Last week I presented at an internal event and at the SDN Event. Both presentations were on Live Mesh.

I have been a fan since I saw a video on Channel 9. It showed synchronization that made me think of Groove, where Live Mesh has a programmable object model. Little did we know about Live Mesh being a part of the Windows Azure framework. So when I went to the Professional Developer Conference in October, I was very anxious to see Live Mesh sessions.

Ori Amiga the PM of Live Mesh did some great sessions. He also created a few movies on Channel 9, one of which is awesome showing his car that is part of the mesh.

In short Windows Azure is Microsoft's operating system for the cloud on which there is functionality for developing applications in .NET that store data in a database. .NET Services consist of Access Control, service bus and workflow. SQL Services have functionality for relational data and other BI functionality is coming. Third there are Live Services, providing familiar services that you've known from the upgraded Windows Live family such as Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Search, Earth, etc.

Live Mesh is a great sample application that demonstrates the use of services and storage in the cloud and also provides great consumer functionality. You start by installing the client on your PC and that automatically adds the device to your mesh. There also is an installer for Windows Mobile, that adds limited Mesh functionality to your device.

OK, so you have installed the client on your devices. Now you can explore your Mesh both online and through the client. They both show shared folders, your devices and news that informs about file and user changes. You can invite other users to share those files. The folders are not only synchronized over your devices, but also in the cloud. By default you get 5GB of storage. The good thing about your files in the cloud is that it is stored outside of your devices, and also that you can access your files in your online desktop.

Enough text for now, just have a look and try it. If you want to create applications that take advantage of your Live Mesh, you can get access to the Live Mesh for developers.