Linux Foundation Membership Promotes Azure Services

By joining the Linux Foundation in Nov. 2016, Microsoft is reminding organizations using open source software that Azure is a viable option for deploying and using hosted services. To keep organizations running Linux and using open source frameworks from choosing competitive hosted-service solutions, Microsoft needs to reassure potential customers that Azure is a platform that supports more than just Windows Server and the .NET Framework. By joining the Linux Foundation as a Platinum member, Microsoft can appoint a foundation board member and may be able to influence the foundation’s initiatives and activities.

Linux and Azure

Linux distributions such as Red Hat or CentOS are used in most data centers, especially for Web applications and services. Microsoft has increasingly supplied support for Linux and other open source software. For example, Linux distributions can be deployed on Azure to take advantage of an organization’s existing skills, tools, and applications.

Microsoft’s “Mobile-First, Cloud-First” strategy is encouraging organizations to reduce use of on-premises software and services and move such systems to pay-for-what-you-use hosted services, such as Azure. For this strategy to succeed, Microsoft cannot afford to just migrate an organization’s Windows Server—based workloads. Instead, it must embrace workloads running on Linux and provide Azure services that support what customers already use.