Dell, HP, and Fujitsu will all be developing and selling Windows Azure platform appliances in the next couple months. Initially, the companies will be selling services hosted from their own data centers; this will then be expanded to include private sale and hosting of platform appliances. Dell hopes to have appliances running within its own data centers by January, and expects to be selling the systems to third parties within 12 months.
The latest company to switch to the Windows Azure cloud server is eBay. eBay uses Windows Azure hosting for its iPad listings, an early pilot deployment to prove the viability of the platform. eBay plans to expand this, first using Windows Azure appliances to host internal business applications, and ultimately hosting all business operations on a privately owned Windows Azure-powered cloud. The cloud platform appliance will be an all-in-one combination of server hardware, networking infrastructure, storage, and software allowing large companies to create private clouds.
