Microsoft launches Windows Azure, its "cloud OS"
Having spent billions constructing a data center network over the last couple of years, Microsoft this morning launched, in limited "preview" form, Windows Azure, its platform for cloud computing. The announcement was made by Microsoft's top software executive, Ray Ozzie, in a speech at the company's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.
Microsoft will use the Azure platform to run its own web applications and will also open the platform to outside developers for building and running their own apps. Azure will compete with other cloud platforms, such as Amazon Web Services, Google App Engine, and Salesforce.com's force.com, and, given Microsoft's enormous scale and influence in the software industry, its launch marks a milestone in the history of utility computing. The cloud is now firmly in the mainstream. Or, as Microsoft puts it: "The truth is evident: Cloud computing is here."
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