Skype is now running on Windows Azure

Not only does Microsoft provide Windows Azure cloud services to other users, but its own products and services will also migrate to the platform more and more widely. In a new interview, Microsoft Windows Azure Vice President Scott Guthrie confirmed that Skype is now running on the Azure platform. "Although Skype was built by the development Center in London, it is now running on Azure," Guthrie said, according to the register.

The authentication and security of Office 365 (authentication) is implemented through Azure servers, while the back end of Xbox Live and Xbox One is "heavily" dependent on azure.

As for Microsoft's consumer cloud data storage Service (SkyDrive), it will also transition to Azure. "SkyDrive is in the process of dismantling the old server and moving anything to Azure," Guthrie said. Now, the new data on the SkyDrive is stored on azure.

Of course, not all of Microsoft's online services will move to Azure. ZDNet reports that Bing, Outlook/hotmail, and part of the Xbox Live, will still run on old-fashioned (datacenter) dedicated servers.

In addition, Guthrie also spoke about the reliability of Azure servers. Over the past 12 months, the Azure service has experienced several interruptions, including a serious accident caused by the expiration of the HTTPS certificate in February.

"From a usability and reliability standpoint, I think our system is pretty good, at least better than any client system I've ever seen," says Guthrie.

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