Going to the Clouds with windows AZURE. (A platform for cloud computing)

Access to software, services and applications over the Internet, with/without you having an idea of the original location, such services is referred to be living in the cloud. Users need not bother about where the software is located.

With cloud computing, you do not have to worry about the technologies that supports your virtual environment. You don't have to wait too hard for your service providers who have to setup/install and configure components for your server environment before using cloud computing, all the components that you require for smooth running of your cloud business, are already in the cloud.

Cloud computing is mixture of other existing buzzes in the INTERNET jargon, these are :

1. Iaas : Infrastructure as a service
2. Paas : Platform as a service
3. Saas : Software as a service

These existing services are incorporated together to form what we refer to the cloud. They all are functionally Dependant on one and other to give a breath taking user experience.

Is cloud computing the new IT Jargon?
In today's IT complexity driven world, reliance or dependencies on technology resources are becoming cumbersome for large and small enterprises, while maintaining large infrastructures of computing resources are becoming an cost issues to organisations, there is a newly born term (Cloud computing) to wash away our worries. Doing business on the web is not as easy as it seem when you have to worry about all the infrastructures, security, maintenance and continuous up gradation of these infrastructures, it would be nice when several providers take charge of the technology backing and the rest is for you to leverage an existing API's/Frameworks to complement your business.

The cloud buzz is already attracting bigger IT providers like Google, IBM, Sun, Microsoft. What does all these mean to us all, the future is in the cloud (with the exception of propriety based technologies).

Microsoft answered with Windows AZURE
Windows Azure is Microsoft first step into the cloud computing foray. Azure is a Microsoft initiative in providing services on the cloud. This is an operating system that is used for deploying azure services on Microsoft owns data centers.

In our day to day deployment/development experience, we overcome several challenges in application configurations, server prerequisites, and configurations.

The windows Azure is an assurance that all these server components (MS-MQ, WCF Host, WWF host, SOAP, XML, REST, ASP.NET etc) will be available without you worrying.

The good thing is that Microsoft is providing SDK's for windows azure, and there is already a Visual Studio integration. Although, Microsoft technologies will be supported (As these are core to the heart of the software giant) , windows Azure will also host non-microsofts technologies. (infact there is already an effort on codeplex for PHP Azure .


The Azurance Provided by windows Azure

1. Provisions for Binary large object (Blob) tables hosted in the cloud.
2. Full .NET Framework support.
3. Available security polices.
4. Support for other platforms languages (PHP)
5. Message queuing.
6. SDk's available everywhere
   

To azure yourself on the next IT jargon using Microsoft platforms and technologies you will need to go here http://www.microsoft.com/azure/default.mspx. Do not panic, because your development will still be the same, and you can continue to use your existing applications. Infact, your applications can be made azure compliance.

Good thing for .NET developer
Microsoft is not forgetting us and we are already cloud compliant as Microsoft, already provides an SDK for integration into Visual Studio development environment. In fact, our existing developments can be converted to azure services (Its just a matter of configurations). Download the Visual Studio Tools for windows Azure, and reassure yourself of the future of computing.

If you wait on this channel, i would be providing a simple .NET application that is windows Azure compliant.