【51CTO专访】如果你关注Visual Studio和.NET框架的发展，你肯定对Soma这个名字不陌生。Somasegar是现任微软开发工具事业部全球资深副总裁，负责Visual Studio，Expression系列，.NET框架，Team Foundation Server等一系列产品，同时还负责管理MSDN、TechNet等网站。在他的博客上，可以看到这些产品的最新消息，以及他个人对整个产业的观点与看法。
目前，Soma同时领导中国、印度、以色列的三个海外研发中心，也是微软STB中国研发团队顾问委员会的领导者之一。2012年9月18日是微软上海研发中心的年度产品展示会，微软内部的各个团队向委员会成员以及其他团队的工程师们展示交流他们在一年中的工作成果，Soma也因此再次到达上海。今年，微软第一次将年度产品展示会对外开放，51CTO编辑受邀观看了展示，并对Soma先生进行了现场采访，谈了谈Soma对开发团队和开发工具的看法，以及整个开发者群体年轻化的看法。
Somasegar先生
以下是采访实录。
51CTO：Soma你好！感谢您接受51CTO的采访。那么，您负责中国、以色列和印度地区的研发中心，您对这三个国家的开发团队有什么感觉？
Soma：他们太棒了！如果让我用一个词来描述的话那就是太棒了。最初我们决定在这三个国家建立研发中心的原因就是因为人才，那些对软件充满热情的人才，以及受过良好计算机教育的、能够通过软件的途径解决全球规模的问题的那些人才。中国的人才尤其多，我们希望通过他们的才能为我们在全球范围内的用户构建新的技术，解决方案和服务。
在这个方向，我们已经做了十多年。我来中国已经是第13还是第14次，而每次过来这里，我都为这里做出的工作感到兴奋。我们在中国的研发团队为我们全球的业务做出了很多贡献，这里每年都在变得更好，更加令人兴奋。
51CTO：上海研发中心主要都做些什么？
Soma：我们在2005年启动了上海研发中心，到现在已经有7、8年的时间了。上海这边主要专注我们的服务器和工具这一块，包括Windows Server，SQL Server，System Center，以及开发工具这一块，涉及的范围相当广。比如说Windows Azure，这边的团队做了很多针对HPC负载的工作，以及Windows Azure上的高性能负载的工作。今天我们的产品展会上可以看到部分我们上海团队的研发成果。
51CTO：所以，上海团队对于整个微软的云计算策略都非常重要了？
Soma：没错。在我看来，这里的工作是我们整个公司转型成为云服务公司的关键性环节。比如说，我们在几个月前决定在这里启动一个云计算创新中心的团队，CCIC。为什么要将这个团队建设在上海？因为我们认为在这里建立一个强劲的技术团队非常重要，他们跟我们在这里的客户，合作伙伴，以及政府合作伙伴们一起，帮助客户找到部署私有云或公共云的最合适的解决方案。我们在这里的工作对于将云服务带入中国是至关重要的。
51CTO：最近您的一篇博客提到了青少年开发者的崛起。您认为是什么原因促成了这个现象？
Soma：有几方面的原因吧。第一，现在的小孩子们在越来越早的时候就开始接触技术。第二，设备的价格开始变得越来越低，很多学生要购买一台智能手机或者平板的门槛越来越低。第三，整个世界变得越来越小了。有了应用商店，以及云计算，任何人都可以开发一个应用，把应用放到应用商店上，供全球的用户群消费，还可以看到这个应用的表现如何，市场是否成功，以及用户如何使用自己的应用。这三点直接促成了青少年开发者群体的成熟化。
在微软，我们有很多很棒的活动，帮助青少年和学生们建立对软件开发的兴趣以及进行开发。我们有Imagine Cup，这是一个全球范围内的开发大赛，我们已经做了十年，已经有数十万来自全球的学生参与了这个活动，展示他们如何用技术解决现实生活中的问题。我们还有DreamSpark计划，为学生提供免费的专业工具以及平台。另外，无论你是学生还是任何人，如果你想创业，我们有BizSpark计划，不仅为你提供技术支持，还提供与业内人士接触的机会。我们有大量类似的计划，帮助那些对软件感兴趣或者想做应用的人们更容易的接触到最新的技术，展示他们的创造力与才华。
51CTO：那么，开发工具在这个转变当中扮演了怎样的角色？
Soma：如果你盖房子，你需要砖头、木头和水泥这些元素。要构建应用，你需要一个开发环境，一个IDE。所以我们有Visual Studio。我们想要用一个开发环境构建各种类型的应用：移动应用，平板应用，桌面应用，云计算的应用……我们想要的是能够复用我们已经积累的技能、专业与知识来构建这一切。作为一个开发者，你绝对不会想要在开发这个应用的时候使用这套IDE，开发另一个应用的时候使用另一套IDE，去学习另外的一套东西。我们不想这样折腾。你想要有一个用起来非常舒服的IDE，然后用它来完成所有的工作。那么，Visual Studio就希望成为一套任何想要构建应用的人都可以用的舒服的IDE。无论是刚开始写应用的学生，还是经验丰富的专职企业开发者，我们希望Visual Studio对他们都是一套很棒的IDE。
51CTO：现在的Visual Studio和两年前的版本有什么不同？
Soma：我们前不久刚刚发布了最新的Visual Studio 2012，新的东西很多。概括来说，我感觉最大的变更有两点。第一，当我们谈到构建一个现代的应用，那么我们会需要涉及到各种设备上的功能，以及各种设备上的用户体验。作为终端用户，我们希望我们的应用和数据信息能够跨平台访问和使用，我们希望无缝的跨平台信息传递。为了实现这一点，我们需要所有的前端设备与后端连接，而越来越多的后端正在变成云的一部分。那么，你需要在后端建立不间断的服务，在前端建立各种设备的体验。很多开发者对我们说，我想要构建一个应用，既照顾到后端的服务，又照顾到前端的各种设备呈现元素。我认为Visual Studio 2012就提供了构建这样一个现代应用的最佳平台。第二点，越来越多的团队过来跟我们说，他们想要更加敏捷。在团队的环境中，现在有现代的应用生命周期：持续的反馈，持续的质量测试，持续的部署与交付。敏捷开发和现代的应用生命周期管理方面，Visual Studio 2012也做的非常好。
下一页是采访内容的英文实录。
