‘Pinpoint’ your development needs

BANGALORE, INDIA: ‘Openness’ has been one of the core virtues of Azure, Microsoft’s Cloud offering, ever since it came into existence. On one hand, there is interoperability with availability of SDKs and a range of languages for a developer to choose from, and on the other hand, there is a by-default syncing-up with other Microsoft offerings like Silverlight.

Pinpoint takes openness of this nature a step further, and stems out of the fact that a SaaS architecture makes most sense to developers who want to be able to ‘pick-and-choose’ chunks of an application, that might fit into their broader app. In other words, Azure enables real time provisioning of compute power and data space, and now with Pinpoint, it allows for real-time collaboration with a bouquet of developers who can put out their apps in the marketplace and exchange them with their counterparts.

The fact that these apps are language-agnostic brings out the interoperable flavor of Azure, while maintaining a common ground for collaborative application development. Microsoft hopes for massive growth in the Pinpoint arena and is confident of growth in number of developers and apps in the weeks to come.

Currently, the site features apps categorized into Customer Service, Cash Flow Management, Internet Security. VoIP etc besides a list of companies and individuals who have put out their apps. Apps are also categorized as per competencies – ranging from Licensing solution, Data mining solutions, Server Platforms, Business Intelligence etc.

Pinpoint, according to Microsoft, brings out the true passionate programming psyche of one-man-army developers, who perform better when they are not bound by company code policies, or business forecast needs. In other words, Pinpoint hopes to create an ecosystem of developers and application programmers to exchange ideas, and collaboratively create newer apps – or at least components of apps.

Interested in checking out Pinpoint: Head to http://pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-IN/Default.aspx