Microsoft announced
Wednesday that Azure, technically a cloud-based IaaS (infrastructure
as a service) platform, will host not only Windows Azure but provide images for
a number of Linux variants as well, namely SuSE, CentOS, Red Hat and Ubuntu.
Microsoft had originally
seemed sold on a PaaS (platform as a service) model with Windows Azure
in mind, but it appears the software maker has warmed up to Linux in order to
offer greater platform diversity -- a move which may help keep Azure a favorite
amongst developers and others who require such services.
Earlier this year, ZDNet pointed
out that getting Linux on Azure was an enormously popular request
made, in particular, by big businesses.
Although Microsoft has reasons
for its close ties to SuSE, adding Ubuntu to the list was an interesting
surprise. Shortly after Microsoft's Azure announcement, Ubuntu's commercial
partner Canonical followed
up on their blog which spelled out the Canonical-Microsoft
partnership.
We’re announcing today that you can obtain and launch
Official Ubuntu Images from Canonical on Windows Azure. Windows Azure is a
Platform as a Service (PaaS) from Microsoft that now includes the ability to
manage individual virtual machines so that you can fully customize and control
the infrastructure behind your cloud instances. Many developers and IT shops
use both Ubuntu and Windows and as workloads migrate to the cloud, the case for
making Ubuntu available on Windows Azure became even more compelling.
Canonical and Microsoft worked together to ensure that Ubuntu, the leading
operating system for the Cloud is tested, certified and enterprise ready from
the start.
Despite their obvious differences, some of which are
outlined in Ubuntu's infamously symbolic Bug #1, Canonical seems
happy to embrace Microsoft's Azure and commends the company for being open
enough to make the partnership possible. Mark Shuttleworth, founder of
Ubuntu, also thinks
highly of Ubuntu's newfound camaraderie calling the partnership a
"good fit for both of us" and describing Azure as
"impressive".
Although Microsoft will be offering Linux-based options,
there does exist a single snag: the company is not expected to provide
technical support for Linux images. However, as one of the perks to the
partnership, Canonical is working with Microsoft in order to ensure Ubuntu is
afforded a full range of support options.a
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