Free Windows Azure SDK Beta for Intuit Partner Platform

The free Windows Azure software development kit for Intuit Partner Platform is the product of a marriage between the Cloud platforms of Microsoft and Intuit. The SDK is currently available to developers at no charge, an understandable fact, especially as the release is merely in Beta stage. Behind the Windows Azure SDK Beta for Intuit Partner Platform lies a joint vision from the two companies to integrate the capabilities of their respective Cloud-based services platforms.

According to Microsoft, the marriage of Intuit Partner Platform and Windows Azure platform will be beneficial not only to channel partners, but also to .NET/Visual Studio/Windows Azure and Intuit Partner Platform developers, as well as to customers, especially small businesses leveraging QuickBooks financial solutions. Per the agreement, the duo will also deliver Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity applications through the Intuit App Center to small businesses customers.

“Intuit and Microsoft are trusted technology partners to small business,” revealed Walid Abu-Hadba, Microsoft corporate vice president of the Developer & Platform Evangelism Organization. “By combining the pooled technology assets of our developer communities, we stand to produce an outpouring of new applications to help small businesses enhance their competitive edge.”

The two companies stress the fact that in excess of 750,000 development firms and channel partners will be able to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the agreement in order to offer new applications and services to customers. Developers using the Microsoft platform will now have a way to reach Intuit’s loyal customers. At the same time, members of Intuit’s developer community will be able to tap the Redmond company’s cloud platform and tools to add new functionality to Intuit’s core application.

“Intuit is driven to help small businesses succeed by improving their bottom line,” stated Bill Lucchini, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Platform as a Service Group. “The Intuit App Center is a huge breakthrough, allowing us to get innovative apps that solve real problems in users’ hands faster than ever before. Now, Microsoft developers can enhance their businesses with access to the small-business channel, the Intuit App Center will get stronger and small businesses will reap the rewards of all this innovation.”