Microsoft‘s official release last week of its cloud computing platform, Azure, gives developers the option to build applications in the cloud via Microsoft‘s data centers, rather than in a company’s server. Giving customers this sort of flexibility in IT and software development is important to customers looking for ways to reduce costs, bandwidth demands and management responsibilities. Flexibility in delivery models is also Microsoft‘s key differentiator over cloud giant Google.
Cloud computing has become a key piece of an enterprise’s IT strategy, typically used in a hybrid (cloud plus on-premise) model of computing that offers customers the best of both worlds:
