Microsoft’s much publicized cloud computing platform Azure, is now finally open for business. Available for customers in 21 countries, both Windows Azure and SQL Azure are now ready to be used. The company has been working on Azure for over three years which allows developers to deploy/host applications at Microsoft data centers. The applications will run on the “cloud operation environment/system” called Windows Azure. Development can easily to done in good old Visual Studio and then later hosted on Azure.

But Microsoft is not alone in providing cloud computing services. The company faces significant competition from IBM, Google, Amazon and even SalesForce. Microsoft is also forced to bring prices down to compete with ISPs which offer very low priced web hosting solutions today. Only time will tell whether the Redmond giant is able to tactfully convince customers to use its services.

[source: blogs.msdn.com]