#p#
51CTO: You are in charge of STB in China, Israel and India, how do you feel about the developing teams in those three countries?
Soma: Oh they are fantastic. If I were to describe them in one word, I would say fantastic. The reason we decided to set up research centers in China, India and Israel is because of the talent, people who are passionate about software, people who are experienced in education of computer science that can really solve problems at massive global scale using software. Especially in China, we have tons of talent, and we want to make sure that they use their talent as we go forward and build technologies, solutions and services for a world-wide customer base.
We've been on this journey for more than 10 years now. This is my 13th or 14th visit to China. Every time I come here, I get even more excited and enthusiastic about all the capability that they are building here. All these could not happen without our R&D in China, every year it is getting more advanced, more and more exciting, and it is having impact on our product and solutions globally.
51CTO: So how about Shanghai R&D center?
Soma: For Shanghai, we started off in around 2005, so it's about 7-8 years now. If you look at it from our server and tools perspective, that is what we do in Shanghai. We work on Windows Server, our technologies for SQL Server, our technologies for System Center, our work for developer tools, that is a wide variety of things we are doing in Shanghai R&D center. If you take Windows Azure, for example, a lot of good work for HPC workload, and high performance workload for Windows Azure, is coming out of our team in Shanghai here. If you had a chance to look at the product fair today, it is a glimpse of the products we are at work for the teams here in Shanghai.
51CTO: So Shanghai is a important team for the entire cloud strategy.
Soma: Absolutely. The work that we do here is what I called the critical part of us transforming ourselves to a cloud services company. Just to give you an example, a couple of months ago we decided to start a group here that we called the cloud computing innovation center, CCIC. The whole reason we setup the team is because we find that it is highly important to have a highly technical team here in China, in Shanghai, that is going to work with our customers, with our partners, with our government customers, to help our customers figure out how we are going to find out solutions that can be deployed, whether it is for private cloud, or for public cloud. So the work that we do here is really critical for our continuous delivering of cloud services into China.
