Windows Azure

微软的Azure服务平台 是即将推出的云端操作系统服务平台，目的是“提供一个广阔范围的互联网服务，让用户可以无论在网上或离线时均可享用”[1]。这是微软公司继其微软线上服务(Microsoft Online Services)之后踏进云端运算的第一步。 Windows Azure是Azure平台服务的组件之一，由微软首席软件架构师雷·奥兹在2008年10月27日于微软专业开发人员大会（PDC）上宣布。Windows Azure之前于2008年10月1日的微软学生技术日上由史蒂夫·巴尔默以“Windows Cloud”的名称发布[2][3]。史蒂夫·巴尔默称，Windows Azure是基于Windows Server的，并具有地域复制、网络管理模型和面向服务的架构（SOA）等特性。PDC 2008 的参与者都可以得到软件的社群技术预览(Community Technology Preview，CTP)[4]，估计会在2009年第二季会到期。 http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Windows_Azure&variant=zh-hans 微软最近推出自己的云计算操作系统平台：Windows Azure。Windows Azure 将把微软的 S+S（软件+服务）战略推入新的层次，直接和 Amazon, Google, IBM, Sun 这些云计算提供商火拼。 什么是 Windows Azure，微软对其描述是： Windows® Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft® data centers. To build these applications and services, developers can use their existing Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 expertise. In addition, Windows Azure supports popular standards and protocols including SOAP, REST, and XML. Windows Azure is an open platform that will support both Microsoft and non-Microsoft languages and environments. 其实 Azure 就是微软云计算的所有的基础，从 Live 服务，到数据服务，到提供 SharePoint 和 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 的空间服务。 下面是微软云计算操作系统包括的服务： Computation Services Ability to run Microsoft ASP.NET Web applications or .NET code in the cloud Service hosting environment that includes Internet Information Services 7.0 and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Security supported by flexible Code Access Security policies Small runtime API that supports logging and local scratch storage Web portal that helps you deploy, scale, and upgrade your services quickly and easily Simple data storage services Blobs, tables, and queues hosted in the cloud, close to your computation Authenticated access and triple replication to help keep your data safe Easy access to data with simple REST interfaces, available remotely and from the data center Development Tools Complete offline development environment, including computation and storage services Complete command-line SDK tools and samples Visual Studio add-in that enables local debugging 微软希望通过这一平台扩展他们的桌面和服务产品线，微软表示：Windows Azure 支持的标准和协议 SOAP，REST 和 XML，Windows Azure 也欢迎第三方工具和语言如 Eclipse, Ruby, PHP 和 Python 等。另外微软也支持 OpenID，这一举措 4 亿多的 Live ID可以作为 OpenID，微软也朝着开放的路线前进。 via Windows Azure: Microsoft Moves to the Cloud 不管你承认与否，云计算和虚拟化技术已经离我们越来越近了。如何能够轻巧的在云中漫步，则是互联网公司争取用户和未来的必要条件。 http://fairyfish.net/2008/11/06/windows-azure-microsoft-moves-to-the-cloud/