Microsoft Azure..new era to cloud computing

              Microsoft's Windows Azure Platform is a CLOUD COMPUTING offering that "provides a wide range of Internet services that can be consumed from both on-premises environments or the Internet"Initial reports cast doubt on the availability of on-premises deployment but recently the platform has been made available to early adoptors. It is Microsoft's first step into cloud computing following the launch of the Microsoft Online Services offering. In short, it's Microsoft's platform as a service.
 Azure has three core components: Compute, Storage and Fabric. As the names suggest, Compute provides computation environment with Web Role and Worker Role while Storage focuses on providing scalable storage (Blobs, Tables, Queue, Drives) for large scale needs.

Fabric (Windows Azure Fabric) makes up the physical underpinnings of the Windows Azure platform as the network of interconnected nodes consisting of servers, high-speed connections, and switches. Conceptually, the repetitive pattern of nodes and connections suggests a woven or fabric-like nature. Compute and Storage components are part of the Fabric.

Fabric resources and applications and services running on those resources are managed by the Windows Azure Fabric Controller service. It acts as the kernel of the Windows Azure distributed cloud operating system, providing scheduling, resource allocation, device management, and fault tolerance for the nodes in the Fabric. It also provides high-level application models for intelligently managing the complete application lifecycle, including deployment, health monitoring, upgrades, and de-activation.

Microsoft had completed 6,000 Irish installations of its cloud-based Windows Azure platform”. Executives at Microsoft are hoping that this figure will rise to 100,000 installations by 2011. Bob Muglia from Microsoft stated thaeryone is using Azure from large companies using it for departmental things to small start-ups using it to do new things. Examples of companies using Windows Azure in Ireland are Aer Lingus and HR Locker.