New Features and Updates to Windows Azure

Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Strategy

Dec. 2, 2010 10:15 AM

Windows Azure, a Platform as a Service offer, is Microsoft's cloud computing platform. It was announced at PDC 2008 where Microsoft announced some interesting improvements and additional features to its Windows Azure Platform. Microsoft is serious about its strategy on Windows Azure, as was demonstrated in the PDC keynote, which dedicated over one hour to Azure. But what exactly is Microsoft's cloud computing strategy? This article describes the new features that will be available soon on Windows Azure.

Windows Azure VM Role
A very interesting announcement was the VM Role for Windows Azure. This allows users to access their roles (both the Work- and WebRole) via a Remote Desktop. The Remote Desktop access makes maintenance of a role easier. A nice benefit is to enable developers to ease their "way into the cloud" by just moving existing virtual machines to the (Windows Azure) Cloud. The VM Role is not an IaaS offer; rather it's an extension to the existing PaaS offer.

SQL Azure
There were also several SQL Azure announcements at the PDC. The most important ones were SQL Server Reporting and SQL Azure DataSync. These features are important features for the SQL Server. Microsoft also introduced the SQL Database Manager, a lightweight SQL Database editor.

Windows Azure AppFabric
Windows Azure AppFabric now supports the Windows Server AppFabric Caching features. There were also a couple of additions to the Windows Azure Access Control. Microsoft demoed an application that consumes the Access Control with a Facebook Account and claims-based access to website functions. A great feature for hybrid clouds where organizations need to combine on-premise infrastructure and cloud services is AppFabric IP-Ranges. It enables you to integrate existing on-premise services with cloud applications.

Windows Azure Virtual Network
Maybe a game-changing feature is the Windows Azure Virtual Network. This feature allows users to integrate on-premise solutions with cloud computing solutions based on ActiveDirectory. As ActiveDirectory is an important feature for everyone working with the Windows Systems, this allows great integration between on-premise datacenters and cloud computing services. The service is called "Windows Azure Connect."

Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket
The product that was codenamed "Dallas" is now Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket. Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket allows organizations to offer their data (and sell it), and for organizations, developers and IT professionals to explore and consume data. I really like this idea I might go into detail about this product in another article. The commercial availability of Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket was announced a couple of days ago.

Resources

Published Dec. 2, 2010— Reads 4,165
Copyright © 2010 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

About Mario Meir-Huber
Mario Meir-Huber studied Information Systems at the University of Linz. He worked in the IT sector for some years before founding CodeForce, an IT consulting and services company together with Andreas Aschauer. Since the advent of Cloud Computing, he has been passionate about this technology. He talks about Cloud Computing at various international events and conferences and writes for industry-leading magazines on cloud computing. He is Cloud Computing expert in various independent IT organizations and wrote a book on Cloud Computing covering all topics of the Cloud. You can follow Mario on Twitter (@mario_mh) or read his Blog at http://cloudvane.wordpress.com.

Enterprise Open Source Magazine Latest Stories . . .

That Boom You Hear Is the Cloud

By Patrick Burke

Cloud computing is creating the new Wall Street boom, according to NIA. The only industry that is as bright as cloud computing on Wall Street is social networking, NIA said in a recent report. 2012 will be known as the year cloud computing became widely adopted worldwide. Cloud comput...

Cloud Expo NY: How Pro Sports Teams Use Collaborative Decision Making

By Pat Romanski

The impact of Big Data is extremely broad for business, information management and technology. Being able to analyze your growing mountain of data can give you a distinct competitive advantage, but Big Data can be more than traditional tools can handle. In his session at the 10th Int...

What's Working, What's New, What's Next? | CTO Power Panel at Cloud Expo

By Pat Romanski

In this CTO Power Panel at the 10th International Cloud Expo, moderated by Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan, industry-leading CTOs & VPs of Technology will discuss such topics as: Which do you think is the most important cloud computing standard still to tackle? Who should...

China Gives Google-Motorola Merger Conditional OK

By Maureen O'Gara

China’s antitrust regulators gave Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility the nod Saturday provided Google’s Android operating system remains open and free-of-charge for the next five years. The “free” stipulation apparently doesn’t apply to applications or services...

Nasdaq CEO Embarrassed by Facebook IPO Glitches

By Maureen O'Gara

In the wake of the Facebook IPO fiasco, Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld beat his breast and told the Wall Street Journal along with other press Sunday that Nasdaq’s “acknowledged design problems” bungled the social network’s landmark lPO Friday. Reporters were told on a conference call ...

Cloud Expo New York: Private PaaS for the Enterprise and Beyond

By Liz McMillan

If your organization already uses virtualized infrastructure, you are well on your way to providing IT as a Service. But as businesses demand faster results in today’s competitive market, organizations look to gain more benefits from cloud computing than just virtualized infrastructure...