If you are a developer keeping up with the latest on ASP.NET, SharePoint or other types of Hybrid / Rich Internet Application development, you may already understand the evolution of Microsoft's Software + Services offerings and Windows Azure. Although SharePoint Services in Azure are not yet available, we will hopefully see something before Azure Beta. You can only assume that part of this late release strategy is to include support for new SharePoint 2009 features; Master Data Management, Knowledge Network, Social Computing, or maybe a Visual Studio 2008 Server Explorer extension for Azure SharePoint Services, etc.? Microsoft has stated that those plans are still being made and that the best plan is to continue writing code to the SharePoint APIs and Web Services that are available now in Microsoft SharePoint Online. The topline cloud applications are ready today.

While waiting for SharePoint Services in Azure, you can begin to develop, deploy, and manage scalable services in the other core services of Azure available today.

Requirements

• Windows Vista SP1 or Windows Server 2008
• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• IIS 7.0 (with ASP.NET and WCF HTTP Activation)
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 or Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008
• Windows PowerShell (optional)
• Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio
• Windows® Azure™ SDK

XP is not supported for the Development Fabric simulation. You can try but it is not recommended. The reason for this is that the SDK provides the developer the ability to write hosted applications and therefore requires Vista SP1 or Windows Server 2008 to properly simulate the Azure cloud environment. The dependency on Vista SP1 or Windows Server 2008 is for the Azure Development Fabric, the simulated execution environment for hosted services. The relationship is analogous to ASP.NET development and IIS, ergo, Azure Services Platform requires this local Development Fabric.

This is a big ouch for the masses of existing .Net developers wanting in to the Microsoft version of cloud services, but remember it's still pre-beta so an isolated virtual environment based on Windows Server 2008 is still the best way to go.

Windows Azure SDK provides developers with the tools and APIs needed to get started and yes, there is a LOT to learn. Ray Ozzie and others have clearly stated a pretty straightforward vision that, whether you are using Azure, Amazon's EC2 or other vendors for cloud computing services and infrastructures, developers will need to contend with new programming models sooner or later. The way a developer will write code, deploy it, debug it, and maintain it will be transformed.

Like Microsoft SharePoint Online hosting, Windows Azure cloud services for SharePoint will be huge since it simplifies the IT Service Management portion of SharePoint Governance. The infrastructure design, service hosting and management is already baked in! This allows companies to save tremendously with the Azure pay as you grow approach and will relieve operational constraints.