Updated: 12:30 PM 10.27.08

At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC), Microsoft unveiled their entrance into Cloud Computing with the launch of the Azure Services Platform. Billed as "an internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers," Azure is designed to provide an "operating system" and a set of developer services that will enable a broadening of the Microsoft platform from on-premise to the Cloud.

Azure is designed to allow Microsoft developers "to quickly and easily create applications running in the cloud using their existing skills with Microsoft Visual Studio development environments and the .NET Framework." More information on the Azure Services Platform can be seen here.

Obviously with the information just being released hours ago, there is plenty of speculation around the features and functionality of this new Cloud. So I thought that I would quickly put down my thoughts as to how this plays in the current Cloud offerings as they exist. First, let’s take a look at the Cloud Pyramid:

Some quick notes:

• From the naming (Cloud Service Platform), Azure is clearly positioned as a "Platform" play here.
• This is the Ray Ozzie’s "Red Dog" project…probably why some of the presenters were wearing red shoes (?)
• Cloud Platforms, traditionally, offer development environments, using technologies that are somewhat restrictive or proprietary
• Azure introduces certain Services (e.g., .NET and SQL Services) as a means to Extend the functionality of the platform (e.g., Cloud Extender)
• Most similar to the Azure Cloud would be Google’s App Engine (where Python and possibly soon other languages are required for usage)
• With Azure, you do not get access to the root Operating System, as you would with an Infrastructure offering, which means you will be restricted to only what Microsoft enables within the Platform
• Azure pricing is not immediately available, however:
  • Consumption-based
  • Compute time measured in machine hours
  • Bandwidth charges to and from the Microsoft datacenters
  • Storage charges measured in GB’s
  • Transactional charges for GETs and PUTs – this, to me, seems to be something new to Cloud Computing and will be interesting to see how it is adopted
• According to Microsoft, there will be some limits to the first release of Azure Services which will be available without charge during the Community Technology Preview (CTP). Once launched commercially, the billing and services will cover:
  • Windows Azure – Compute and Storage services
  • .NET Services – Access Control, Service Bus, and/or Workflow Services
  • SQL Services- Database service for LOB applications
  • SharePoint Services (future) – SharePoint components that developers can utilize and build into their application
• Interesting use of Federated Identities that spans from on-premise to "in the cloud". This means SSO (Single Sign On) and ACLs (Access Control Lists) that move from on-premise .NET environments to the Azure Cloud
• Each Azure "instance" runs in a private dedicate Virtual Machine (VM) that has 2GB RAM and dedicated CPU (Core?) and a hard drive (size unconfirmed yet)
• Azure uses popular standards and protocols including: SOAP, XML and REST (e.g., API) however no GUI tool available yet.
• Microsoft to provide hosted Windows servers with full Admin access (not with Technical Preview). Supposedly you can choose how much RAM/CPU you want. To be released in 2009. *NEW*

I found this to be an interesting move by Microsoft. They clearly come in at the Cloud Platform level (almost in between the Platform and Infrastructure layers). Their inclusion of various "proprietary" extenders using .NET and other online Enterprise applications will, I believe, resonate well with the Enterprise. This is a pretty safe move made by Microsoft as they leverage various technology layers and extend services back and forth from the Cloud.

How does all of this work with GoGrid? Pretty well actually, since GoGrid has been providing numerous Windows Server 2003 and now 2008 clouds for some time. Given that we are a Cloud Infrastructure provider, GoGrid can be used in conjunction with Azure and some of the other Services coming from the announcements today. As I dive a bit deeper into the information from the next few days, I will either update this post or write some new articles. Stay tuned.

GoGrid recently released 4 new Windows Server 2008 images unique to Cloud Computing that brings a new level of features for PHP and ASP.NET developers. In the past, there was heavy segmentation between developers who used .NET for development and those who used PHP. Traditionally, .NET developers used the Windows platform while PHP developers remained fairly closely tied to Linux distributions. Windows Server 2008 marks a new generation of platform for both types of developers in that now with 1 server platform both PHP and ASP.NET applications can be run simultaneously on the same machine under the same OS. This means that companies and corporations can realize new cost savings and IT efficiencies by now allowing development on a single Windows Server 2008 platform.

GoGrid has released 4 new 32-bit Windows Server 2008 GoGrid Cloud Servers with the following configurations (with more on the way soon):

• Windows Server 2008 – IIS 7.0, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express, PHP5 (WISP stack)
• Windows Server 2008 – IIS 7.0, ASP.NET, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express, PHP5 (WISP+.NET stack)
• Windows Server 2008 – IIS 7.0, mySQL 5, PHP5 (WIMP stack)
• Windows Server 2008 – Apache, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express, PHP5 (WASP stack)

The two WISP stacks were fully vetted and optimized with the help of senior engineers within Microsoft, employing best practices for not only base-lining these WISP images, but also with IIS optimization and security.

As mentioned within the recent press release, “default PHP installations run extremely well on Windows Server 2008 without any need for additional fine-tuning and Windows is a solid infrastructure solution for PHP development and deployment. The combination of PHP, ASP.NET and the .NET framework is a robust offering for any type of developer utilizing Microsoft and Open Source technologies.”

GoGrid released these new images specifically for the Microsoft Professional Developer’s Conference 2008 (PDC) where GoGrid is exhibiting at booth #914. The PDC is Microsoft’s premier gathering of leading-edge developers and architects and is the event to learn about the future of the Microsoft platform, exchange ideas with fellow professionals and hear about upcoming Microsoft Server related products. Developers who utilize Microsoft technologies are encouraged to visit the GoGrid booth where they can receive a free trial of GoGrid Cloud Servers.

We will be adding fastCGI-enabled Windows Server 2008 images fairly soon which will further broaden GoGrid’s breadth and depth of Cloud Servers, marking GoGrid the most complete Cloud Infrastructure provider on the planet with Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS as the foundation.