Here are some random and early notes from the first half of the PDC’s keynote this morning, mostly about Azure.
- Windows Azure
- Cloud service operating system
- Part of the new cloud computing services platform (Azure Services Platform)
- New blog for Cloud Computing
- Will include Live Services, SQL Services, CRM, and SharePoint services as part of the platform
- Supports SOAP, REST, and POX
- App and the OS are managed separately
- All about scalability and availability
- High availability
- Highly redundant. No double failure of hardware can bring it down. Caching, load balancing also built in.
- Leverages Microsoft tools. Works with managed and native code
- New Cloud Templates for Azure in Visual Studio
- Identity management
- “SQL Server Data Services” is now “SQL Data Services”
- Will include SQL Database, Reporting Services and Analysis Services
- A lot of focus on migrating the enterprise application strategy to the cloud concept
- Partners include bluehoo and Red Prairie
- Oslo is the “new modeling platform”
- Uses a new language called “m”
So what do I make if all of this? There were a lot of keywords, buzzwords, power words, etc thrown out. Don;t get me wrong, it all sounds great. But it was very heavy on buzz and light on details. That’s not totally fair as I expect the details will come out this week, but the problem with all of this is that the audience generally are types who want to see things in action. The good news is that the direction sounds great, right on target. The whole cloud services paradigm is where its at.
