DailyTech - Microsoft Azure to Hit in January

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Software Microsoft Azure to Hit in January
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - November 18, 2009 1:54 PM

12 comment(s) - last by Hellfire27.. on Nov 19 at 10:42 AM

Azure will be free the first month and go paid in February 2010

In October of 2008, Microsoft first unveiled its new Azure cloud-based application. The application was offered to developers for free to allow them to test out the service and get ready for the full introduction of the platform. Microsoft also held a contest earlier this year with $5,000 in prizes for several categories to get developers to build applications for Azure.

Microsoft had always said that Azure would be free for a limited time. Reuters reports that Microsoft has now announced that Azure will officially launch in full form on January 1, 2010. For the first month, the service will be free. Starting in February 2010 the service will move to a paid platform.

At its core Azure is a software platform for developers to use to write programs that allow customers to store data and more. Google and Amazon are already offering online services that use cloud architecture. Google has its free online word processing and productivity applications and Amazon has the aforementioned cloud-based storage it sells.

Exactly how much the service will cost on a monthly basis is unknown. Microsoft's Ray Ozzie announced the official launch date for the service at the annual Microsoft software developers conference Tuesday.

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To be stored on Danger servers

By aguilpa1 on 11/18/09, Rating: 0

RE: To be stored on Danger servers

By Cr0nJ0b on 11/18/2009 2:31:07 PM , Rating: 2

Come on...! that's not fair. So they lost a little bit of user data...Why is everyone so "glass is half empty"? They did get "most" of the data back for "most" of their users. And they forced a price drop in the side-kick to boot. It's all good.

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RE: To be stored on Danger servers

By Spivonious on 11/18/2009 2:38:06 PM , Rating: 3

Plus this is completely unrelated to the Sidekick incident.

Azure is all about built-in reliability. If one server fails, your app simply starts running on another one. The developer has no and needs no knowledge of where the app is running.

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RE: To be stored on Danger servers

By arazok on 11/18/09, Rating: -1

RE: To be stored on Danger servers

By damianrobertjones on 11/18/2009 4:07:36 PM , Rating: 5

PC: "You git"

Mac: (Smug)"Yay to my smug nature"
(Mac's Mother logs into the Guest account)

Mac: "Ahh crap, all gone"

PC: "Ba haa haaa"

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RE: To be stored on Danger servers

By quiksilvr on 11/18/2009 6:32:44 PM , Rating: 5

PC: So Windows 7 is a great success! In one month, it grabbed 4% market share in the US.

Mac: That's nice.

PC: So what's your market share, Mac?

Mac: ...Shut up.

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RE: To be stored on Danger servers

By mmcdonalataocdotgov on 11/19/2009 9:01:24 AM , Rating: 1

Mac: Isn't it great how all I ever say is what is wrong with you, and no one ever talks about my faults?

PC: That is because you write my lines... I mean, what faults, I wish I was as good as you.

Mac: Did you know that "gay" originally stood for "good as you?"

PC: Exactly.

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RE: To be stored on Danger servers

By sprockkets on 11/18/2009 2:59:29 PM , Rating: 2

Sidekick's backend server wasn't running Azure, it was running Sun hardware and Oracle other non-microsoft related stuff.

One possible reason why it took so long with data restoration is because they didn't bother backing up all the data before they did the SAN firmware upgrade. Allegedly Roz Ho, in charge of the Sidekick/"Zune phone" division said to stop the backup since it would take many days to finish and cost a lot of money.

People from Sun and the hardware SAN vendor came in and literally pieced the data back together, manually.

So if this was the reason, Microsoft doesn't deserve any slack whatsoever, because they neglected basic protocol. In the words of agent Q, "Always have an escape route." :)

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RE: To be stored on Danger servers

By Hellfire27 on 11/19/2009 10:42:57 AM , Rating: 2

SaaS offers huge advantages for businesses. Instead of having a huge upfront cost for a 1000 licenses (for something like Office), you can spread the expenditure over many years. And when the new version comes out you just switch to it. Plus, no upgrade hassle.

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This might be the future

By InternetGeek on 11/18/2009 4:36:42 PM , Rating: 1

Cloud computing offers several advantages. For example, you're not required to use the entire offering. You could just use the cloud to store your application, while keeping the data in-house. Should your application hit primetime you wouldn't have to worry about scability. MS would take care of that.