14 DAY TRIAL // Developers already test driving the Azure Services Platform will be able to leverage new features, as Microsoft's Cloud operating system evolved with the introduction of new capabilities of the Customer Technology Preview development milestone. According to the Redmond company, the enhancements introduced to the Azure Services Platform are consistent with the input received so far from testers. In this context, Azure Services Platform is now able to offer developers FastCGI, NET Full Trust and Geo-location. All new features will be in place by the end of this week, the software giant informed.
“We're also making a huge investment in building technology that allows you to host applications in the cloud. And at PDC in the fall, we announced our new Azure services platform that provides a way for .NET developers to be able to build applications that not just run locally, but can also be uploaded and take advantage of Microsoft data centers around the world,” revealed Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, .NET Developer Platform. “We've heard a lot of great feedback from customers, a lot of excitement, also a lot of request in terms of additional features and we're pleased to announce a number of them that are shipping this week.”
The Redmond company emphasized that it prioritized the new features delivered to the Azure Services Platform CTP in concordance with the feedback and requests received from testers that have been working with the Community Technology Preview since it was launched in 2008. On the opening day at MIX09, Microsoft made it clear that it was focusing not only on the front-end experiences, but also on the back-end platform, with the Azure Services Platform updates.
“One [of the new features] is [the] inclusion of fast EGI support within Azure, which allows you, for example, now to host not just .NET applications, but also PHP applications. We're also enabling what we call .NET full trust support. Which means that you can now run not just ASP.NET applications that are running in medium trust, but also ASP.Net applications that require full trust and additional capabilities on the machine,” Guthrie added.
The updates to Azure Services Platforms now allow developers to connect applications, services or data with a specific geographical region. Geo-location will in this regard manage to deliver a boost in performance by reducing network latency, but also permit devs to tailor solutions and services to market specific regulatory and legal limitations.
“Currently, Azure is still in preview mode. We're on track for a commercial release later this year,” Guthrie promised.