Microsoft aims to deliver the industry’s most complete cloud by pulling together Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics, said Satya Nadella, speaking at a company event in San Francisco.
Microsoft announced several enhancements to its hyper-scale, enterprise-grade, hybrid cloud platform, including the new Azure G-series of virtual machines and Premium Storage; the general availability of the Microsoft Cloud Platform System, powered by Dell; partnerships with Cloudera Inc. and CoreOS; and a new Azure Marketplace.
Some highlights:
- Microsoft says worldwide demand for cloud computing continues to accelerate
- A new Azure region goes online in Australia next week.
- By the end of 2014, Azure will be operational in 19 regions around the world — at least double the number of any other public cloud provider.
- Azure is adding new G-series of Xeon-powered virtual machines and premium storage options. These are aimed at the highest performance tiers.
- A new Microsoft Cloud Platform System (CPS), powered by Dell, brings together Azure, Windows Server and Microsoft System Center to deliver an “Azure-consistent cloud in a box.” With pre-integrated hardware from Dell and software from Microsoft, CPS delivers learnings from Azure to customers and partners with the control of an on-premises appliance. CPS will be available for purchase on Nov. 3.
- More than 40 percent of Azure revenue is coming from startups and ISVs.
- The new Azure Marketplace will connect developers and enterprise customers. Docker Inc. and Oracles are the latest partners to join.
- Cloudera, which specializes in enterprise analytic data management powered by Apache Hadoop, will be Azure certified by the end of 2014.
- CoreOS, the popular container-based Linux operating system, is now available to all Azure customers — broadens Microsoft’s support for Linux on Azure.