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The fact that you have Linux as an option is rather surprising. Azure is primarily a Windows cloud computing environment which a very large group of businesses are interested in. If you're looking to deploy an enterprise cluster of Linux servers and services, you're probably in the wrong place.

It's not at all surprising, and yes, Linux is a supported option, and MS will hook you up with companies that provide support for that kind of configuration.

Azure was MS- and Windows-specific a few years ago, but it tries hard not to be that anymore. It's not just about Windows vs Linux, but also e.g. making SDKs for many programming languages on many different platforms. Then there's stuff like cloud backends for mobile platforms, which includes iOS and Android support.

Granted, most people who go to Azure still do so to do Windows stuff. And that's probably going to be what it's best at for a long time to come. But it's not just about that anymore.

The fact that you have Linux as an option is rather surprising. Azure is primarily a Windows cloud computing environment which a very large group of businesses are interested in. If you're looking to deploy an enterprise cluster of Linux servers and services, you're probably in the wrong place.

It's not at all surprising, and yes, Linux is a supported option, and MS will hook you up with companies that provide support for that kind of configuration.

Azure was MS- and Windows-specific a few years ago, but it tries hard not to be that anymore. It's not just about Windows vs Linux, but also e.g. making SDKs for many programming languages on many different platforms. Then there's stuff like cloud backends for mobile platforms, which includes iOS and Android support.

Granted, most people who go to Azure still do so to do Windows stuff. And that's probably going to be what it's best at for a long time to come. But it's not just about that anymore.

Out of curiosity, does somebody already offer a service where you can put your Windows Shares and even Domain Controller to cloud? Then you would use them transparently and users could also log in to them at home. Is this possible?

Uh, Yea. That's partially what this whole cloud thing is about.

Users have been able to login to the network, servers(RDP/Citrix), workstations(PCAnywhere - GoToMyPC) since ~1994. The servers can be located as physical machines in any datacenter or, as cloudy virtual machines on Azure, Amazon, Rackspace, and a thousand other VM/VPS providers.

Some service providers, including Microsoft Azure, offer the discreet services(e.g. AD, Sharepoint, Exchange) without any hardware or VM or OS management. You just buy metered Active Directory Service.

Right here, silly!

And here!

And here!

HTH!

1) Do not use Microsoft products 2) Rinse and repeat. Don't tell me it's unavoidable because that's bullshit. There is always a choice, you are just too comfortable and/or inflexible to use an alternative.

These days Microsoft is the "alternative" and Linux is the incumbent. A vast majority of large data centers run on Linux. Microsoft is the outsider trying to break in, but without any compelling story beyond pure spin and with a chronically horrible brand reputation. I sense that a few diehard Microsoft-addled PHBs will go the Azure way nonetheless, and hilarity will ensue for everyone except the victims.

Operating systems run on data centers, not vice versa.

You can run Linux on Azure.
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/linux/tutorials/virtual-machine-from-gallery/
Stop the lame FUD, it only makes you look stupid and uninformed.

Hello,

While raising the price on an enterprise product is a good way to boost short-term revenue, it seems to me that companies might begin to seek less expensive alternatives. In this case, though, that might not be Linux at all.

I haven't seen any mention of this so far, but I have to wonder if the price increase might be an attempt to make enterprises look at Windows Azure as an alternative to continuing to run their own datacenters.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

If you don't care about running a datacenter, there is also Windows Azure cloud hosting platform. It directly integrates with your existing MS stack (Visual Studio, IIS server software) and is beauty to work with. I can only recommended Azure so much, but trust me, it's your dreams come true.

Your dreams come true...

Sorry, but I prefer to use a vendor who got a clue.

If you don't want to use Linux in your datacenter setup (and not many of us do), it's better to get a Microsoft router. This is the same technology they use in newest airplanes and space shuttles - ie., top notch tech.

If you don't care about running a datacenter, there is also Windows Azure cloud hosting platform. It directly integrates with your existing MS stack (Visual Studio, IIS server software) and is beauty to work with. I can only recommended Azure so much, but trust me, it's your dreams come true.

