Windows Series Phone 7 "Cloud"

Question

I have been reading up on "Cloud computing" on here and still not getting it. Basically I want to develop for the WP7 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402531%28v=VS.92%29.aspx#AppPlat_Overview_Arch

Now it mentions everything as being in the "Cloud". Is any server just a cloud? If i have a WCF service or wsdl on my server. Can I consider myself that "Cloud"? Or is there something that a server emits that checks whether or not it is a cloud?

Answer 1

I'm sure Microsoft would prefer for you to choose their version of 'the Cloud', which is Windows Azure, but yet, the cloud can mean WCF/WSDL on your server.

The only true 'cloud' out there is telecom - everything else is basically someone or some company's implementation of services offered over the Internet.

Answer 2

The Windows Phone 7 dev platform fully supports the calling of web services (SOAP/REST) so for your scenario, yes, you could think of yourself as the cloud.

Having said that, I think the notion that everything is up in the cloud simply implies that all of the information you've given an installed app is most likely stored/managed using a service. This service is hopefully installed on a trusted cloud provider (that could be Microsoft Azure or any other provider). This makes sense in light of the fact that the information we put into phone applications usually is quite valuable. Having it stored on a trusted cloud provider's web site would obviously be good from a reliability/security perspective. But to reiterate, that (or any cloud service) is NOT a requirement.

I hope that answered your question.