Microsoft have launched a preview of their new cloud computing service, Azure.
Windows® Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft® data centers.
On demand computing means that you don’t need to download applications to your computer, you can just use them from any computer.
Some of the key features of Azure include:
- Build, modify, and distribute applications to the Web with minimal on-premises resources.
- Perform services (large-volume storage, batch processing, intense or large-volume computations, etc.) off premises.
- Create, test, debug, and distribute Web services quickly and inexpensively.
- Reduce costs of building and extending on-premises resources.
Well does this mean that now Microsoft has gone into the clouds, that cloud computing is mainstream?