November 29, 2012 News Thursday: Windows Azure Active Directory Reaches 200 Billion Authentications and more Server and Tools News!

 

 

by STB Blogger

Windows Azure Active Directory Reaches 200 Billion Authentications

On Tuesday, the Windows Azure team announced a major milestone in cloud scale computing. Since the inception of the authentication service in 2010, Windows Azure has processed 200 billion authentications for 50 million active user accounts. On average, Windows Azure Active Directory (AD) receives approximately 4.7 billion weekly authentication requests. Windows Azure AD enables authentication and single sign-on for Microsoft’s software-as-a-service offerings, such as Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Windows Server Online Backup, Windows Intune and Windows Azure.

To learn more about Windows Azure Active Directory momentum, visit the Windows Azure blog post.

Windows Azure Supports Federation with Windows Server Active Directory

On Wednesday, the Windows Azure team announced that the Windows Azure Management portals now integrate with Windows Azure Active Directory (AD), offering federation with users’ on-premises Windows Server AD. This update will allow customers to use their on-premises corporate identities in Windows Server AD to deliver single sign-on access to the Windows Azure Management Portal and centralized user access management. As a result of this integration, Office 365 customers can now use the same tenants and identities they use for Office to manage sign-on and access to Windows Azure.

For further information, visit the Windows Azure blog post.

Big Data Partnership announces support for Microsoft’s HDInsight

Big Data Partnership, a big data specialist service provider, this week announced plans to support HDInsight, Microsoft’s distribution of Apache Hadoop for the Windows Azure and Windows Server platforms. Based on the Hortonworks Data Platform, HDInsight enables customers to seamlessly store and process structured, unstructured and real-time data.

Read the press release for more information on how Microsoft and Big Data Partnership are working together to enable customers to achieve rich insights and drive operational efficiencies.

Apprenda 4.0 platform as a service extends datacenter to Windows Azure

This week, Apprenda launched version 4.0 of its private platform as a service (PaaS) offering. Apprenda 4.0 connects Windows Server 2012 environments with cloud-based Windows Azure environments to enable customers to take advantage of public and private PaaS scenarios. 

Read the press release for more information on this announcement.

Dell Expands Virtual Desktop Infrastructure offerings with new Windows Server 2012 solution

Dell announced Dell DVS Enterprise for Windows Server 2012, a new desktop virtualization offering enabling IT to provide workers with flexible access to data and applications and a rich user experience, while simplifying management and improving data security. DVS Enterprise for Windows Server 2012 is an on-premises solution designed to help Dell partners and customers deliver pre-tested Dell hardware components to support specific configurations over 1,000 Remote Desktop Sessions or up to 600 VDI users.

Read the press release for more information.

Craig Mundie’s TechForum Insights: Big Data and Machine Learning

This year the Mundie Executive team is piloting a new video series featuring Craig Mundie, Microsoft chief research and strategy officer, called TechForum Insights—a series of short videos intended to amplify and extend the TechForum name and themes throughout the year. The first video, posted today, focuses on big data and machine learning. Craig shares his thoughts on how the convergence of the two can create new insights for consumers and business, using examples from across the company to illustrate his vision.

Check out the video here.