Updates Aim to Keep Azure Competitive

The Windows Azure platform, the Microsoft-hosted cloud application and data platform, receives regular updates to its services and tools to enable new application types and technology support, simplify development, and remain competitive with offerings such as Amazon Web Services. In recent months, Azure has gained support for several non-Microsoft open source technologies, received enhancements to SQL Azure and other components, and undergone price tuning that could dramatically cut customers’ costs. Microsoft continues to tout new partners and customer usage scenarios, but the company has not yet published sales data on Azure, which has been commercially available since Feb. 2010.

Open Source Support Expanded

Azure offers developers tools primarily based on Microsoft’s .NET Framework, which supports programming languages such as C# and Visual Basic. However, the platform has always supported non-Microsoft technologies such as Java and PHP, allowing developers that don’t use the .NET Framework to deploy applications on Azure and use its services. Support of these technologies does not necessarily imply that code from other platforms can be directly ported to Azure without some modification, but it allows developers to leverage existing skills while taking advantage of Azure’s services.