The Windows Azure Platform

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

The Windows Azure platform can reduce the cost of purchasing and maintaining server infrastructure to support internal-use or Web-based applications by outsourcing some functions to Microsoft’s data centers. In particular, it can help organizations meet peak capacity without permanent investments in the hardware and software necessary for peak loads.

The Windows Azure platform includes the following services:

Windows Azure Cloud Services, which hosts applications
A nonrelational data service that stores application data
Windows Azure SQL Database (formerly SQL Azure Database), which hosts relational databases using Microsoft’s SQL Server technology
SQL Reporting, which provides business analytics based on the Reporting Services feature in the on-premises SQL Server product
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) features, which became commercially available in Apr. 2013, including Microsoft-hosted virtual machines (which can run Windows Server or Linux) and support for virtual

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