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Microsoft launches Windows Azure

The software maker hopes an operating system in the cloud, unveiled at its Professional Developers Conference, will add up to blue skies.

Ina Fried Former Staff writer, CNET News
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley.
Ina Fried
2 min read

LOS ANGELES--Microsoft on Monday announced a version of Windows that runs over the Internet from inside Microsoft's own data centers.

Dubbed Windows Azure, it's less a replacement for the operating system that runs on one's own PC than it is an alternative for developers, intended to let them write programs that live inside Microsoft's data centers as opposed to on the servers of a given business.

"It's a transformation of our software and a transformation of our strategy," said Ray Ozzie, a computing industry pioneer who now serves as Microsoft's chief software architect. (For a play-by-play account of Ozzie's speech, see "PDC 2008: Windows Azure live blog.")

Ray Ozzie at PDC.
Ray Ozzie delivers his keynote address at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference. Robert Vamosi/CNET News

Microsoft first outlined a shift to "Live Services" at an event in San Francisco in 2005. The company has released a few things piecemeal, such as Live Mesh, but Monday's announcement marked the first real discussion of how Microsoft's disparate Internet strategies fit together.

The announcements come at the start of Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference here. On Tuesday, Microsoft plans to go into more detail on Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, due out by about January 2010.

With the launch of Azure, Microsoft will find itself in competition with other providers of Internet storage and computing services including Amazon, Salesforce.com, and Rackspace.

Ozzie said he was tipping his cap to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for innovating the hosted computing model. Amazon "established a base-level design pattern, architecture models, and business models that we'll all learn from," he said.

Microsoft is making Windows Azure in preview form to developers, with a limited subset of the features that it plans to have in the product before its final release.

There weren't many details on how Microsoft will charge for Azure, saying it will be free during the preview period. Final pricing, Ozzie said, "will be competitive with the marketplace."

The company itself plans to offer businesses the option of running over the Internet the kinds of software that have traditionally run on a company's own servers. Microsoft already sells its Exchange corporate e-mail software in this way, but that is just the beginning, said Microsoft vice president Dave Thompson.

"All our enterprise software will be delivered as an online service as an option," Thompson said.

CNET News' Elinor Mills contributed to this report.

Bob Muglia
Server and Tools senior VP Bob Muglia talks about the benefits to businesses of Windows Azure. Robert Vamosi/CNET News
Microsoft's cloud computing team discusses how a common set of tools can be used for developing applications for traditional Windows as well as for Windows Azure.
Microsoft's cloud computing team discusses how a common set of tools can be used for developing applications for traditional Windows as well as for Windows Azure. Robert Vamosi/CNET News
Microsoft's Dave Thompson tells attendees at the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference that all of the company's enterprise software will be offered as an online service over time.
Microsoft's Dave Thompson tells attendees at the Professional Developer Conference that all of the company's enterprise software will be offered as an online service over time. Robert Vamosi/CNET News
Federated Identity platform
One of the biggest challenges in business software, whether it lives inside a company or is part of a hosted service, is making sure that only properly authorized employees have access to the data and applications. Microsoft discusses how its Federated Identity platform will work with the new hosted services. Robert Vamosi/CNET News