Microsoft Preps New Platform for Web Apps, Codenamed Antares

Redmond-based software giant Microsoft is preparing the release of a new hosting framework for Web apps that would be accessible from both Windows Azure and private cloud datacenters, the latest reports inform.

It comes from Microsoft’s Azure App Platform Team, and features the codename of “Antares.” However, it is expected to become commercially available as the Microsoft Web Hosting Framework.

Reportedly, Microsoft mentioned this last week, during the opening of its Microsoft Hosting Summit 2012 in Bellevue, Wash.

Moreover, the software giant also listed a job opening on its website, pointing at the same platform. The listing is gone at the time of this article, but it can still be seen as a cached page.

Here’s what the job listing included:

The Antares team is changing the game by introducing a symmetrical Azure and on-prem hosting framework for many web applications created in many languages and stacks.

We are poised to offer developers a quick and painless Azure onramp experience as well as enable our partner to quickly setup a fully managed, secure, multi-tenant hosting environment on public or private clouds. If this is intriguing, talk to us in the Azure Application Platform team.

We are building the Microsoft Web Hosting Framework, a world class offering allowing for massive scale website lifecycle management on the Microsoft platform.

According to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, there is a chance that Microsoft is planning to replace the Microsoft Web platform with the new product.

Additionally, the new platform might have ties with the company’s upcoming Windows Server 8 and System Center 2012, both of which have been heavily optimized to be used in public and private cloud environments.

This year, Microsoft will focus on enhancing its cloud offering, while also working on bringing to shelves new hardware and other products. The giant has yet to deliver official confirmation on this.