azure

Microsoft's server chief talks cloud (Q&A)

It's been a busy year for Bob Muglia.

Microsoft's server and tools boss shipped an update to Windows Server, got promoted to division president, and prepared Microsoft's operating system in the clouds--Windows Azure--for its commercial launch.

In what has become a bit of a year-end ritual, Muglia sat down with CNET for a year-end interview. We hit on a range of topics, from the future of Windows Server, to why his bank won't be moving to Windows Azure any time soon, to the changing life of an IT manager, to Microsoft's consumer future. (Spoiler alert: … Read more

Microsoft Azure, Server teams form new cloud division

In a much anticipated move, Microsoft announced the combination of the Windows Azure group with the Windows Server and Solutions group into a new organization, titled the Server and Cloud Division. The new division, headed by Senior Vice President Amitabh Srivastava, will be a part of the Servers and Tools Business, headed by Bob Muglia.

The new division will "deliver solutions that help our customers realize even greater benefits from Microsoft's investments in on-premises and cloud technologies," according to the Windows Server Division blog. The Windows Azure team blog adds that the combined team will "ensure … Read more

The rise of the cloud platform

There was legitimate debate at one point whether the style of cloud computing often called Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) was really going to take off in a big way.

The aim of PaaS is to supply developers with a set of services that they can use to build scalable applications without doing all the underlying grunt work themselves.

Such a platform might automatically add additional capacity in response to increased load. Or it could offer various middleware services, such as databases and application servers. (The National Institute of Standards and Technology has a definition document that I and many others use to … Read more

Microsoft's embrace of MySQL could kill it

For those who have fret about Microsoft fighting against open source, I have news for you: Microsoft's impact on open source may be worse as a friend than as an enemy.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has steadily warmed to open source, to the point that it now hosts its own open-source code repository and has seen its Microsoft Public License used more often than venerable licenses like the Mozilla Public License or the Eclipse Public License, according to new data released by Black Duck Software.

The open-source world should be worried.

After all, as IBM's Savio Rodrigues points out, … Read more

Microsoft PDC: Lots on Azure, a peek at IE 9

Developers get a full rundown on the cloud-based Azure OS and some tidbits about Microsoft's next browser, along with a beta of Office 2010.

Sinofsky's Windows plan: More data, less testosterone In an interview, the president of Microsoft's Windows unit tells CNET why he does things the way he does. (Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried) November 20, 2009 10:19 AM PST

Windows boss on building his first laptop In an interview, Steven Sinofsky talks about what he learned as Microsoft partnered with Acer to build a laptop to give away to developers. (Posted in … Read more

Buzz Out Loud Podcast 1109: In the future we'll all be cats

IBM is working on an artificial brain they think they'll have done by 2019. And we figure once that happens, the robots will rise and we will become your pets. And like cats we'll think that we're in charge. In other news, Modern Warfare 2 beats Harry Potter to a pulp, and Verizon and AT&T are a'courting! Actually they're in court. Being sued.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1109

Modern Warfare 2 tops entertainment industry, not just games http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10400394-235.html… Read more

Windows Azure containers on display in LA

LOS ANGELES--During Tuesday's keynote speech, Ray Ozzie outlined how Windows Azure works from a software perspective.

Across the Los Angeles Convention Center, though, developers had a chance to see just what Azure is running on. Microsoft uprooted one of its containers from its Washington data center and brought it to the Professional Developers Conference.

The container was one of the more popular attractions on the PDC show floor as attendees had a chance to peek in and even step inside the container.

It is Microsoft's fourth generation of data center design----newer even than the containers used at the … Read more

Ray Ozzie's view from the clouds

LOS ANGELES--When Ray Ozzie penned his Internet Services Disruption memo back in 2005, he had a pretty good idea where the computing world was going. He just didn't know how Microsoft was going to get there.

While many are ready to write off Microsoft as an declining icon of computing's last generation, Ozzie sees Microsoft positioned to leapfrog some of the companies that tend to be thought of as the leaders of the cloud computing world--names like Amazon, Salesforce and Google.

"I will never, ever, utter the words 'mission accomplished' for obvious reasons," Ozzie said in … Read more

Live blog: Ozzie talks Azure and more

LOS ANGELES--Microsoft wants you to join it in the cloud.

That's the company's message Tuesday from its Professional Developers Conference here, where Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie gave the opening keynote address.

Ozzie announced plans for the formal launch of Windows Azure, the cloud-based operating system that lets developers write programs that run on servers in Microsoft's data centers. It will be in production for all users starting January 1, though a few customers will enter production now, Ozzie said.

In other news, Microsoft announced a technology preview of a new data service, code-named Dallas, that lets … Read more