Programming Windows: Hailstorm (Premium)

While Windows XP didn’t deliver much in the way of .NET functionality, Microsoft had other plans to push forward with web services via a new initiative codenamed “HailStorm.” Yes, with that capitalization.

“HailStorm is a key milestone to deliver on the Microsoft mission to empower people through great software, any time, any place, and on any device,” Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said at a campus-based press conference in March 2001. “We believe this innovation will take individual empowerment to a new level, create unprecedented opportunity for the industry, and trigger a renewed wave of excitement.”

Described as “a set of enabling services,” HailStorm was essentially Microsoft connective plumbing designed for third party businesses---American Express, ClickCommerce, eBay, Expedia, and Ray Ozzie’s Groove were onboard initially---that wished to connect with individual and business customers using a centralized, common infrastructure.

Using language it would repeat in the future for other coming platforms, Microsoft said that HailStorm would “put people at the center” of their computing experiences while giving them greater control over their personal information and providing improved privacy. “Instead of concentrating around a specific device, application, service or network, ‘HailStorm’ services are oriented around people,” Microsoft explained. “They give users control of their own data and information, protecting personal information, and requiring the consent of the individual with respect to who can access the information, what they can do with it, and how long they have that permission to do so.”

Microsoft’s Passport service sat at the heart of HailStorm, Microsoft explaining, providing authentication passthrough to compatible websites and “orchestrating” applications and services so that they could act on behalf of users. Passport would also somehow let users and groups more easily collaborate and share information.

Here’s a slightly more concrete example that Microsoft provided during the initial announcement.

“For instance, a task such as booking a flight using an online travel reservation service will become much more effective. ‘HailStorm’ will help enable the travel service to automatically access the individual’s preferences and payment information. If traveling on business, a user’s affiliation with their company’s ‘HailStorm’ group identity makes it possible for the travel service to automatically show only the choices that meet the traveler’s individual preferences, and which adhere to the company’s travel policies. Once the user has chosen a flight, the travel service can use ‘HailStorm’---with the traveler’s permission---to automatically schedule the itinerary onto the specific calendaring service he or she uses. Through ‘HailStorm’, live flight itinerary information can be shared with whomever the traveler designates, and can ...