- Mark Johnsson

you can think what you like of course, but windows fanbois have been claiming that linux will fail soon as much as linux fanbois have been claiming that it will soon be year of the linux desktop.

neither will fail, and if you measure success the same way that microsoft does (profit) then linux is a huge success.

ultimately microsoft will do whatever makes them money regardless of what their fan base believes, and there is money in linux so microsoft also wants their finger in the linux pie... do you think microsoft would have ever offered linux guests on azure if there wasn't a demand for it and they couldn't make a tonne of money?

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/linux/

Ugh, they aren't even in the same ballpark. Microsoft use their cloud server infrastructure for all sorts of things.

THIS is the difference between a shitty cheapskate gaming company that mistreats their employees and a legitimate enterprise vendor.

EA provisioned literally *dozens* of servers for Simcity 5. MSFT is provisioning 300,000 servers out of countless servers operating the Azure network.

It's exotic relative to Java and PHP in a sense that it has far fewer deployments in relative figures. Also, websites like Reddit are typically not the kind of people you see shopping for cloud services. It used to be targeted mainly at enterprises, and those guys usually do Java (because everyone does), .NET (because every MS shop does, and they're one), or PHP (because it's cheap).

Times a-changing, though, and these days "cloud services" also includes simple web hosting, where a much broader audience comes in. That's why we now have a Python SDK for Azure now, and support for Django projects, complete with one-click deployment to Azure, in Python Tools for VS - and there's more done in that area in the upcoming 2.0 release.

Call this from a cronjob script which should then take suitable action if the date is too close.

Actually, Microsoft has a wide variety of SLAs with financial penalties covering the Azure cloud. I expect customers will be able to claim at least a 10% service credit on this, as it's definitely an issue within Microsoft's control and definitely would cause a miss of the monthly availability number.

Review http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/legal/sla/ if you're interested in the Azure SLAs. Interestingly, Amazon has a much less tough SLA, as it's calculated on a yearly basis and doesn't have as brutal penalties (Amazon at most credits 10%; Microsoft credits up to 25%).

The really amazing thing is that if you look at their service dashboard, it took them 12 hours to update the certificates on their site:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/service-dashboard/

They spent several hours doing "test deployments" ... while it's great to make sure you aren't going to make something worse, updating an SSL cert isn't exactly rocket science. I'd had to see how long it took to recover from a more serious service issue triggered by a software bug.

Ironically, Ubuntu runs on Azure these days (it's listed as one of the stock options when you create a new VM).

at least you can fit all the linux exploits in a single post.... it would require a rather large book to highlight windows, sql server and iis exploits

your message just isn't getting through because big companies keep investing in linux... even microsoft hosts linux vms on azure so it can get in on the action
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/linux/

maybe you should put some bandaids on those "open sores" of yours

Would you go to do your grocery shopping and only find out how much each item you have bought is at the cashier? I think not...

I thought thats exactly what happens in most of the US, what with sales tax etc added at the till?

Azure also has a cost calculator, here https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/

Looks like it. I got this from the Azure team just after cancelling my subscription today. Notice the date.

"This mail is confirmation that your subscription to 3-Month Free Trial has been cancelled on Thursday, March 01, 2012. Contact one of our team members today at http://windowsazure.com/Support if you have any questions, or would like assistance. Thank you for using Microsoft Online Services. Windows Azure"

I'm on the East Coast I cancelled at about 9pm EST 2/29/2012. If you go sign up for a free subscription and cancel it you should see the same thing.

To see what the heck is going on:
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/support/service-dashboard/

You're dead wrong. Microsoft barely exists ouside the desktop and some AD/Exchange setups.

Sure, because Azure doesn't exist, nobody uses IIS for large website, nobody uses Dynamics and no big software vendor develops using Microsoft technology.

There's a reason MS is as big as it is, people and companies use their stuff. They may not be the biggest player in every market, but they are by no means insignificant.

BizSpark
DreamSpark
WebsiteSpark
SQL 180-day trial
SQL Express
Azure free trial

We have a "mainframe" of sorts...its called Windows Azure :)

http://www.windowsazure.com/