Microsoft datacenter architect defects to Amazon

James Hamilton, an architect on Microsoft's Data Center Futures team, has decided to leave Microsoft for Amazon.com, as TechFlash first reported.

Hamilton is known at Microsoft for his work to popularize the container-model for datacenters. He was a member of Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie's Live Platform Services development team.  Hamilton's interests included "multi-tenant hosted systems, the management of very large scale systems, massively parallel data management systems, database security, and unstructured data management." Before joining the Live Core team, Hamilton was the general manager of the Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services team, and before that, SQL Server Architect and leader of the Security and Incubation Team.

Hamilton will be a Vice President on the Amazon Web Services team. (I asked Amazon for more specifics about Hamilton's new role but received no word back.)

Amazon has been doing everything it can to prep for Microsoft's entry into the cloud-hosted development space. Microsoft layed out its plans there in late October, when its executives detailed officially the company's Azure cloud platform.