Microsoft announced at the PDC 2008 conference Azure Services Platform. Azure is Microsoft's Cloud Computing framework.

As anticipated besides Windows 7, Microsoft's Cloud computing strategy takes center stage at the PDC 2008.

Windows Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting, and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host and manage web applications on the internet through Microsoft data centers.

Microsoft will fill up developers attending PDC with Windows Azure cool aid. Let’s see if it can compete with Google.

You can watch Microsoft's Ray Ozzie right now in this live stream from the PDC 2008 talking about the new Microsoft strategy.

Unlike many of today’s service-based solutions, the Azure Services Platform provides developers with the flexibility and ability to create applications while taking advantage of their existing skills, tools and technologies such as the Microsoft .NET Framework and Visual Studio.
Developers also can choose from a broad range of commercial or open source development tools and technologies, and access the Azure Services Platform using a variety of common Internet standards including HTTP, representational state transfer (REST), WS-* and Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub).

Key components of the Azure Services Platform include the following:
 
- Windows Azure for service hosting and management, low-level scalable storage, computation and networking
 
- Microsoft SQL Services for a wide range of database services and reporting

- Microsoft .NET Services which are service-based implementations of familiar .NET Framework concepts such as workflow and access control

- Live Services for a consistent way for users to store, share and synchronize documents, photos, files and information across their PCs, phones, PC applications and Web sites
 
- Microsoft SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services for business content, collaboration and rapid solution development in the cloud.

More information about the Azure Services Platform and Microsoft’s software plus services offering can be found at the Azure site.