Microsoft Azure Gains Infrastructure-as-a-Service Option

Microsoft has provided more insight into the upgrades of Windows Azure, which Redmond claims makes it an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) as well as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).

Developers, system administrators and other IT professionals were given a deep dive into Azure’s new services via a Web cast the afternoon of 7 June that also presented a discussion on how Microsoft is providing Linux operating system support in Azure alongside Windows within the Azure cloud environment.

Virtual Machines

Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the Windows Azure application platform, demonstrated how new virtual machines could be created using a simple Wizard process and deployed on any server available. He described the Azure portal experience as “a really powerful and flexible way to do it.”

“There’s full support directly in the portal for creating any number of virtual machines using images we provide. Just like on a Windows machine, I can configure this Linux-based VM, capture it as a reusable image, then basically create any new number of VMs based on that and have everything pre-installed when I create it,” Guthrie said.

He also demonstrated how VMs created in Azure can be backed up to virtual storage as well as a feature called “Continuous Geo-Replication” for automatically backing up VMs operating in one data center to another data center miles away for disaster recovery purposes.

Besides the latest Windows Server versions supported in Azure, including the Server 2012 release candidate, Microsoft identified these Linux OSes that will also be supported: OpenSUSE 12.1, CentOS-6.2, Ubuntu 12.04 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, SP2.

Among the new Azure services coming from Microsoft are the following:

• Windows Azure Virtual Machines – Virtual Machines will allow an enterprise to move its virtual hard disks (VHDs) back and forth between on-premises and the cloud. Users can transfer workloads such as SQL Server or SharePoint to the cloud or manage customised Windows Servers or Linux images.
• Windows Azure Virtual Network – This feature allows users to provision virtual private networks (VPNs) in Windows Azure to move between on-premise and cloud environments. It provides control over such things as network topology, configuration of IP addresses and security policies and using the industry-standard IPSEC protocol.
• Windows Azure Web Sites – This site building service supports .NET, Node.js, and PHP using common deployment techniques like Git and FTP.  It will also enable deployment of open source applications like WordPress, Joomla, DotNetNuke, Umbraco, and Drupal in a cloud environment.
• New tools, language support, and SDK – The Windows Azure SDK adds new developer capabilities for Java, PHP, and .NET, as well as the addition of Python as a supported language on Windows Azure. The SDK also provides support for both Windows and the Macintosh.
• Increased Global Availability – Windows Azure is being expanded to customers in 48 new countries, including Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, Egypt and Ukraine, for a total of 89 countries and 19 different currencies.

Cloud Partners

Microsoft is partnering with a number of organisations, many of them representing various Linux distributions, to support the new Azure IaaS offering. Another partner, RightScale, a cloud management service provider, explained during the Web cast how it will integrate with Azure.

“Microsoft clearly knows how to run mobile, cloud-scale infrastructure with a high degree of operational excellence,” said Michael Crandell, CEO of RightScale. “This is a cloud that we and our customers can count on.”

Crandell also said the integration of IaaS with PaaS “is really an industry first and it provides an entire environment for the development and deployment of apps that we think is going to be very powerful.”

He also noted that Azure’s support of Linux “is a clear commitment by Microsoft to openness.”

Microsoft originally considered open source Linux to be an interloper, unfairly undercutting Microsoft’s proprietary software model. But in more recent years, Microsoft has come to see open source as a permanent fixture in the tech industry and has enabled greater interoperability with open source and Windows software. Microsoft offered interoperability with SUSE Linux at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco 21 May.

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