Today, most of us use electronic devices with closed systems. Each device creates and stores certain types of information. We store Word documents and spreadsheets on our laptop and PC, contacts and e-mails on our mobile, TV and video on our television and set-top box, and music on our iPod. The cloud reverses that model. Cloud-based devices create and store nothing. They are merely connecting devices that draw down the information we need. Computing best illustrates the shift. In the cloud, the internet becomes our operating system. We use online software that runs in our browser to create the files we need. The files are stored in remote data centres.

Using the internet to access the information we need is, of course, not new. Facebook, YouTube, Hotmail, Flickr and Spotify already demonstrate the huge benefits of having our stuff “out there”. What is new is the way that hi-tech companies are rushing to exploit the digitisation of almost all information and a world blanketed with Wi-Fi to create complete, easily accessible online information systems. The “always on, always there” revolution is such big news that the leading Silicon Valley investor George Zachary describes it as “the new dotcom”.

Why are the technorati so excited? The cloud offers dramatic, practical benefits. We can get the “stuff” we need, no matter where we are or what device we’re using because every device with an internet connection is “ours”. As Randall Stross, the author of Planet Google, puts it: “The headaches we’ve wrestled with in the past, for example, ‘I edited that document at the office but I didn’t bring a copy home with me’, will disappear.” Moreover, we never need to buy any software updates because these are tested and constantly sprinkled into the cloud by operators. There are no licence fees to pay. Best of all, we never have to worry about losing our laptop or mobile phone or backing up their contents because no important data is stored on the devices.

It’s a big, complex Web world out there, and no single vendor can address all of your needs. You live in a heterogeneous Web environment, so you expect your software provider to work well with others.

Microsoft is committed to offering the best possible Web experience to its customers—and that includes solutions that work for heterogeneous environments.

For example:
• Microsoft has been working closely with the PHP.NET community, making technical contributions to widely-used PHP projects, such as the ADOdb database library, to help make Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and other Microsoft products great technologies for today’s world of choice.

• Windows Server 2008 with IIS 7.0 provides an open platform for hosting ASP.NET and PHP applications from a single server, using a common set of administrative tools for management.

• The release of SQL Server Driver for PHP v1.0 makes it easier to use SQL Server as your database of choice for PHP applications. Get the source code for the driver posted from CodePlex, Microsoft’s open source project hosting site.

• Microsoft Expression Web 2.0 gives you powerful design tools and task panes to design for ASP.NET, PHP, and XML. Open and edit PHP pages directly in Expression Web 2.0 and apply the full range of standards-based design tools to PHP.

• The Windows Web Application Gallery provides streamlined ways for users to explore, discover, and install ASP.NET, PHP, and Open Source Web applications on the Windows Web Platform. It also provides a simple way for developers to offer their applications to millions of Windows users worldwide.

With this release, Web developers can now submit ASP.NET and PHP applications into the Gallery for distribution to millions of Microsoft Web Platform users worldwide. The Web Platform Installer installs Microsoft Web Platform tools and technologies, and new in the new release you can install and configure community ASP.NET and PHP applications that have been made available through the Windows Web Application Gallery.

Review the Features
• The Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta now includes new Platform features and IIS extensions as well as support for installing and configuring PHP v5.2.9-1 for Windows.

• The Windows Web Application Gallery contains community .NET and Open Source applications. Check out what’s available for categories such as ecommerce, content management, publishing, digital marketing and more and keep coming back to see new applications as they are added. Also be sure to explore the process and documentation for submitting an application to be included in the Windows Web Application Gallery.

Specifics about the Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta:
• Download v1 and v2 beta from: http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/default.aspx.
• Web Platform Installer v2 beta installs applications from the Web Application Gallery now, along with community PHP 5.2.9-1.
• Supported on Windows Vista RTM, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008.
• V2 beta discovers and installs applications from the Web Application Gallery.
• Installation of applications pulls through the required dependencies from the Web stack, including community PHP 5.2.9-1.
• MySQL is not installed by WebPI but can be installed manually with guidance offered on www.microsoft.com/web.

It is perfect for teams who work on projects that involve lots of email that needs to be accessed by all team members. Users can simply drag emails and calendar entries into the public folders to allow multiple users to view and manage them. They can also be locked down to specific people only.

Support desk tickets are most effectively logged either via the telephone, or by emailing us at support@backbone.uk.com.
These tickets are logged onto a queuing system and prioritised accordingly. At this stage, it is a good idea to ask for the name of the engineer you have spoken to and to make a note of the ticket reference number.

Our engineers will generally prioritise tickets according to the number of people affected. Internet outages or server failures are generally put straight to the top of the list and will be deal with immediately. All other day to day tickets are queued and will be picked up within our SLA (Service Level Agreement) of 8 working hours.
If you wish to follow up on a call that you have logged, or would like to add further information to the ticket, you should quote the ticket number accordingly. Once a ticket has been picked up by an engineer, you will be put straight through to that engineer as and when possible.
You should always try to supply as much information as possible when logging a call to enable us to respond quickly.

It may become necessary to request remote access to your PC in order to diagnose the issue or assist you with your problem. We use a variety of tools for this, LogMeIn, Dameware, TeamViewer, Saaz Remote. The engineer may request your assistance from the other end in order to establish the connection.