intended to commingle [we think he means appeasing regulators by providing more interoperability], management modelling and an SOA model, to effectively create a new platform.

“We’re not driving an agenda towards being service providers but we’ve gotta build a service that is Windows in the cloud,” admitted Ballmer.

Surely he means a new set of cloud services (some of which sound suspiciously like what we used to call Web Services) for Windows Server, but I guess we’ll have to wait for the PDC to find out what Mr. Ballmer is running on about.