Microsoft announces Linux OS for Azure cloud services

After years of fighting Linux as a threat, Microsoft now offers Linux based operating systems in its Windows Azure cloud service.

The Linux service will be available on the Azure platform at 4 a.m. (Beijing time Thursday 17 o'clock) in the eastern time of the United States. At this time, the Azure portal will provide many Linux release software, including SuSE Linux Enterprise Server SP2, OpenSuse 12.01, CentOS 6.2, and canonical Ubuntu 12.04. Azure users will be able to select and deploy the Linux release software in the Microsoft Windows Azure Image Library and charge an hourly fee.

In the SUSE Linux software application case, Azure users will be able to configure the latest version of SUSE Linux Enterprise server or openSUSE. Doug Jarvis, SuSE product marketing manager for the cloud, said that to create an instance, the user could choose to suse the enterprise image and set it up as in other clouds. SuSE can automatically update these virtual release software with security patches, defective patches, and new features.

Azure users are also able to deploy their applications in the SUSE Studio integrated development environment directly to Azure. In this case, they don't have to worry about machine mirroring. Instead, they only need to enter their azure IDs into SuSE Studio before they deploy their own applications to the azure cloud.

Microsoft's move was a surprise to Microsoft watchers. Microsoft used to think of itself as a platform company, built on the basis of a hugely successful windows. So Microsoft used to think of Linux as a competitive threat, especially in the server market. Linux competes with Windows Server in the server market to replace traditional UNIX servers.

However, in Azure cloud services, Microsoft faces a formidable competitor, Amazon Web service. Amazon Web Services offers some Linux distributions in addition to Windows, such as canonical Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

"We found this a turning point, especially given the previous situation," Amanda McPherson, vice president for marketing and developer Services at the Linux Foundation, Amanda Mcpherson in an e-mail interview. But it's not surprising. Cloud computing has been mostly about Linux and Open-source software. Microsoft is a smart company that does what it needs to do to be a participant in the cloud. In this case, it means that Microsoft is doing what it did not want to do in the past: agreeing to need another operating system to make itself a technology-related participant. I'm sure Microsoft's people won't be happy with that, but it's good for users. ”

Over the past year, Microsoft engineers have done a lot of work to ensure that Microsoft's Hyper-V Windows based hypervisor driver is compatible with Linux. That's Azure's basic management program. As part of its early collaboration with SUSE, Microsoft has also cooperated heavily with SuSE to allow Linux to adapt to Hyper-V operations.

Microsoft recognizes that its customers are not just running Windows in their own businesses, says Wede Vegna Wade Wegner, chief technology officer of Aditi Technologies, a technology services company and Microsoft partner. This is an opportunity for Windows Azure to run as many workloads as possible. This cloud service provides a more convenient way to connect to all the different platforms and technologies. I think Microsoft is trying to make Windows Azure the best and easiest place to run your applications, regardless of platform or technology.

This collaboration is also good for Linux.

Peter Chadwick, SUSE Senior product manager for Cloud business, says many users regard Microsoft as their main it provider. They want to work with Microsoft. We have been working with Microsoft on interoperable systems. Therefore, this cooperation is a logical extension.

"Openlogic will provide CentOS software for Azure portals," said Steve Grandchamp, CEO of Openlogic, an Open-source software technology support Company. CentOS is a clone of the enterprise-focused red Hat Enterprise Linux release. Since 2009, Openlogic has been providing commercial technical support for CentOS and 600 other open-source software programs. For Microsoft, Openlogic will support all instances of CentOS running, including providing the latest version of CentOS to Azure. Users will be able to update their CentOS virtual machines using patches maintained by Openlogic in Azure services. Microsoft and Openlogic signed a contract to provide such technical support, which was initially charged at a fixed price per month.

In Microsoft's announcement, Linux virtual machines are now available in Technology Preview mode. Therefore, the price has not been announced. These mirrors are always present, meaning that the mirrors can be closed and reopened, and the data will not be lost. In addition to the virtual machine images of the selected release, users are able to embed their Linux software through Microsoft's virtual hard disk feature.

Microsoft's message also says Azure now supports web development technologies such as Python and Java, as well as Node.js and PHP. This will pave the way for easy access to web content management tools such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.