Microsoft Debuts Windows Azure
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News Analysis. Today, Microsoft announced the new Web-based services platform, Windows Azure, at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. |
[Editor's note: This was a live blogged document, from about 11:30 a.m. EDT to 1:15 p.m.]
Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, declared this week a "turning point for Microsoft." About 20 minutes into his keynote, Ray announced the company's new Web-based services platform. "Windows Azure is a new Windows offering at the Web tier," Ray said.
It's not software running on servers, but a service that runs on Microsoft data centers. Today, Microsoft is releasing a CTP (Community Technology Preview). The developer features rollout will start with .NET code. PDC attendees will have access to Azure, starting at 3 p.m. today. Accounts will be provisioned during the next two weeks.
On top of Windows Azure run Live Services, .NET Services, SQL Services, SharePoint Services and Dynamics CRM Services. SQL Server Services is now SQL Services.
Earlier, Ray took the stage without much introduction or the typical introductory video. It was refreshing and down-to-earth.
Ray engaged audience members by reminding them how at one time he sat where they are. As a developer, three things kept him coming to PDC:
- Microsoft always builds its own applications, ensuring a "natural safeguard" for the platform.
- Key platforms have a likelihood of reaching critical mass.
- Executives "viscerally understood" that for Microsoft to be successful, developers also had to be.
Ray spoke about a "major platform shift in our industry."
His early delivery was unusually engaging for someone who often is too heady in his delivery. Ray spoke about all the pains that enterprises encounter with their operations.
Microsoft's cloud computing strategy started at home with an evaluation of its own "Web-facing systems," Ray said. "Each of these systems grew up organically." While the systems differed, there was common expertise that Microsoft leveraged. But that "wasn't packaged in a form that developers could use." He identified three computing tiers:
- You (Windows client)
- The enterprise (Windows Server)
- Web tier (Windows Azure)
Ray claimed that Windows Azure is "setting the stage for the next 50 years of systems."
Microsoft provides developers with the "Azure Developer Portal" for building their services. Windows Azure is targeted to five developer groups: business, corporate, ISVs, systems integrators and Web.
Jonathan Greensted, CEO ofBluehoo, debuted his new mobile application running on Windows Azure. The Silverlight-based app uses Bluetooth to identify people who are close by.
While BlueHoo runs on the client, there also is a Web services component. Jonathan said that BlueHoo wrote its app in C#, using Visual Studio. The service tracks phones, computers, Webs and running APIs. Jonathan showed how he quickly can expand the number of nodes for BlueHoo users. This was done using the Azure Developer Portal. "It's so easy, even a CEO can do it," Jonathan said.
Microsoft plans to start making Azure services available next year. The company will charge based on an "app's resource consumption" and the "service level we plan to provide," Ray said. He wouldn't detail pricing other than to say that it would be "competitive." Competitive with what? I ask, since there's nothing quite like this service platform.
Comments (14)
Good name. Makes me think about openness. Sure beats Strata.
Posted by Mark Ashton | October 27, 2008 12:23 PM
I hope it's available to play around with soon. AWS is too hard to use. Msft is good at making it easier for developers.
I kinda like the name too. Azure...blue...sky...cloud. Better name than AppEngine or AWS.
Posted by Joe the developer | October 27, 2008 12:28 PM
Ah, MSFT's "cloud computing".
whatta joke (cloud computing). How useful is that box on your desk gonna be when your internet connection craps out?
and, does anyone feel "secure" storing their financial information, family pictures, etc. on some server, especially one running MSFT's product? The "oops" factor (as in MSFT telling you, "oops, read the EULA. our hardware foul up is immune from your loss of precious information.") is too high.
Call Al a luddite, but if you aren't firmly in control of your data, you're at the mercy of companies like MSFT.
Posted by Al | October 27, 2008 12:58 PM
Ah, MSFT's "cloud computing".
whatta joke (cloud computing). How useful is that box on your desk gonna be when your internet connection craps out?
and, does anyone feel "secure" storing their financial information, family pictures, etc. on some server, especially one running MSFT's product? The "oops" factor (as in MSFT telling you, "oops, read the EULA. our hardware foul up is immune from your loss of precious information.") is too high.
