A cloud computing platform from Microsoft that comprises the Azure Services Platform and the Windows Azure "cloud services" operating system. It is a comprehensive environment for developing applications that are hosted in Microsoft datacenters or in a customer's own datacenter. Expected for release in 2009, Azure is a major foray into cloud computing by Microsoft.
Azure Services Platform
The Azure cloud platform enables developers to write cloud-based applications that work on desktops as well as all the modern mobile devices that have become mainstream. Microsoft programming languages such as Visual Studio support Azure, and the platform has been declared open to encourage non-Microsoft language support.
Windows Azure
Windows Azure is a version of Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V that is specialized to provide a layer, or interface, to any number of Windows servers in the datacenter. It includes support for managing clusters of computers that can provide computing resources and storage on demand. See SaaS and cloud computing.
Azure Services Platform
The Azure cloud platform enables developers to write cloud-based applications that work on desktops as well as all the modern mobile devices that have become mainstream. Microsoft programming languages such as Visual Studio support Azure, and the platform has been declared open to encourage non-Microsoft language support.
Windows Azure
Windows Azure is a version of Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V that is specialized to provide a layer, or interface, to any number of Windows servers in the datacenter. It includes support for managing clusters of computers that can provide computing resources and storage on demand. See SaaS and cloud computing.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Microsoft Windows Azure and SQL Azure
- Microsoft's Windows Azure and SQL Azure address part of organizations requirements for an open, standards based platform that can support local, private and public clouds. by Dan Kusnetzky
- Blog posts 2009-11-23
- A PDC peek at a Microsoft server container (photos)
- At its developer conference, Microsoft shows off the fourth generation of its data center design as it moves toward Azure and the cloud. by CNET News.com
- Image galleries 2009-11-18
- So where's Microsoft's Live Mesh?
- Project name changedIt's Microsoft Live Mess now under Ballmer's leadership.RE: So where's Microsoft's Live Mesh?i hope they don't get rid of or just leave it alone because i really like it. Actually, it works very well.It might be stuck in some pre-release limbo but whats already available to use does...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-18
- What's next for Microsoft's Azure cloud platform?
- So MS is going cloud...Well, well, isn't this interesting. Does MS concede that the era of packaged client software is over? Again, MS is the follower and not the leader, and again, MS is following Google to the clouds. My prediction is that this will be a field day...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-18
- Ray Ozzie's view from the clouds
- In a lengthy interview, Microsoft's Ray Ozzie talked about clouds, lessons Microsoft learned from the recent Sidekick outage as well as why people are wrong to count Microsoft out of the smartphone race. When Ray Ozzie penned his Internet Services Disruption memo back in 2005, he had a...
- News items 2009-11-18
- What's next for Microsoft's Azure cloud platform?
- In the past year, customers and developers testing Windows Azure have been running primarily brand-new (and largely Web 2.0 style) apps on Microsoft's cloud operating system. But when will Azure be tuned to handle host legacy enterprise apps? And when and how will users be able to take advantage of...
- Blog posts 2009-11-17
- Three new codenames and how they fit into Microsoft's cloud vision
- They are named V / W / TThey came up with some good names:VirusWormTrojan;)Wow! Did you figure that out all by yourself? You get a gold star! [nt].Windows 'BOT CLOUD' now that is NEW!Instead of the MILLIONS of compromised Windows servers/desktop world wide and growing.The Windows cloud will pollute the...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-17
- Rackspace adds Windows Server support to its cloud
- That is pretty awesome. Just goes to show how viable of a platform Microsoft Windows really is. Its a very robust operating system and scales well.RE: Rackspace adds Windows Server support to its cloudI see 3 possibilities in this; which one do you think this is?1. RackSpace has received...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-12
- Bing 2.0 debuts
- Bing Image SearchSpeaking of Bing, I recently did some Bing Image Searches, and found that they produced better results than Google Image Searches.Just keeps getting better.I don't know how anyone using Bing could find anything to complain about. In fact all the complaints I do see come from people...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-11
- News to know: Cisco; Azure; Smartphones; Twitter lists; Facebook; Skype; Twitter device
- Here are today's notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET's around-the-Web tech coverage.: Sam Diaz: Cisco unveils collaboration, e-mail and social tools for the enterprise Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft puts more...
