Microsoft Windows Azure Revisited

Well it almost seems ages ago, but it almost two years ago Microsoft launched Windows Azure. After the PDC’08 I wrote a post called the future is in the cloud and some responded: “this cloud thing is going to be huge. But, the question if Microsoft will also be huge. I think the clear market leader at the moment is Amazon, followed by Google”.

Where is it now? According to this article ‘Microsoft's Windows Azure: What a difference a year makes’ a lot has changed. I notice it to as Windows Azure is getting more press releases here in the Netherlands in different magazine (on- and offline). Even I have just recently wrote another article around Service Bus for Dutch Technet magazine, which basically a little more detailed story found on Windows Azure website.

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Cloud computing is starting to be big business and Microsoft will be one of the providers for it together with Google and Amazon. As IT professional I am starting to get more involved into it, like integration between on-premise systems with SalesForce (CRM Cloud application). See some of my previous posts.

I do believe that it will not take long before companies will fully embrace cloud computing and adopt Windows Azure or offerings by Google, Amazon and others. By then a lot of us will work on applications and services running in the cloud and connecting them to on-premise applications and systems. BizTalk certainly will play a role in it.

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