Call Al a luddite, but if you aren't firmly in control of your data, you're at the mercy of companies like MSFT.
Posted by Al | October 27, 2008 1:02 PM
Ray Ozzie mentioned Amazon as the competition, so I assume MSFT will adopt AWS EC2 pricing for Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2007 for the more current versions.
--rj
Posted by Roger Jennings | October 27, 2008 1:55 PM
Al - maybe you should watch Ozzie's keynote to learn a little. I understand your concerns about internet connections and being in control of your date. Valid concerns. But in the long-term do you actually think that you/your company are going to be able to provide the same service levels as a company like Microsoft or Google? They're spending billiions/year on datacetner construction. They'll have redundant datastores that you could never afford. They'll have datacetners all over the world to reduce latency. And if they screw around with anybody's data they'll be out of business so I, for one, don't think they will. This is the future for many applications of the future, just as PC client/server was the future years ago.
Posted by Mark Ashton | October 27, 2008 2:09 PM
"This is the future for many applications of the future, just as PC client/server was the future years ago."
LOL -- Sounds a lot like:
"We are the change we've been waiting for"
Here is my suggested tag line for Microsoft's Azure marketing campaign:
"Yesterday's technology made painful 24/7/365"
Posted by Bill | October 27, 2008 4:27 PM
The posts by "Bill" and "Al" are like other skeptics, thinking in generalities, just about where the data is stored, etc. However, think about the early use of electricity. One had to own the wires, the generator, the source of fuel to get your lights to work. However, Tesla and Edison and many others thought in details and for the long term and worked toward the system we have today. I don;t have to "own" the power to make good use of it. Sure, on occasion, the power goes out (storms, unpaid bills, etc.), but the value I drive far outweighs the risks. And I can get a backup for my fridge's power. Azure is not 100% running in the cloud, but just a major platform for off-loading some of the more mundane aspects of computing.
Posted by Scott Lawson | October 27, 2008 5:44 PM
azure |ˈa zh ər|
adjective
bright blue in color, like a cloudless sky : white beaches surrounded by azure seas.
• Heraldry blue : [ postpositive ] a saltire azure.
noun
1 a bright blue color.
• poetic/literary the clear sky.
So, an azure sky would be cloudless!!! Perhaps the geniuses in the marketing department should purchase a decent dictionary.
Posted by Mike | October 27, 2008 5:47 PM
azure |ˈa zh ər|
adjective
bright blue in color, like a cloudless sky : white beaches surrounded by azure seas.
• Heraldry blue : [ postpositive ] a saltire azure.
noun
1 a bright blue color.
• poetic/literary the clear sky.
So, an azure sky would be cloudless!!! Perhaps the geniuses in the marketing department should purchase a decent dictionary.
Posted by Mike | October 27, 2008 5:48 PM
So the Azure sky would be what the clouds sit on top of. Nice!
Posted by Anonymous2 | October 27, 2008 8:28 PM
I also think the marketing types at MSFT are thinking that Azure sounds a lot like Assure, and that imagery is intended to go along with all the blue sky imagery.
Posted by Cgomez | October 28, 2008 9:24 AM
I certainly can see two sides to the argument of cloud computing... It is the future for sure, but let's not get all horney on this new monstrosity. Unless we do something in Washington about Sarbanes Oxley this will turn out to be service based plugins for web sites... nothing more!
The cycle is almost complete. Fifty years of computing has brought us full circle... we've simply moved the mainframes from the basement to the cloud, and made our terminals a bit more gracious to look at. Perhaps the next time around will be less painful!
Posted by Stew_Bash | October 28, 2008 3:12 PM
As someone who "tried" to get my feet wet, and I'm a Microsoft drone, and an existing .Net/VS user for years, here's the first problem:
You'll need Vista and Win Server 2008 to get going on the existing SDKs. In other words, while you can still make a go of it going through MSDN documentation, your "existing Microsoft warchest" isn't going to give you a leg up on the development side if you're on XP.
Let's be clear here, all I'm saying is that, as a developer, you'll go through the same learning curve with Amazon's solution and Azure, in this "first CTP release" anyway...
Posted by EdSF | October 29, 2008 2:34 PM