Microsoft Launches Azure Cloud Service Jan 1

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Microsoft's cloud-based storage will open for business on January 1, 2010.

This morning Microsoft's chief software architect Ray Ozzie announced that the Windows Azure cloud platform will switch to a production service for paying customers on January 1, 2010. On that date, Microsoft will "execute its production systems and billing systems" for the platform. The first month will be free, with billing starting in February 2010.

Reuters reports that Azure was originally launched in October 2008 at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, and has been in a community technology preview phase since its introduction. "Tens of thousands of developers have participated in the CTP and you've made a tremendous -- a tremendous -- impact on the product," Ozzie said at the Microsoft PDC in Los Angeles.

For the uninitiated, the Azure cloud platform provides web space to store data and also serves as an online platform for software developers to create programs. There's also a subsystem codenamed Dallas which provides a marketplace for public and commercial data, according to Infoworld. Wordpress and Cheezburger Network were just a few listed today at the PDC that currently use Azure.

Microsoft is already behind in the cloud game, trailing Amazon.com and Google, both of which offer cloud-base storage. As a storage solution, Azure will charge $0.15 per GB per month, up to 50 GB.

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Kevin Parrish
9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • rocky1234
    or I could store my data on my own hard drive for nothing each month just a thought.
    Reply
  • ckthecerealkiller
    That's still twice as much as Google's offering and I won't have to worry about another sidekick incident.
    Reply
  • acecombat
    rocky1234or I could store my data on my own hard drive for nothing each month just a thought.Until your place burns down or something and you have no offsite backup, not to mention the fact that the hard drives costs you in the first place ;)
    Reply
  • ptroen
    You know I gotta agree with Larry Ellison. WTH is a cloud?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FacYAI6DY0
    Reply
  • ubernoobie
    coolest logo yet ;D
    Reply
  • cheepstuff
    looks like cloud computing is inevitable...
    Reply
  • jellico
    rocky1234or I could store my data on my own hard drive for nothing each month just a thought.acecombat mentioned the backup aspect of cloud storage. But even beyond that, do you want to have to carry a USB flash drive everywhere you go? Do you ever work on projects with collegues or clients who are not all on the same network? Have you ever worked on a presentation with several people across the country by emailing the file around and then had pleasure of trying to consolidate all of the changes? Believe me, clouding storage and computing is a big deal.
    Reply
  • no a big deal is, companies having ALL your data.
    PRIVATE clouding storage would be a big deal. all these huge companies getting your data is suck.
    Reply
  • jellico
    nocloudplzno a big deal is, companies having ALL your data. PRIVATE clouding storage would be a big deal. all these huge companies getting your data is suck.Only a fool would put their unencrypted personal/private data on any network they don't exclusively control, so that's really not as big of an issue. However, there is a risk in sharing sensitive proprietary information in this fashion. Like anything else, there are always tradeoffs between risk and convenience.
    Reply