Microsoft’s cloud operating system, Windows Azure, to go live in January

First announced back in 2008, developers have been able to play around with Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform for awhile now. Long before Google Chrome OS was even hinted, Windows Azure was a new type of operating system: a cloud-based computing platform. For the last two years, both Microsoft and developers have been tinkering around with Azure, but come January, Azure is finally going live… and in February, you’ll be able to start paying for it.

Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie announced the development at the annual PDC conference yesterday. Currently operating as a free Community Technology Preview, Windows Azure will remain no-cost through January, but from February 1st on, it will start charging developers.

“Tens of thousands of developers have participated in the CTP and you’ve made a tremendous impact on the product,” Ozzie said. The idea is for developers to be able to continue to use Azure and test their products, allowing developers for the first time the chance to preview their usage and learn how much use of the platform will cost when billing starts.

New to Azure will be a service called Dalls, which gives developers the ability to discover, purchase and manage data subscriptions within Azure.

Ozzie concluded by emphasizing how much Microsoft believed in cloud computing as one of the futures of operating systems. That’s probably true, and they have proven remarkably forward thinking in starting the cloud operating system bandwagon, but personally, I have a lot more faith in Google managing a cloud than Microsoft.

Read more at Ars Technica