Microsoft to enable Linux on its Windows Azure cloud in 2012
Microsoft to launch a new persistent VM feature on its Azure cloud platform
Reports say Microsoft is planning to launch a new persistent virtual machine feature on its Azure cloud platform. Because of the lack of such persistent VM support customers who wanted to run Windows or Linux durably in VMs on Microsoft’s Azure platform-as-a-service platform weren't able to do so. The VM capability will let them host Linux, SharePoint and SQL Server.
To date, Microsoft has been balking at customer requests to add persistent VMs to Azure, hoping to get customers to develop Azure apps from scratch instead. But the lack of the ability to host apps like SharePoint and other third-party business applications with persistence was a deal breaker for a number of business users who were unwilling to consider Azure until Microsoft added this support.
Running Linux on Azure has been a surprisingly big business-customer request, as well, the author's contacts said. Microsoft won’t be supporting Linux once the late-March persistent VM CTP launches; instead, it will be up to customers to provide uploads of their own Linux images. Microsoft plans to tout the persistent VM capability on Azure as providing users with an easy on-ramp to its cloud platform, as they can start with the apps they already have and host them without a lot of reworking.
The Register reported earlier this year that Microsoft was testing the ability to run Linux on Azure in its own labs, and that the launch of such a capability was still months away.
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