Live Mesh Announced

Live Mesh, a file synchronization service that Microsoft promises will evolve into a platform for synchronizing data and applications across multiple devices, has entered an invitation-only technical preview. Although Mesh could be a major step in the company’s software plus services strategy, the first iteration of the service is incomplete, with limited platform support and minimal documentation for developers. Even if Microsoft delivers on its promises for Live Mesh, adoption could be stalled by issues such as technology lock-in, overlap with other Microsoft technologies, an unclear business model, and Microsoft’s software-centric approach,

The Problem: Data Islands

Live Mesh, whose name suggests a loose collection of connected nodes, was created by the Live Foundation Services team, which is headed by Vice President David Treadwell and reports to Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie. It represents Microsoft’s latest attempt to solve a longstanding computing problem: users have multiple devices, each with important data on it. How can users ensure that this data is available from any device at any time?