Services in the cloud: Windows Azure

As Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference (PDC) is rolling in Los Angeles, it's no surprise announcements are being made. Yes, Windows 7 is coming, and there's already a wealth of information available on MSDN in the format of a Developer Guide. Great!

Windows 7 appears to be more light-weight than Vista, but also backwards compatible with new features for everyone. For instance, the Office 2007 style ribbon seems to be there.

But then, there's Windows Azure. Azure is a cloud-computing version of Windows, allowing developers to write .NET code to run on the Azure platform. Developers already have their pre-release SDKs which is something I'm planning to investigate soon enough. There's also a new page called www.azure.com to have more information. Go check it out!

As a sidenote, Embarcadero/CodeGear announced Delphi Prism, which is RemObject's Oxygene in new clothing. Shortly put, it's Delphi .NET inside the Visual Studio IDE. Maybe something to look at.