Articles about Microsoft Azure

Microsoft's emerging Windows Azure cloud services provider will act as a platform not just for shiny new cloud applications but also for repurposed legacy applications, according to Ranjith Ramakrishnan, CTO of Microsoft third-party partner Cumulux.

According to Ramakrishnan, Microsoft is initially offering four data centers in the US and one in Europe for hosting cloud applications of both sorts. His company is now working on extending Azure enablement to its mPortal mobile portal.

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When Microsoft first unveiled its Windows Azure cloud-based platform last October, the company made clear it was not some kind of virtual hosting service -- in other words, not a place to house virtual implementations of Windows Server, like Amazon EC2. More to the point, Azure was designed to be a staging service for the deployment of server-based distributed applications, for clients without the data center capacity to deploy it themselves or without the cash on hand necessary to acquire that capacity.

But in its initial description, those distributed applications were essentially .NET managed apps, which don't exactly encompass the gamut of enterprise apps throughout the world. By "managed," I mean the use of a real Common Language Runtime -- in this case, within Microsoft's cloud -- to interpret code from a program or script, using a .NET language like C#. The operating system in Microsoft's cloud truly is Windows, and it manages the .NET platform in a similar way to any other version of Windows residing on Earth's surface.

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With the debut of Windows 7, Office 14 and its Web counterpart, along with a completely new Windows "operating system" for the cloud called Azure, PDC 2008 was a week that didn't let up. For those who didn't catch all of the news, here's a quick recap of our coverage.

Microsoft welcomes a new member to the Windows family: Azure

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent the following memo to partners and customers about the Windows Azure platform that was announced at PDC 2008 this week and the company's software plus services vision. It's a long read, but important if you want to stay on top of where Microsoft is headed.

Subject: A Platform for the Next Technology Revolution

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BetaNews sat down Monday afternoon with Amitabh Srivastava, the corporate vice president and distinguished engineer who heads up Windows Azure, to find out more details on Microsoft's new operating system for the cloud.

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The big news for day 1 at PDC 2008 was the introduction Windows Azure, Microsoft's "operating system for the cloud," and its associated Azure Services Platform. Microsoft also outlined future plans for its own online services. We've put together a quick FAQ to help you digest the news and what it means.

What is Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform? Windows Azure serves as the foundation for developing applications that run in the cloud. What this means is that it essentially turns servers across the Internet into a massive distributed operating system, running applications that both interact with PC-based software and run within a Web browser.

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Anyone who thinks Microsoft isn't capable of responding to a serious challenge doesn't know Microsoft. It's the familiar puzzle, put together the same way: Let others blaze the trail, then wait for an opening and leverage resources.

Windows Azure, depending not upon whom you ask but instead upon when you ask the question, either is or is not an operating system. It is not a kernel designed to operate on a single processor and provide access to resources on the local machine, so in that regard, it is not Windows.

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A few weeks ago, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave clear hints of a Windows-branded product that will be deployed in the cloud. At 8:55 am PDT Monday, Ozzie christened this service Windows Azure.

As expected, Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie began his first day keynote speech at PDC 2008 (he'll be back for Day 2) by staking his company's new claim to software as services. "The Web has become a key demand generation mechanism," he said in his characteristic high-flying style, "becoming Web services' front door."

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