Microsoft Looks to Maximize Revenue by Nixing Private Azure Hosting

From DailyTech: When Microsoft announced the release of its first cloud computing OS, Windows Azure, many Microsoft testers were predictably thrilled. The OS, while formative, seemed well equipped to bring the perks of Windows into a cloud computing world. Among the things some developers were hoping for was the ability to purchase licenses for Azure to run private clouds, creating revenue for new and existing businesses or saving money on local computing costs.

Microsoft nixed such ideas recently, announcing that it won't allow locally hosted deployments. It will instead seek to control the provision of services to Azure users, setting up a system in which it will ultimately control the revenue once it starts charging for its products, likely after the OS is formally released later this year.

The ability to maintain control over the platform is another reason Microsoft cites for implementing such a system -- in fact its the primary reason to adopt such a scheme say Windows managers.

Microsoft senior product manager Steven Martin describes, "We don't envision something on our price list called 'Windows Azure' that is sold for on-premises deployment. Some implementation details aren't going to be practical for customers, such as our global data-center hardware design and large scale multi-tenancy features which are integral to Windows Azure and the Azure services platform."

First released in October, Azure provides developers with the ability to create architectures for cloud computer ecosystems. In such setups, the back-end is centralized servers operated and maintained by Microsoft. Microsoft's chief software architect Ray Ozzie called Azure "gaming changing" when it was released late last year.

View: Article @ Source Site