Update: Microsoft PR sent me this statement: “Windows Live is a set of services built around people. Our major goal is to unify customers’ worlds so they have access to the people and information they want anytime, anywhere from any device. We are already making major investments in roaming scenarios with our services, as well as search and sharing scenarios across PCs and devices with things like Sharing Folders in Windows Live Messenger and folder sharing and sync with our acquisition of FolderShare. We’ll continue to invest in services that enable anywhere, anytime access and Live Drive is the codename for a project in this space. We have no other details to announce at this time.” Personally, I thought Stuart had a more “human” voice. 
We’ve speculated that Windows Live Drive, Microsoft’s upcoming online storage service, may be launching very soon. New information today suggests that the internal Live Drive team formed around the end of last year, and contains some additional information as well.
Stuart Padley is a Microsoft developer who keeps a personal blog here. He doesn’t post very often (his last post was October 2005), but on Sunday he wrote a post called “Working on Live Drive?” and says that he was hand picked by Ray Ozzie (or Ray Ozzie’s technical assistant, it isn’t clear) to join “a small team of renegade hardcore architect/developer/test types” and work on Windows Live Drive. The post was quickly deleted, but was noticed.
The original post was at this URL, which is now a dead link. The original text was cached, of course, and can be viewed at Bloglines here. A screen shot of the full text is also below.
In addition to talking about joining the team, Stuart also points to discussions about Live Drive on Wikipedia and Fortune, saying “I don’t think either of these descriptions are correct” but that both contain “elements of truth”. There isn’t much more information, although he seems to stress that this is a hand picked commando team (my words), which suggests that Microsoft is taking this product seriously. Stuart also say that he’ll be focusing on answering questions about Live Drive on this blog. I’m pretty sure that won’t be happening.
The most interesting aspect of this story is that someone yelled and got the post pulled down. Microsoft should know there is no better way to get someone’s attention in the blogosphere than pulling down a post. Robert Scoble calls this “breaking into jail” and I agree. If you are going to give your developers blogs, let them post. Nothing Stuart wrote was particularly confidential – we all know this is coming.
I have an email in to Microsoft PR for a comment. No word yet. For additional backup material, here is our post on Google Drive, and this is our (now somewhat dated) overview of the online storage space.
If you read closely, it actually says that he was approached a year ago to join the team, hence “after a year of silence.” he shipped SQL Serve 2k5 and then joined the Live Drive team. Granted, that’s still a pretty newish team, but it’s not just forming.
We’ve speculated that Windows Live Drive, Microsoft’s upcoming online storagae service, may be launching very soon.
You did not spell storage correctly.
Kevin, I think you are right…updating the post.
Thanks Reid. I love my spell-checker readers.
Bah, Google will outdo them every which way. They already have many of the components in place, and I have yet to see a Microsoft service that operated as seamlessly, as speedily, and as intuitively as Google’s.
Seen the latest Google Talk? It lets people send a voice mail, to anyone with an e-mail address. If you’re using Gmail, you don’t even have to leave the browser window to open a local audio player — just click play on their Flash-based player, directly in the e-mail, to listen. Eventually you’ll store audio in Gmail, and play it right from there (with a mobile version shortly after, Google style). It’s a small bit, but indicative of how they have pieces, seemingly disparate, but inevitably moving towards a greater whole they already have.
Can you tell I’m a big fan of Google?
And I actually worked for (then-Microsoft) Expedia.com outside of Seattle.
–D
“It is unknown at this stage whether Windows Live Drive will integrate with FolderShare or not.”
Gee, they should not miss it, Foldershare is a great product, combining it with storage is a winner…
I’d be interested if there is any information on how they are planning to implement the storage side (big server-farm build out, lots of cheap servers, user sharing, etc.). There are quite a few small to medium sized companies out there now that are pursuing quite a range of business models.
Full disclosure: I’m currently at a small online storage startup and am very interested in the developments in this space.
In light of the recent AOL search engine disclosure, I believe people should think twice before storing anything too personal or too important on these online storage services. I’d like to see some privacy laws worked out before I can put my faith in a service like this. I’m sure many will use it, but I don’t think it’ll be a large segment.
-matt
Matthew – you don’t even know what the service is yet, or how it works. What makes you think those concerns even apply?
Michael
I have a running list of online data storage vendors on this Wiki I created for the Data Storage Industry: Scroll towards the bottom to see. I suspect this is already outdated as Online Storage vendors appear so fast
http://storageb...and%20Resellers
I couldn’t read this without thinking about the exact same story last month. Execpt last month it was GDrive. See:
http://www.omni.../07/10/news/806
Google had some information on the web about their GDrive, pulled it and it created a blogosphere buzz. I have to wonder if perhaps Microsoft does know that “there is no better way to get someone’s attention in the blogosphere than pulling down a post” and they did it for just that reason. Do you think this could be a calculated move?
Encryption?
My biggest question is if I can create truecrypt partitions within the gdrive/livedrive where all the keys are controled entirely by myself. If so, awesome. If not, I wouldn’t trust my data on their servers for anything.
@brandon
Online storage service I would take to mean users would store their personal files (be those docs, pictures, whatever) on a remote system controlled by a company. I believe there needs to be a serious discussion on the privacy concerns and what online storage services should be required to do to protect the stored data from other users, from malicious users, from employees of the storage service, from Microsoft, etc. What will the policies look like? What is the data retention policy when a subscriber closes their account? What is the SLA for the service?
Sure, if you’re targetting consumers who want to upload and then share their data with the world, then there’s not as much to worry about; however, I’m thinking more about the small to medium business who wishes to have some type of business continuity plan for if their file server blows up on them. I believe there should be legal protection put in place to protect that customer’s data and ensure their privacy.
I don’t believe not knowing what the service completely looks like should stop discussion of privacy concerns about the data being stored. It seems simple to me: in some capacity, data is retained on a remote system controlled by a company. And in Microsoft’s case, a company that bends to loose federal subpoenas at the drop of the hat for user data regardless of the claims.
Just my 2 cents.
-matt
Again, you’re assuming a lot when all you know is the name.
Whoever took the post down was not that keen on thinking about how the site’s serch works:
http://blogs.ms...ws+live&p=1
It shows the entire post if you do a search for “windows live”.
I’m just hoping that if there is online storage, that the terms & conditions don’t say something stupid like, “By uploading your content, it becomes ours and our right to use.”
Most likely, that will happen and crush all my hopes and dreams.
One way to address data security concerns is to encrypt the data locally on the user’s machine and allow them to manage the keys (either by themselves or via a 3rd party). This way, the data on any servers (centralized or shared) is shielded against prying eyes (at least up to the limits of modern encryption techniques).
I would imagine that one need only examine the privacy policy and TOS for the existing storage services to gauge what MS will do. Don’t forget, they have to compete with these services.
Doing something stupid like what mightyman fears would kill their business before it even launched.
I would truly believe that Microsoft is coming up with something like Windows Live Drive or a service that provides storage capability. With Google going head-on with Microsoft, I do not see the latter sitting around and waiting to be taken over.
i can not believe it
i think it’s quite possible for the information to be private and secure if you are using a professional website whose services you pay for. rather than getting free service from some site that will probably sell off your info to some marketing company… there are plenty of good online backup services out there..
Microsoft is quickly less and less relevant. MSN is failing in everything they try to do. Google will eat their lunch yet again.
Microsoft had a NetDoc team as early as 99/2000. The online / pay per user features didn’t make into office 2003 or office 2007 but they have been working on this for a while.
WINNER! # …