Microsoft Unveils Windows Azure at Professional Developers Conference

Here comes the SUN, err- CLOUD! Microsoft has unveiled the Azure Services Platform for the cloud, which offers unprecedented power of choice and open connections for developers.

During a keynote speech at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC2008), Ray Ozzie, Microsoft Corp.’s chief software architect, announced Windows Azure, the cloud-based service foundation underlying its Azure Services Platform. The presentation highlighted this platform’s role in delivering Microsoft’s software plus services approach to computing.

The Azure Services Platform is an industry-leading move by Microsoft to help developers build the next generation of applications that will span from the cloud to the enterprise datacenter and deliver compelling new experiences across the PC, Web and phone.

Our Microsoft Gold development certification (we also have Powered by SAP NetWeaver® and Oracle development partnerships) enabled ESS to send our chief software architect to PDC2008, giving him a chance to try out Azure’s features and functions and evaluate the platform for our own future development.

Microsoft says the Azure Services Platform promises to transform the way businesses operate and how users access their information and experience the Web. Most importantly, it provides the power of choice to deploy applications in cloud-based Internet services, through on-premise servers or to combine them in any way that makes the most sense for your business needs.

Unlike many of today’s service-based solutions, the Azure Services Platform provides developers with the flexibility and ability to create applications while taking advantage of its existing skills, tools and technologies such as the Microsoft .NET Framework and Visual Studio.

New services technologies, when employed alongside other core technology enablers such as virtualization and modeling, could result in dramatic benefits for customers’ IT departments. Specifically, these technologies enable IT departments to further drive down operating costs, focus their spending on systems that differentiate the business and ultimately enable IT to become a more strategic asset.

I am pleased that ESS continues to be at the forefront of technology innovations that offer the potential to provide new benefits to our customers including those mentioned above. You can be assured that the software development and product management teams at ESS are evaluating these new technologies carefully against our product solution roadmaps for the company’s GHG and carbon management, environmental compliance, health & safety, corporate responsibility reporting and crisis management software solutions.

Add comment November 11th, 2008