Windows Azure: Microsoft launches private cloud offering

Microsoft unveils Azure appliance with Dell, Fujitsu and HP

Microsoft has struck new partnerships that will see its Windows Azure cloud platform appear as a private cloud offering.

The Azure cloud platform - which provides scalable computing power and storage, as well as a number of other online services hosted on Microsoft datacentres - is Microsoft's most high-profile cloud push to date.

Azure has already attracted more than 10,000 users. However, its take-up is thought to be trailing similar offerings by rivals such as Amazon - considered to be the largest seller of such services - Salesforce and Rackspace.

At its Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington yesterday, Microsoft took the wraps off the Windows Azure Platform Appliance.

The appliance can be used by organisations to run Windows Azure as a private cloud.

"Some customers are looking for more control than a public cloud offering can provide - control over things like physical location, proximity to other systems, data management, and regulatory compliance," Robert Wahbe, corporate VP of Microsoft's server and tools unit, said in a blog post.

By allowing customers to run Azure in their own datacentres, Microsoft is making an effort to address security and governance issues caused by uncertainty over where data is stored in public clouds - common complaints around such services.

Previously using Azure meant running services from Microsoft datacentres
(Photo credit: Microsoft)

The appliance "consists of Windows Azure, SQL Azure and a Microsoft-specified configuration of network, storage and server hardware", according to Microsoft.

Designed for service providers, governments and large enterprises, the appliance is currently in "limited production release to a small set of customers and partners", Microsoft added, with a full roadmap to be developed subsequently.

Fujitsu is among the companies that have signed up to use Azure, announcing yesterday that it will run the service from its own datacentres, the first of which will be Fujitsu's Tatebayashi System Center in Japan by the end of 2010. It will add Azure to datacentres in other locations later on.

As well as running its own services on the Azure appliance, Fujitsu is aiming to use Azure to sell cloud services such as system integration to customers and ISVs. It's also working on creating an Azure appliance built on Fujitsu hardware.

Dell too plans to deploy the Azure appliance in its own datacentres to sell cloud offerings, including hosting, to its customers and is also developing an own-brand Azure appliance.

HP also has plans to sell its own Azure appliance, which customers will be able to use in their own or HP's datacentres.

In addition, Microsoft used its Partner Conference to announce ecommerce giant eBay as the first major user of the Azure appliance, which it will deploy in two of its datacentres.