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Microsoft Cloud Day

I spent this tuesday at Microsoft in Kista for an event with the name Cloud Day. The main topic was of course Windows Azure. It is really not a question if the cloud should be used, but more what the cloud could be used for, and how?

When it comes to PaaS (Platform as a Service) Windows Azure offers a great advantage compared to traditional hosting. You only pay for the bandwidth and server needs you have at the moment. There are great savings to be made. But at the same time this presents a new challenge for system architechts, who have to think of for instance each database call as a potential cost.

In the future Microsoft will publish an online version of all their software as SaaS (Software as a Service). Today there is already the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), which contains Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communicator and Office Live Meeting.

Apart from these topics we also got a preview of what is coming up in the cloud area. Two products were named, Windows Intune and Windows Azure Codename "Dallas". Definately worth checking out!
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