How is Windows Azure different from me working with a local hosting provider using Windows Server 2008/SPLA?
A cloud platform such as Windows Azure is different from traditional hosting. From a technical perspective, Windows Azure provides a unique platform for developing highly available applications that can be quickly scaled up or down. With Windows Azure, customers pay for what they use and focus on building and managing the application while Microsoft manages the hardware and provides automated service management. In traditional hosting, the hosting provider delivers and manages the hardware, while the customer is responsible for installing, setting up, updating and managing both the operating system and the application.
