1 Feb. 2010: Microsoft's Azure cloud is open for biz

[GRH]

Several IT news sites are reporting today on the "official" opening of Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform. Azure has be in testing stages for a few years, Feb. 1 is the day Microsoft begins charging customers and developers for use of the Azure cloud. We'd like to know who has been testing this so far, and who will use Azure now that it's official? Will you use Azure as a service, or to connect with Microsoft on-site apps? 

[riva11]

Here an update about Microsoft Azure release : Windows Azure Drive Hits Beta

Microsoft has released a trial version of its Windows Azure Drive, a service that allows businesses to run their existing Windows applications in Microsoft's cloud environment through standard Windows NTFS APIs.

Azure Drive stores data in what Microsoft calls "page blobs." For the beta program, the company said it will bill customers "only for the storage space used by the Page Blob and the read/write transactions to the Page Blob," according to a post Tuesday on Microsoft's Windows Azure blog.

[GRH]

Thanks for posting this update. We will be watching this closely, and are curious how many of you will be working in the cloud of Azure?