After years of planning, Microsoft chief software architect
Ray Ozzie has delivered the foundation for Microsoft's future - a
technology that allows Windows applications to run either in the
cloud or in-house.
The
Azure platform was unveiled at Microsoft's annual
Professional Developers
Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. Azure aims to give users
choice by providing a common programming model which allows them to
run systems in-house or in the cloud. It is made up of a cloud
database service, SQL Azure and Windows Azure, an application
development platform.
Speaking at the PDC, Ozzie said, "Customers want choice and
flexibility in how they develop and deploy applications. We are
moving into an era of solutions that are experienced by users
across PCs, phones and the web, and that are delivered from
datacentres we refer to as private clouds and public clouds."
Some commentators believe Microsoft has the breadth and depth to
succeed with Azure, even though it is arguably late into the cloud
market. The reason why Windows has become a de facto standard is
because it provides a unified platform for developing and running
applications. With Azure, Microsoft is effectively extending the
Windows application programming model to cloud computing. As a
blogger on the Rational
Survivability
blog said, "Azure will be the platform for products, solutions
and services across all media from Redmond moving forward."
Azure is attracting strong interest from developers. On the
CloudBuzz
blog, one developer attending the PDC said, "There are packed
sessions of enterprise developers and ISVs [independent software
vendors] who are genuinely excited about moving their Windows
workloads to the cloud. Azure is not targeted towards the big
SaaS/Web 2.0/Facebook application crowd. Instead, Microsoft is
going after the enterprise users who drive the bulk of spending in
the tech market."
Some experts question whether Microsoft will be committed to
cloud computing, given that Azure has the potential to cannibalise
its existing software licence revenue streams. However, Ovum senior
analyst Michael Azoff sees no evidence of Microsoft holding back on
cloud computing. He said, "Recent products like Exchange, Windows 7
and Windows Sever 2008 R2 all have cloud computing services
built-in. Moreover, Azure gives Microsoft a strong focus for
Windows developers." In theory, it supports a new generation of
Windows applications that are capable of running in house or in an
enterprise cloud.
Google and Amazon web services are the most obvious cloud
platform alternatives to Azure. Google appears to offer the closest
match to Azure for cloud services and cloud applications, while
Amazon is more focused on providing software infrastructure in the
cloud.
The PDC shows that Microsoft has a strong partner programme.
While Google is building its regional presence, Microsoft has
well-established country offices, with local account management
teams able to support user businesses and software companies that
plan to develop on Azure.
This will become an important factor as more users try to
understand how cloud computing can work within their own
organisations.
Bola Rotibi, principal analyst at MWD Advisors, said, "Many
organisations are likely to struggle with implementing cloud-based
services, not only because of technical challenges, but also
architecture and planning questions need to be addressed."
Azure may have been a long time coming, but it is set to change
the IT landscape by offering a way to move Windows into the
cloud.
Case study: easyJet
Budget airline EasyJet is planning to use Microsoft Azure to
allow its ground staff to upgrade customers' seats or pay for
excess baggage from mobile terminals.
EasyJet will use a virtual private network based on 3G or Wi-Fi
to plug mobile devices into the Azure cloud on the internet.
Azure provides the link from the internet into the datacentre.
Bert Craven, enterprise architect at EasyJet, said, "Azure will
provide a thin but very important tier in the overall
architecture.
"It will make our services visible to devices scattered across
Europe in a secure, reliable and cost-effective way."
Azure will also simplify the roll-out of new application
services and a revamped version of easyJet.com, due to go live in
the next month.
"The great benefit Azure provides us is that we can take these
services and expose them on the Azure Service Bus with little more
than a configuration change. We won't have to build a new
high-availability service platform in our DMZ, or make firewall
configuration changes or deploy lots of new servers," said
Craven.
Built on Azure, the project, known as Halo, will ultimately help
easyJet reduce the number of airport desks it needs to run, which
will lower operating costs.