Microsoft Azure – cloud computing platform from Microsoft

With big players and enterprises looking up at cloud computing and with salesforce.com taking the lead for on demand applications, can Microsoft be far behind.

At the recently concluded PDC 2008 , MS launched Microsoft Azure ; a host of on demand services.

In fact not in the true sense of cloud computing, Microsoft had started the project codenamed Hailstorm. Initially called .NET My Services it was supposed to be a framework to build applications upon. However for some reason it did not make its mark.

With various changes in the internet shelf of Microsoft, like introduction of Live Services, Skydrive, Office Workspace it was soon becoming ominous that MS shall be launching a new framework for the developer community to embrace.

Microsoft Azure looks all set for cloud computing and even has a SDK/tools which integrate with Visual Studio 2008 ; so developers can code in C# , and other .NET languages.

Some related resources can also be found in the Azure MSDN site.

Related articles

• Windows Azure: A Clear Perspective on Cloud Computing
• Windows Azure: Microsoft Moves to the Cloud
• Microsoft launches Windows Azure, its “cloud OS”
• Hey Scoble – startups aren’t the cat’s ass you think they are

My S+S writeup gets an acknowledgement

I had published my random thoughts on S+S Wiki in our organization Wiki .

Yesterday I receive a mail , that my Wiki has been selected as the best Wiki of the week.

Hoping, it turns out to be the Wiki of the year .

S+S and SaaS – A Brief Comparison

Though the architecture S+S and SaaS , sound very similar , there are several differences .

For the common people
SaaS – Software which completely based on the web
S+S – Collaboration of desktop software ( offline ) and services ( maybe
web or other wireless services )

Technical
SaaS – Mostly revolves around the REST API.
S+S – Not entirely built around the REST API, though thin clients may access REST to make use of the services.

An example of transition from SaaS to S+S can be found here.