July 25, 2013 News Thursday: Windows Azure Updates Increase Performance Predictability of Mission-Critical Applications and more Server and Tools News…

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by STB Blogger

 

 

Windows Azure Updates Increase Performance Predictability of Mission-Critical Applications
Microsoft recently unveiled a number of Windows Azure performance updates as part of its broader commitment to continually improve and evolve the platform to provide the best cloud experience to customers. As part of this, the company made available the Premium preview for Windows Azure SQL Database, which was announced earlier this month at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). This service delivers more predictable performance for business-critical applications and raises the bar on the types of business applications customers can bring to the cloud. The Data Platform Insider blog has more detail on the benefits. Additionally, SQL Database customers with administrator rights can immediately request an invitation to the preview by visiting the Windows Azure Preview Features page.

Microsoft also made improvements across several key areas including how customers can more easily restore data, performance improvements to the Windows Azure portal and enhancements to the billing process. Scott Guthrie details the importance of each here.

For additional information on Windows Azure updates, please visit www.windowsazure.com.

What’s New in R2 Blog Series: Enabling Open Source Software
As part of an ongoing blog series on “What’s New in R2,” this week’s post on Corporate Vice President Brad Anderson’s blog discusses how Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 support and manage open source software. In order to reduce cost and complexity, it is key that customers are able to not only run and manage Windows and Microsoft applications, but equally run and manage Linux, UNIX, and open source applications with a consistent experience. Features that enable this include:

  • Consolidated single infrastructure to run and manage Windows and Linux guest virtual machines.
  • Consistent single system management of heterogeneous environments to deploy and manage from a single interface.
  • Open Source on Windows to offer the same ease as Linux in building, deploying, and updating services that are built on open source components.

For more information, check out Brad Anderson’s In the Cloud Blog or download the R2 preview software and start evaluation today!