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What Is Going on with PaaS?
Despite huge investments and years in development, PaaS has not managed to attract many customers so far. This article digests what several analysts are saying regarding the current status of PaaS and its future.
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Automate All Things! Support for DevOps Tool Puppet Added to Windows Azure
Want to do DevOps automation in a Microsoft world? Typically that meant using Microsoft-provided tools like PowerShell and System Center instead of the popular open source tools that have been slow to support the full Microsoft product stack. That’s beginning to change as developers and system administrators can now use tools like Puppet to provision and manage resources in Windows Azure.
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Release of BizTalk Services Signals “Cloud First” Transition for Microsoft Integration Platform
After a long incubation period, Microsoft released its cloud-based integration tool called Windows Azure BizTalk Services. While reiterating their commitment to their on-premises integration tools, Microsoft has said that it will push innovation to its cloud platform first.
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Project Monaco Brings Visual Studio to the Web
Microsoft has released Visual Studio Online which brings a form of the its popular software development IDE to the web. As part of this release small teams of developers can use this service for free, and use it from non-Windows based clients.
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Windows Azure SDK 2.2 Adds Visual Studio 2013, Integrated Sign-in and Filter Support
Microsoft has released Windows Azure SDK 2.2 with support for integrated sign-in, Visual Studio 2013 in addition to the ability to filter subscriptions/regions. The latest update also provides a set of pre-configured VM images of VS 2013 available within the Windows Azure Management Portal for use by MSDN subscribers.
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Azul Systems Releases Zulu, an OpenJDK Build for Windows Azure At JavaOne
Following an announcement of their partnership in July this year, Azul Systems and Microsoft Open Technologies have now release a GA version of Zulu for Windows Azure. Licensed under the terms of the GPLv2 open source license with the ClassPath Exception, Zulu is an OpenJDK-based JVM for Windows Server on the Windows Azure Cloud.
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Developers, Developers, Developers: Rackspace and Others Aggressively Court Key Cloud Consumer
Recent research has made it increasingly clear that developers hold the key to cloud adoption, and Rackspace is trying to make themselves an attractive option. The Rackspace Developer Discount program is designed to lower the barrier to entry and follows similar efforts by AWS and Microsoft.
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AWS and Microsoft Release Dueling Mobile Notification Services
Within days of each other, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) released mobile-friendly notification services aimed at developers. Both services make it possible to quickly and cheaply broadcast millions of messages to devices of all kinds. While similar on the surface, each service offers their own unique capabilities.
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Windows Azure with SQL AlwaysOn, Notification Hubs, AutoScale, Enhancements to VM and Load Balancer
Microsoft recently updated Windows Azure with support for SQL Server AlwaysOn, notification hubs, autoscale, virtual machines in addition to a new portal extension for operation logs and alerts.
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Microsoft Continues Ascent to OSS Relevance with Engine Yard for Windows Azure
At the end of June 2013, Engine Yard announced that they had formed a partnership with Microsoft. The first fruits of that partnership have been released as developers can now run the full Engine Yard platform-as-a-service stack on the Windows Azure cloud. This, coupled with updates to the OSS VM Depot repository, positions Microsoft as a reasonable host for a variety of open source platforms.
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Windows Azure SDK 2.1 with VS 2013, VM, Notification Hub, Cloud Services, PowerShell cmdlets Support
Microsoft has released an updated version of Windows Azure SDK with support for Visual Studio 2013, service bus notification hub, cloud services, virtual machines including new cmdlets for PowerShell.
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Closing the Gap: Latest Windows Azure Release Beefs Up Database, Load Balancing
Microsoft VP Scott Guthrie announced a range of updates to Windows Azure that fill in platform gaps while leapfrogging market leader AWS in one particular area. The new database export service provides a much-needed backup capability – albeit with controversial pricing – and the updated Traffic Manager delivers a cross-region load balancing experience that appears superior to what AWS offers.
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Build 2013 Keynote Day 2 Highlights
Coverage of Build 2013 continues with the highlights of Day 2's keynote which focused on developers, developers, developers.
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Windows Azure Introduces Per Minute Billing and Monetary Credits for MSDN Subscribers
Microsoft has updated Windows Azure with per minute billing based on actual usage, monetary credit for different levels of MSDN subscribers including the ability to check credit status from within the management portal.
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Multi-Factor Authentication For Windows Azure Hosted Apps
Microsoft recently announced preview of Multi-Factor Authentication in Windows Azure. This can be enabled for Windows Azure Management portal, Microsoft Online Services such as Office 365, as well as custom applications.