What Is Windows Azure ?

Today's powerful computing technology includes cell phones with the processing power of recent PCs, quad-processor computers that have moved from datacenters to retail electronic stores, huge high-definition digital televisions, and more. The Web has grown in similar ways, and today its wealth of information and social networking capabilities make it the first stop when people turn on a PC or notebook.

Meanwhile, developers often have to make technology choices to optimize for a given device or application environment, choices that reduce that device's capabilities in other circumstances. As a result, current applications don't always take full advantage of both the power of devices and the power of the Web because they simply aren't designed to do that.

A new set of platform technologies from Microsoft, unveiled at the Professional Developers Conference 2008, is designed to change all that. The Azure Services Platform combines the growing power of the Web-based "cloud" and today's computers and devices with a suite of services designed to help developers deliver compelling new experiences across the PC, Web and mobile phone or PDA.

The new platform extends to developers the ability to rapidly develop and deploy new applications into the cloud, without having to worry about how they will scale up. It gives businesses a new set of choices for how they deploy IT. And consumers benefit through new abilities to see their growing array of digital devices linked together in new and exciting ways.

Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie introduces Windows Azure (3 min 59 sec) 

Windows Azure - Quick Facts 

The Azure Services Platform is designed to help developers quickly and easily create, deploy and manage Web services on the Internet. Windows Azure is the 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 create, host and manage scalable and available Web applications in datacenters offered by Microsoft Corp.

Get started quickly using your existing skills

Windows Azure reduces barriers to entry to creating reliable and scalable Web applications because it is based on and works with familiar Microsoft technology. Windows Azure supports Microsoft Web technologies such as ASP.NET, Internet Information Services and Visual Studio 2008, so developers can use their existing skills to efficiently create, test, deploy, manage and monetize Web services.

Agile, scalable, highly secure

Windows Azure enables developers to respond to business needs quickly and easily without worrying about operational constraints. Windows Azure is designed from the ground up to be a fault-tolerant platform. This means individual servers can fail without affecting service availability. The fabric controller technology in the stateless Windows Azure platform enables developers to scale or upgrade Web services seamlessly, as demand rises and falls.

Maintain application control, minimize costs

The built-in management services in Windows Azure offer developers the control and visibility to stay focused on what they do best — create and deliver services and applications online. Developers can specify the performance level and compute parameters of their applications in Windows Azure. Advanced tracing and logging functionality exposed in the Windows Azure portal allows developers to monitor input/output, compute, storage and bandwidth. Developers can add tracing and logging capabilities to their solution without having to develop custom code or pay for third-party components. Overall, Windows Azure makes it easy for developers to monitor performance and fine-tune application design and parameters to manage resources consumed and resultant cost.

Open platform creates an easy, flexible coding environment

Windows Azure is built for compatibility and openness, and supports standards and protocols including Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Representational State Transfer and the Extensible Markup Language (XML). Microsoft is working with the developer community to incorporate support for Eclipse. In the future, developers will be able to run Ruby on Rails and Python, write applications in Eclipse, and authenticate with OpenID.

Becoming a Windows Azure user

During the limited Community Technology Preview (CTP), developers invited to the CTP program, which includes attendees of Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2008, will have the capability to host their services in Windows Azure in Microsoft datacenters. Developers also will receive free trial access to the rich set of cloud-optimized modular components including SQL Services, Live Services and .NET services. Each of these services can be consumed independently. A planned Azure Services marketplace will provide developers with an avenue to expose their applications to more than 400 million Windows Live users for monetization.

Extensive support resources

As with all its offerings, Microsoft gives developers access to a suite of readiness resources including Prescriptive Architecture Guidance, virtual hands-on labs, webcasts and documentation. Support during the CTP period is provided through developer-to-developer blogs and forums.

TuneUp Utilities 2008 - Customise and Improve Windows Vista.

Simple - Secure - Powerful

30 Days FREE TRIAL - Click Here!