Azure Services Platform
A few years out, Microsoft wants Azure to be seen as the preferred location for enterprise data, not as a business risk. It’s off to a good start. There’s a tremendous amount of capability being presented in the Azure CTP (Community Technology Preview), and there’s more to come. It goes beyond simple Web hosting to a flexible architecture designed to automatically enlist additional resources in response to demand. There are capabilities here that I haven’t seen in competing cloud offerings — for example, workflows. The Azure team has picked and chosen existing Microsoft technologies — virtual servers, the .Net Framework, Internet Information Server (IIS), worker processes, databases, queues, enterprise service bus, workflows, authentication and so on — and adapted them to the cloud.
Microsoft’s Azure Services Platform is a cloud platform (cloud computing platform as a service) offering that “provides a wide range of internet services that can be consumed from both on-premises environments or the internet”.[1] It is significant in that it is Microsoft’s first step into cloud computing following the recent launch of the Microsoft Online Services offering. A Community Technology Preview (CTP) was given to PDC 2008 attendees.[2] This preview is set to expire in the 2nd quarter of 2009.[citation needed] The idea and push from Microsoft to compete directly in the software as a service model that Google’s Google App Engine and Amazon’s EC2 have offered is increasingly seen by them and others as an important next step in application development. In this idea, software doesn’t have to be installed and managed on the user’s computer. It also allows files and folders to be accessed from the web.
The Azure Services Platform includes the foundation layer of Windows Azure as well as a set of developer services which can be used individually or together.The Azure Services Platform comprises the following developer services: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 you on-demand compute & storage to host, scale, and manage web applications and services on the internet in Microsoft data centers.Microsoft .NET ServicesMicrosoft .NET Services are a set of Microsoft-hosted, highly scalable, developer-oriented services that provide key building blocks required by many cloud-based and cloud-aware applications. Much like the .NET Framework provides higher-level class libraries that make developers more productive, Microsoft .
Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities. Its open architecture gives developers the choice to build web applications, applications running on connected devices, PCs, servers, or hybrid solutions offering the best of online and on-premises. Azure reduces the need for up-front technology purchases, and it enables developers to quickly and easily create applications running in the cloud by using their existing skills with the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment and the Microsoft .NET Framework. In addition to managed code languages supported by .NET, Azure will support more programming languages and development environments in the near future. Azure simplifies maintaining and operating applications by providing on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web and connected applications. Infrastructure management is automated with a platform
