Microsoft made its Windows Azure cloud computing platform more developer-friendly with a series of enhancements, including new open-source software support, SQL Azure database improvements and more.
Microsoft has
announced a series of updates to the
Windows
Azure platform to help developers build on the cloud computing
platform, including new open-source capabilities, SQL Azure database
enhancements and a simplified Windows Azure billing and management experience.
Among the new
open-source capabilities in Windows Azure, Microsoft said developers will
benefit from the first-ever Windows Azure software development kit, including
language libraries for Node.js, with support for hosting, storage and service
bus. There will also be an Apache Hadoop-based service for Windows Azure and a
number of key usability and functional enhancements to Java capabilities.
In a
Dec. 12 blog post, Bob Kelly, corporate vice
president for Microsoft's Windows Azure marketing team, said access to Azure
libraries for .NET, Java and Node.js is now available under Apache 2 open-source
license and hosted on GitHub. A new Windows Azure SDK for Node.js makes Windows
Azure a first-class environment for Node applications. In addition, a limited
preview of an Apache Hadoop based service for Windows Azure enables Hadoop applications
to be deployed in hours instead of days.
Kelly also said:
Expanding our support for more
languages, Node.js language libraries have been added to the Windows Azure SDK.
The libraries enable Node.js development capabilities for Windows Azure
storage, which includes blob, table, and queues. Windows Azure PowerShell
for Node.js is also included in the Windows Azure SDK to provide command-line
development and deployment of applications. Along with being packaged in the
single Windows Azure SDK download, source code for the Node.js and Java client
libraries is also available on GitHub.com. To help get started developing with
Node.js, new content, tutorials, samples and application templates can be found
on Microsoft.com/windowsazure (navigate to "Develop").
In addition,
Microsoft announced a major update to the Windows Azure Plug-in for Eclipse
with Java, as well as support for other open-source technologies such as
MongoDB, Apache Solr and Lucene, and Memcached.
Another key
enhancement to Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud computing platform is that the
maximum database size for SQL Azure will triple, moving from 50GB to 150GB, and
will include a new price cap for the largest SQL Azure databases, reducing the
effective price 67 percent per gigabyte.
Among the
updates to the billing and management experience is a truly free 90-day trial
period, including spending caps that simplify the sign-up process.
Additionally, customers can check out the new Windows Azure Management Portal
to view real-time usage and billing details.
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