QuickTip - What is Windows Azure?

Microsoft has bet big on a new technology called Windows Azure. In its simplest form it is an operating system in the cloud (over the internet). The Windows Azure platform offers a simple, comprehensive, and powerful platform for the creation of web applications and services. It allows companies to have Microsoft handle the maintenance of  your hardware, and pay only for the bandwidth and services you need.

There are two main options for this, you can...

1. Have your application's code and data exist in the cloud
   or
2. Have parts of the program on premise and other parts in the cloud

In order for this to work in the cloud there must be an application platform, which Azure currently provides us a group of core technologies.

The three main parts for custom development are:

• SQL Azure (for databases)
• .NET Services (for applications)
• Windows Azure (which is a full OS in the cloud)

There will be other options in the future, such as Azure Exchange, which will allow you to have Microsoft handle your Exchange Server, as well as Office, CRM and other applications. However this is part of the future, right now there are only the three options for Azure.

So, you're probably asking yourself, "Is this beta?"
No, as of January 1, 2010 Microsoft Azure is a released technology, with complete pricing available on Microsoft's web site - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/.

At Microsoft's PDC (Professional Developers Conference) conference, the keynote speech highlighted four companies using Azure right now:

• WordPress is using Windows Azure, which takes away the stress of managing unexpected massive traffic, as in a situation in which blogger Perez Hilton links to a blog item that drives an excessive amount of traffic to your blog.
• ICanHasCheezburger.com, famous for funny cat photos, is launching a new humor site featuring funny signs, www.oddlyspecific.com on Windows Azure.
• Domino's Pizza is using the Microsoft cloud to manage its ordering system, key to managing the pizza peak on Super Bowl Sunday.
• The White House is building apps off federal databases for public use.  NASA is holding a "Be a Martian" competition for anyone who wants to build a cloud app based on Mars Pathfinder images. A less happy moment for Microsoft was when Vivek Kundra, Chief Information Officer for President Obama, showed off a new Career Finder mobile application built on Azure on an Apple iPhone.

They also spent some time talking about Codename: Dallas which is an information service business that Microsoft will provide. It will allow developers and information workers to instantly find, purchase and manage web services and datasets. For example NASA has Mars Exploration Rover Mission Images available.

If you want to get started playing with Azure and have an MSDN Subscription, MSDN subscribers can get started developing on the Windows Azure platform today.

Also, starting January 4, 2010, subscribers in many countries will benefit from compute hours, storage, data transfers, SQL Azure databases and Windows Azure platform AppFabric messages included at no extra charge as part of their subscription.