Windows Azure - Web Based Operating System

[Larry ward]

Microsoft unveiled a new web-based operating system that signals the software giant's move into the emerging sector of so-called "cloud computing".Dubbed Windows Azure, or "Windows in the clouds", the operating system is delivered over the internet and lives on a massive global network of data centres Microsoft is constructing rather than on a specific computer or server.

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.It is designed to enable software developers worldwide to build applications and websites that run on giant servers owned by Microsoft, freeing them from having to maintain their own large, costly data centres. The move represents a shift for Microsoft, which has historically made its money selling packaged software that runs on individual computers. With the "cloud"-based system, it will instead charge customers for the amount of computing power they use on its vast, global system as and when they use it. But "cloud computing" is not intended to completely replace traditional software, the company says. Instead it envisages the two working alongside one another as Microsoft repositions itself as a supplier of both software and services.

Key components of the Azure Services Platform include the following:

• Windows Azure for service hosting and management, low-level scalable storage, computation and networking

• Microsoft SQL Services for a wide range of database services and reporting

•Microsoft .NET Services which are service-based implementations of familiar .NET Framework concepts such as workflow and access control

•Live Services for a consistent way for users to store, share and synchronize documents, photos, files and information across their PCs, phones, PC applications and Web sites

•Microsoft SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services for business content, collaboration and rapid solution development in the cloud.

Windows Azure is currently in Community Technology Preview. Commercial availability for Windows Azure will likely be at the end of calendar year 2009.

[Larry ward]

Azure is basically a platform for developers of web applications. It combines hosting and tools for managing service delivery and will compete directly with Amazon's EC2 platform. Developers can build applications using existing Microsoft tools like Visual Studio. Azure can be used to add web capabilities to existing desktop applications or to host completely cloud-based apps. In other words, you could build an online calendar or task management service and host it on Windows Azure, or you could create a desktop calendar that synchronizes with a web calendar. Or you know, something far more creative.

Windows Azure is included with:-

Computation Services

• Ability to run Microsoft ASP.NET Web applications or .NET code in the cloud
• Service hosting environment that includes Internet Information Services 7.0 and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Security supported by flexible Code Access Security policies
• Small runtime API that supports logging and local scratch storage
• Web portal that helps you deploy, scale, and upgrade your services quickly and easily
• FastCGI, a protocol for interfacing applications to web servers, which will allow customers to deploy and run web applications written with non-Microsoft programming languages such as PHP (Developers will be responsible for including the relevant runtime libraries for these languages when deploying applications.)
• .NET Full Trust to allow usage of additional .NET features such as Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).
• From Full Trust .NET, developers can call into unmanaged DLLs

Simple data storage services

• Blobs, tables, and queues hosted in the cloud, close to your computation
• Authenticated access and triple replication to help keep your data safe
• Easy access to data with simple REST interfaces, available remotely and from the data center

Development Tools

• Complete offline development environment, including computation and storage services
• Complete command-line SDK tools and samples
• Visual Studio add-in that enables local debugging
• New SDK Download: a new version of the Windows Azure SDK will be available for download at a time to coincide with the MIX09 conference, which will enable developers to take advantage of the new features offered by Windows Azure, as well as an update to the Visual Studio add-ins.

[Orlando]

Windows Azure is useful for:-

1. Add Web service capabilities to existing packaged applications.
   
   
2. Build, modify, and distribute applications to the Web with minimal on-premises resources.
   
   
3. Perform services (large-volume storage, batch processing, intense or large-volume computations, etc.) off premises.
   
   
4. Create, test, debug, and distribute Web services quickly and inexpensively.
   
   
5. Reduce costs of building and extending on-premises resources.
   
   
6. Reduce the effort and costs of IT management

[Anand D.]

Windows Azure will be much useful for developers...Live Services is a set of building blocks within the Azure Services Platform for handling user data and application resources. Live Services provides developers with an easy on-ramp to build rich social applications and experiences, across a range of digital devices that can connect with one of the largest audiences on the Web.

[mickeyy]

Nice article! As a developer, I'll be watching close Windows Azure.