Windows Azure

Windows Azure is an application platform provided by Microsoft to allow others to run applications on Microsoft’s “cloud” infrastructure. Its finally open for business (as of Feb 1, 2010). Below are some links about Azure for those who are still catching up.Windows Azure logo.jpg

Wikipedia: Windows Azure has three core components: Compute, Storage and Fabric. As the names suggest, Compute provides computation environment with Web Role and Worker Role while Storage focuses on providing scalable storage (Blobs, Tables, Queue) for large scale needs.

The hosting environment of Windows Azure is called the Fabric Controller - which pools individual systems into a network that automatically manages resources, load balancing, geo-replication and application lifecycle without requiring the hosted apps to explicitly deal with those requirements.[3] In addition, it also provides other services that most applications require — such as the Windows Azure Storage Service that provides applications with the capability to store unstructured data such as binary large objects, queues and non-relational tables.[3] Applications can also use other services that are a part of the Azure Services Platform.

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