Let’s be honest, not many people would say Microsoft are the most innovate. They’re almost never the first to market but you have to give them credit; over time they dominate any market they enter. Or as Steve Ballmer puts it, they just keep “Coming and Coming and Coming” There are lots of examples, just look at: Internet Explorer, Office, Exchange, SQL Server and XBox.

Just a few days ago, Microsoft’s Live Mesh was awarded Best Technology Innovation / Achievement at the Crunchies awards. Sure this is no Garnter. But it’s one of the only times that a bunch of Google-horny journalist admit that Microsoft has made a great product. Not surprisingly, Live Mesh is a product that I extremely love. I’ve been harping about it to all my friends.

To put simply, Live Mesh’s strategy is to enhance the Windows platform. To webify it if you will. You install Mesh on all your devices and it will keep your files and folder in sync all the time. You’re probably thinking “OK, so what”. Built into Mesh is the Live Desktop so you no longer need to be at your computer to access your files. All you need is a computer with Internet access. In fact, the Live Desktop is so slick that it feels like you’re using Remote Desktop through the browser. The more I use Mesh, the more I find ways to make my life easier. This is what I can do with Mesh:

• Work on a file on my desktop, close it, go home and continue working on it from my laptop. No uploading required
• Keep my IE bookmarks in sync on all my computers
• Have the code I’m working on available anywhere without checking it in
• My music is available on all my devices
• Install Mesh on my phone, take a picture and it’s on my desktop. Goodbye USB cable
• Share files with my friends by dragging it into a folder
• My data is always backed up on another machine or in the cloud

Mesh is one of the components of Microsoft’s Azure strategy. The other half is focused on providing managed hosting for applications and services. Although Mesh is a little further developed than the other components of Azure, I’m really looking forward to what Microsoft releases in the coming year. And for all those “2009” predictions … really?

Feel free to try Live Mesh today!