Microsoft has upgraded Windows Azure Store with new add-ons and also extended the availability to 11 countries. The store enables you to discover, purchase and provision various add-on services for your cloud based applications either using free package or with paid service packages. For example, you can make use of ClearDB to build apps using native MySQL databases on the cloud.
The Windows Azure store, which is categorized into app services and data, can be accessed from within the Windows Azure Management Portal dashboard. You have to select Store item located under New section and setup addons by following the instructions. You can then manage the add-ons easily by selecting them from the navigation panel and selecting the name of the service you want to work with.
The add-on management dashboard contains five options such as Manage, Connection Info, Upgrade, Contact Settings and Delete. The Upgrade option enables you to upgrade the existing free service to a paid package without having to delete or recreate the service. Moreover, the purchases are billed along with the regular Windows Azure bill thus avoiding the need to re-enter a credit card or setup an alternate payment mechanism with the add-on provider.
Windows Azure Store was originally announced and previewed at the Microsoft Build conference in October 2012. As of the time of this writing, Windows Azure Store is available in 11 countries - US, UK, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Spain and South Korea.
According to official sources, Microsoft is planning to expand the availability of Windows Store for more countries in the next few months but refused to disclose any additional information.
"The Windows Azure Store is a great opportunity for developers who want to sell their services to Windows Azure customers," says Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Server and Tools.
Scott mentions that Netherlands will be probably included in the next update in reply to a query posted by a developer. Moreover, several developers from Bulgaria, Russia, Singapore, Finland, Australia and New Zealand have requested for the availability of Windows Azure Store.