Microsoft unveiled the first version of Windows Azure at the Professional Developers Conference 2008 yesterday, a platform that will software create, store, manage and calculate data for running applications web-based.
The platform combines grid computing capabilities with storage and network infrastructure services, all housed on servers running on Microsoft’s global data center network.
In this sense, the system will assume itself as an operational base for the production of programs that offer services online, available to all users directly from the Internet.
Azure’s idea is not only to provide storage and a service and development platform, but also to automate the relationships between different environments (PC, Web and phone) and applications.
The operating system will work with Microsoft’s own technologies, such as Live, SQL and .NET services, although support for other programming languages ​​and industry standards is expected.
For now, Azure is free for betatesters. The commercial version of the system will not be available until 2010, when Windows 7, the successor to Vista, will also appear.
