Introducing and preparing our cloud environment
In 2008, Microsoft unveiled Windows Azure, a cloud-based data center service that had been in development under the internal project name Project Red Dog. This service included five core components:
- Microsoft SQL Data Services, a cloud version of the SQL database, which aimed to simplify hosting
- Microsoft .NET Services, a Platform as a Service (PaaS), allowed developers to deploy their .NET-based applications in a Microsoft-managed runtime
- Microsoft SharePoint and Dynamics, Software as a Service (SaaS) versions of the company’s intranet and customer relationship management products
- Windows Azure is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering that enables users to create virtual machines, storage, and networking services for their compute workloads
All the services provided by Microsoft as part of Windows Azure were built upon the Red Dog operating system, a specialized version of their Windows NT operating...