Oct 27, 2008

Microsoft Windows Azure

Today Microsoft announced Windows Azure, a new version of Windows that lives in the Microsoft cloud. You won't be running Windows on your PC over the internet with Azure, though; instead the platform is intended to help developers host and distribute software running over the internet.

Windows® Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft® data centers.

We can use Windows® Azure to:
  • Add Web service capabilities o existing packaged applications.
  • Build, modify, and distribute applications to the Web with minimal on-premises resources.
  • Perform services (large-volume storage, batch processing, intense or large-volume computations, etc.) off premises.
  • Create, test, debug, and distribute Web services quickly and inexpensively.
  • Reduce costs of building and extending on-premises resources.
  • Reduce the effort and costs of IT management.