Microsoft used the keynote address for its annual TechEd conference today in Orlando to proclaim that the era of the cloud-based operating system had begun. In a press release, the company said that organizations that use software products such as the Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure and others " ... can benefit from this transformation with agility, focus and lower costs."
Microsoft recently launched the release candidate version of Windows Server 2012 and also announced this past week that it was already being used to run the servers for its Bing.com search service. Microsoft also recently released an update for Windows Azure, which it says has " ... preview support for Virtual Machine and Virtual Network, support for Windows and Linux images, and additional support for Java and Python."
Microsoft also announced a new version of its Windows Intune security software and it is now available to download. It includes " ... expanded management and security benefits through mobile device management and adds people-centric management capabilities and upgrade rights to the latest version of Windows."
The company also announced that its application development tool Microsoft LightSwitch can now render HTML5, which should help any development team that wants to build apps for web-based platforms.
In a post on the official Microsoft blog, Satya Nadella, the President of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft, states, "With Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure, we’ve taken everything we’ve learned from running datacenters and services at global scale and are delivering the next generation of operating systems – the “cloud OS” – to help our customers seize the opportunities of the cloud."
Source: Microsoft press release