51CTO: Cool. So in one of your recent blog you mentioned about all the teenager developers. What reasons do you think that caused this shift?
Soma: There are a couple of reasons. One is, as time goes on, kids get exposed to technology earlier in their life. The second thing is, the cost of devices is coming down and down as time goes on. So for lots of students, access to a smartphone, or access to a slate, is becoming more and more affordable. The third thing is, the world is becoming a smaller place. With the presence of app stores, and the cloud, it is now easy for anybody who wants to do an application to be able to build an application, put it on to the app store, being able to reach a world-wide customer base, and being able to see how it affects them, how successful, how they interact with their application. So the fact that they are exposed to technology at an earlier age, the fact that they can get their devices at a lower rate, and the fact that they can reach their customers at a global base in a seamless way, these are the reasons why you see those teenager developers coming out. And we've got some fantastic programs in Microsoft to continue promote interest and excitement on teenagers and students, to be able to build next generation applications. We've got things like the Imagine Cup, which is a world-wide contest we've been doing for 10 years, and we've had hundreds of thousands of students from around the world coming together to show off what they can do with technology to solve real-world problems. We've got programs called DreamSpark, if you are a student, they give you access to all our professional tools and some other platforms tools in a free way. No matter if you are a student or a teenager, or anybody, who wants to be an entrepreneur, we got a program called BizSpark, which makes it easy to access technology, and access to peers and other people in the industry. So we've got a variety of programs for people who are interested in using software or who wants to build applications, and we want to do our part to make it friction free for them, let them show their creativity and see how far they can go.
51CTO: So what is the role of IDE playing here?
Soma: If you are working a building, you need access to bricks, wood and cement, these are the basic ingredients. If you are to build an application, you need a developing environment. That's what we call IDE, and Visual Studio comes into the picture. We want to have one integrated tool set, that you as a developer can use to be able to build all kinds of applications. You want to build a mobile application, you want to build a slate application, you want to build a desktop application, you want to build an application for the cloud, you want to be able to do all of these, you want to use and re-use your skills, your expertise and your knowledge. The last thing you want to do as a developer is, if I want to build a client application, let me go onto this tools and this set of IDE, if I want to build something else, you have to learn something else. We don't want to do that. You want to have one environment which you feel very comfortable, and once you have that one environment, you can do everything you need to do. Practically for today's developers, there are multiple platforms that are given to them at one time. That's when the IDE comes into the picture, and Visual Studio wants to be for anyone who wants to build an application. You can be a teenager who just started on your first application, or you can be the most seasoned, professional developer working in the enterprise, but no matter who you are, we want to make sure you have a great IDE.
51CTO: So how is Visual Studio today different from Visual Studio 2 years ago?
Soma: There are a couple of new things. We just launched Visual Studio 2012, the latest version of Visual Studio. If I were to summarize what is new in the product, there are two big things that come to my mind. One is, if you are interested in building a modern application, and modern applications, when I think about it, you got to set up devices on the front-end, and all these devices need to have front-end user experience, because you as an end user want your application and your information to flow through seamlessly as you go from one device to the next. For that to happen, the devices need to stay connected to something at the back-end, which more and more is becoming the cloud. So you got to set up continuous services from the back-end, you have to set up connected devices experience on the front-end. More and more people are saying, I want to build an application that spans both the services at the back-end and the forms of device factors at the front end. So in Visual Studio 2012, we think it's the best tool set for you to be able to build connected devices, continuous services on the server, is what I called modern applications. The second thing is, more and more teams of developers are coming to say, I want more agility. I want to be highly agile. When I work in a team environment, we call a modern application life cycle. Continuous feedback, continuous quality, continuous deployment and delivery. So when you want to adopt an agile development methodology, a modern lifecycle, Visual Studio 2012 provides the best modern lifecycle environment.
