Microsoft tunes Windows Azure cloud for developers

Microsoft continues to position its Windows Azure cloud platform as a place for software developers, adding services on Thursday for mobile and Web development.

At its Build 2013 developer conference in San Francisco, the company announced general availability of Windows Azure Mobile Services, for creating mobile back-end application capabilities, and Windows Azure Web Sites, for building and managing "business-grade" Web applications. Mobile Services offers native SDKs for Windows Store, Windows Phone, Google Android, Apple iOS, HTML5, and REST APIs, while Web Sites supports such languages and frameworks as ASP.Net, PHP, Node.js, and Python. Web Sites also offers such features as load balancing and source control.

The natural symmetry between the cloud and developers was noted by Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president in the Microsoft Developer and Tools Business: "Certainly, one of our constituents in terms of customers that use it is certainly developers." Microsoft has focused on tooling and APIs for Azure with developers in mind. The company also is forging close ties between its Visual Studio IDE and Azure, Guthrie acknowledged. Visual Studio 2013, offered in a preview form on Thursday, offers stronger capablities for deployment right to Azure, including debugging and code editing.

Build also featured a preview of application access enhancements for Windows Azure Active Directory, providing single sign-on to cloud applications. In addition, Microsoft previewed Azure's Auto Scale capability for scaling applications. "It's a really great feature that allows you to dynamically scale up or scale down your apps and services when you're hosted in the cloud," Guthrie said.

Microsoft's cloud accommodations for developers are akin to what Google has been doing on its own Google App Engine platform. Google provides for building and hosting Web applications on App Engine, with access to multiple services, scalability, and backing for different programming languages. Thursday's moves in the cloud application space follow up another Microsoft move onto Google turf, as the company expanded its Bing search platform, which could rival what Google is doing with its own vaunted search technology.

This story, "Microsoft tunes Windows Azure cloud for developers," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

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Microsoft releases disk images for Windows 8.1 beta upgrades

Microsoft yesterday released its Windows 8.1 beta as a disk image, making it more convenient to upgrade multiple devices within an organization or enterprise.

Windows 8.1 Preview launched Wednesday, but was initially only available from Microsoft's app market, the Windows Store. Each Windows 8 or Windows RT PC or tablet had to individually download the massive upgrade from the store.

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By downloading a disk image, then burning it to DVD or storing it on a USB flash drive, users can upgrade machines or devices faster or when they are offline.

The .iso files range in size from 2.7GB to 3.9GB, depending on the language and whether the upgrade is 32- or 64-bit. Microsoft has made disk images available in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

Once downloaded, the .iso file must be converted into bootable media -- typically either a DVD or a flash drive -- to upgrade Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 7, Vista or even the 12-year-old Windows XP.

In a note accompanying the .iso download links, Microsoft warned users that they would not be able to uninstall the beta if they upgraded using a disk image. The company has posted other information about upgrading in a brief FAQ on Windows 8.1 installation.

Links to the .iso files can be found at the bottom of this page on Microsoft's website.

This article, Microsoft releases disk images for Windows 8.1 beta upgrades, was originally published at Computerworld.com.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+, or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com. See more articles by Gregg Keizer. See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.

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Developers ramping up for Microsoft Windows Store apps

Developers are showing interest in building Windows Store (formerly Metro) applications with tablet-style functionality, but the platform is still in its early stages as far as building a base of apps.

Metro, a name that is no longer supposed to be used because of a trademark conflict, was introduced two years ago. Now, Microsoft is referring to these apps as Windows Store apps, bearing the Modern UI interface, complete with Microsoft's live tiles for accessing functionality. "We're just doing our first Metro Windows 8 commercial application," said Jeff Torkington, CEO of retailer software developer Ontempo.

Microsoft cites about 100,000 Windows Store apps, which would pale in comparison to the more than 975,000 Android apps in the Google Play store and the estimated 850,000 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch apps in Apple's App Store. But Windows 8.1 looks like it will be a more appealing platform for users, which should boost Windows Store application development, said Wes Miller, analyst at Directions on Microsoft. "In general, the navigation is better," in version 8.1, he said. "Microsoft has made some of the right changes with [Windows 8.1]. It could be an interesting holiday season for sure." Microsoft has just begun offering a preview of Windows 8.1.

Microsoft also is leveraging XAML to try to make development easier, Miller said. Previously, the company focused on Web languages like HTML5 and JavaScript. "[With] their XAML architecture, they've got a lot better story on how you would build an app for Windows 8."

Developers thus far are giving the Windows Store application style mixed reviews. New to the Windows Store application experience, Kristofer Linnestjerna, a developer at NetClean Technologies, said he found himself confused by the platform when he took a look at it. He noted how different it is from the desktop. "It's made for touch," he noted.

Developer Robert Keiser, owner of Row Five Information Systems, has done some Windows Store app development. "It's very easy. The only problem that I have is if you program for the tablets, you have to rewrite some of the code, some of the front end, to make it work on the phone."

While developer Martin Bennedik, a freelancer in Frankfurt, Germany, has developed some Windows Store apps, he has not seen much interest in the platform from his clients so far. "They're just waiting to see where this is going." But Microsoft is making the application development process better for Windows Store, he said.

At the Achmea insurance company, developer Tom van de Meent has not built any apps for Windows Store yet but anticipates a need in the future. Thus far, there he has only seen "a little" interest in Windows Store apps from customers, he said.

This story, "Developers ramping up for Microsoft Windows Store apps," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

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