- Blog posts 2009-11-09
- Microsoft 'Geneva' identity wares approach the finish line
- just PR stuntsM$ merely renamed Active directory and claims a 'break through'.I'm still waiting to see a technology realy new comming out of M$.So far they only stole are renamed existing technologies.Parent post is a troll. Please ignore it. nt OKDeep zoom: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645050(VS.95).aspxPhotosynth: http://photosynth.net/ASP.NET copied by Sun in JSF.Ajax (yes,...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-06
- Microsoft puts more Azure cloud plumbing in place
- Editing nitMary Jo - it always bugs me when you and others refer to 'Azure.' There is no such thing as 'Azure.' There is a Windows Azure product and a SQL Azure product but no Azure product. It seems confusing to use Azure along. If you want to talk...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-06
- Microsoft puts more Azure cloud plumbing in place
- Microsoft is continuing to lay the groundwork for the commercial version of its Azure cloud environement, rolling out a new content delivery network CDN capability, as well as the November update to its Azure developer services. by Mary Jo Foley
- Blog posts 2009-11-06
- News to know: Windows 7; Google Dashboard; Driving while texting; Steve Jobs; Droid
- Here are today's notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET's around-the-Web tech coverage.: Sam Diaz: Ballmer: So far, Windows 7 sales are "fantastic" Dana Blankenhorn: What the Google Privacy Dashboard can...
- Blog posts 2009-11-06
- Billing system testing behind Microsoft's SQL Azure outage this week
- Testers of Microsoft's SQL Azure service experienced a three-plus hour unplanned outage this week -- just a couple of weeks before Microsoft is set to remove the beta tag from its Azure cloud service. by Mary Jo Foley
- Blog posts 2009-11-05
- Energy Monitoring Firm Saves Money, Scales Business With Hosted Computing Platform
- Advanced Telemetry develops systems to help businesses monitor and control energy usage, onsite or via the Internet. The company employees 22 people. Advanced Telemetry needed a cost-effective way to scale its computing power, improve service, and maintain a rich and engaging user experience. Advanced Telemetry used Visual WebGui from Gizmox...
- Case studies 2009-11-01
- Microsoft adds more choices for developers targeting its Azure cloud
- Thats interesting...The MS fanboys would have you believe no one uses PHP or Eclipse for anything but here is MS courting those developers.On a serious note MS seems to be pulling ahead of Google with more platform choices. I don't hear much news like that out of Google now.
- Discussion threads 2009-10-29
- Microsoft adds more choices for developers targeting its Azure cloud
- Microsoft is getting its Azure ducks before it removes the beta tag from its cloud service in mid-November. On October 28, the company announced plans for more development tools aimed at programmers who want to use PHP, Java and the Eclipse IDE to create and modify Web applications for Azure....
- Blog posts 2009-10-29
- Microsoft partners to allow Eclipse interop on Win7, WinServer 2008 R2, Azure
- Eclipse should decline the 'plug ins'M$ only ries to extend and extinguish here folks!Self interests always......Isn't that what most things revolve around? I'm sure that if Linux had a chance to extend and draw to its platform by working with Microsoft it would, unless they are too stupid to...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-28
- Microsoft partners to allow Eclipse interop on Win7, WinServer 2008 R2, Azure
- Microsoft has made another play at interoperability with a key open source software offering. At Eclipse Summit Europe on Wednesday, the Redmond, Wash. software giant announced that it is working on four open source projects with two open source companies -- Tasktop Technologies and Soyatec -- to...
- Blog posts 2009-10-28
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