Windows Azure is an open platform that will support both Microsoft and non-Microsoft languages and environments. To build applications and services on Windows Azure, developers can use their existing Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 expertise. In addition, Windows Azure supports popular standards and protocols including SOAP, REST, XML, and PHP.
Use Windows Azure to:
- Add Web service capabilities to existing packaged applications
- Build, modify, and distribute applications to the Web with minimal on-premises resources
- Perform services (large-volume storage, batch processing, intense or large-volume computations, etc.) off premises
- Create, test, debug, and distribute Web services quickly and inexpensively
- Reduce costs of building and extending on-premises resources
- Reduce the effort and costs of IT management
