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VIRTUALISATION Microsoft's Azure Cloud Computing isn't just blue sky
VIRTUALISATION Microsoft's Azure Cloud Computing isn't just blue sky | Microsoft's Azure Cloud Computing isn't just blue sky |
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| by David M Williams | |
| Friday, 07 November 2008 | |
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Steve, if I may be so familiar - but I feel we're friends now - was accompanied by Microsoft execs Gianpaolo Carraro and Tim Sneath who delivered additional presentations with real live stuff you could virtually touch, despite a few technical difficulties ... by which I mean the environment crashed and demonstrations generally didn't go to plan. Still, they were pre-beta products and the speakers were all good humoured as well as firey, passionate speakers who believed in their product and conveyed their enthusiasm for their work. But I digress. Azure is Microsoft's new operating system. That in itself was unexpected news to me. Preliminary coverage had me putting Azure in the category of a framework, an application engine, an environment for hosting web-based applications. In this sense, I had considered it akin to Google's AppEngine but with more beef and a more familiar programming platform for Microsoft developers. No, Azure is indeed, as stated by Steve Ballmer, an operating system in its own right. And I suppose it is: after all, it does provide a base for software to run on and interact with users with all the underlying hardware concerns taken care of. Thus the first thing about Azure is it is rightly called Windows Azure and it is a new operating system. That much can be agreed upon. The pronunciation of Azure is much less straightforward. I'd been saying "Azz-yure" but Steve B came out with a staunch American "Azz-oor." It didn't help that the event's host, Norbert Haehnel – Director Developer and Platform Group, Microsoft Australia, had his own delightful inflection, "Asia-re." Gianpaolo later informed us it is "Az-yoor-oh" in his native Italian. Perhaps Azure will be the new “SQL” when it comes to a multiplicity of pronunciations. There is more to Azure than this. Much more. To explain Azure's raison d’être Steve began with Microsoft’s concise vision statement: to empower developers to "create seamless experiences that combine the magic of software with the power of the Internet across a world of devices." He then cited a brief history of how just what software developers target has evolved over time. What's more, beside the initial point, Microsoft were there making an operating system to suit, Steve said. Back in years long gone the mainframe was central. It was the sole repository for software. Next came the PC revolution. Dumb terminals were replaced with grunty desktop machines. Smarts and number-crunching could be contained on the desktop. Of course, Microsoft Windows (and prior to this, Microsoft DOS) was there. Read on for how we arrive at our present day and the problems Azure solves. CONTINUED |
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