The NSA Helped Microsoft Improve Windows 7 Security

While some of us are likely to associate the National Security Agency with daydreams of espionage, the organization is also highly involved in improving security standards in software. They've even consulted with Microsoft during the development of Windows 7. According to the NSA's Information Assurance Director, Richard Schaeffer, it's important for the agency to work with Microsoft and other software makers because otherwise the increasing reliance on "private-sector computing products" could put national security at risk. By creating and maintaining high security standards, the agency hopes to reduce the danger of the "rising threat of cyberattacks." Whew. That actually sounds quite reasonable and like a good thing, rather than cause to panic after seeing "NSA" and "Microsoft" in the same sentence. [NPR via Crunch Gear]

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Microsoft launches Windows Azure

At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC). Ray Ozzie, arch software artist at Microsoft, apparent the company's "three screens and a cloud" vision, area software adventures are delivered seamlessly beyond PCs, phones and televisions, all affiliated by cloud-based services.

He said, "Customers appetite best and adaptability in how they advance and arrange applications. We are affective into an era of solutions that are accomplished by users beyond PCs, phones and the web, and that are delivered from datacentres we accredit to as clandestine clouds and accessible clouds."

Microsoft has developed Windows Server AppFabric Beta 1, a set of integrated, high-level appliance casework advised to advice appliance developers arrange and administer applications spanning both server and billow platforms.

Bob Muglia, admiral of the server and accoutrement business at Microsoft, said, "Microsoft is advancing on a accepted developer belvedere for both servers and services, which will accredit developers to abide application accustomed .net Framework and Visual Studio accoutrement and technologies, as able-bodied as third-party accoutrement such as Eclipse, to actualize and monetise applications that run on the server and as casework in the cloud."

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Microsoft Office 2010 beta

Microsoft is widely expected to release the updated test version at next week's Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles. Microsoft has said that it will have a beta of Office 2010 this month and has hinted on its Twitter feed that it will have big Office news next week, all but guaranteeing the release of the beta.

The beta is an update to the technology preview of the software that was released in July. That version also leaked to the Web ahead of its official release.

In addition to the desktop versions of Office 2010, Microsoft is also prepping browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

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