Posted 11/17/09 at 09:37:41 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference (PDC) began today, and right off the bat we have some solid information about an impending release. Windows Azure will be available to businesses on January 1, 2010. It will be free for the first month as well.

Windows Azure will be an operating system in the cloud. An applications layer will be hosted in a datacenter and developers will be able to write applications for it like they would for any other OS. The cloud service landscape has changed significantly since the Redmond giant started talking about the cloud-based web some four years ago.

The number of netbooks and smartphones has exploded since Microsoft began this endeavor. These platforms may benefit most from technologies like Azure. Can Microsoft make cloud-based services a part of their core business with Azure? Maybe we’ll get some clues during the rest of PDC.

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Posted 09/23/09 at 08:54:02 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Even though Windows 7 just went to manufacturing in July, there are already rumors about Windows 8. Microsoft’s Anders Vindberg confirmed that planning sessions were already being held for Windows 8, and 12 different working groups had been created. Most of these groups are currently management related.

Some recent job postings have hinted that Microsoft will be implementing a new “TLZ file compression engine” to improve Hibernate performance. So if you crave a quicker resume after Hibernating, you could get your wish. There may also be additional kernel protections using PatchGuard. These protections should increasingly hamper the efforts of malware designers.

Microsoft will almost surely be strengthening their server offerings in the next OS iteration. Microsoft’s Dublin application is likely to find its way into Windows Server. Some sort of cloud based services are also possible with the upcoming Windows Azure. We most likely won’t see Windows 8 until 2011 at least, but the Redmond giant may already be hard at work.

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Posted 03/19/09 at 03:05:33 PM by Mark Edward Soper

The promise of hosted application "cloud computing" platforms is the ability to work anywhere, anytime. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the latest storm to obscure the promise of hosted applications hit its Windows Azure development platform last weekend. It was unavailable for 22 hours on March 13 and 14, eWeek reports.

It should be noted that Windows Azure, introduced at last October's Professional Developer's Conference (PDC), is still in its test phase. It's due to become generally available before the 2009 PDC in November, according to eWeek. Although it's still in testing, an essentially day-long outage isn't good news for Azure.

Is Azure the only cloud computing provider to have had problems from time to time? How reliable should cloud computing be? For your chance to sound off, join us after the jump.

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Posted 10/29/08 at 02:49:54 PM by Mark Edward Soper

It was called "Project Red Dog" during development, but this week Microsoft revealed its favorite color for its cloud computing development platform is actually blue - Azure, in fact.

Windows Azure Services Platform was introduced at this week's PDC, and includes the following key components, according to eWeek:

• Windows Azure (service hosting, management, low-level scalable storage, computation and networking)
• Microsoft SQL Services (databases and reporting)
• Microsoft .NET Services (.NET Framework workflow, access control, and so forth)
• Live Services (file and media synchronization between PCs, phones, apps and website)
• Microsoft SharePoint Services and CRN Services (business content, collaboration, and rapid solution development)

To learn more about the Azure platform, and what it might mean for the future of Microsoft, join us after the break.

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