Microsoft was quietly turning up the open source volume (no pun intended) inside Windows Azure over the holiday period. As well ramping up the OSS gauge, the company also addressed SQL Azure Database improvements and billing.
Notes on the company's server and tools blog (STB) suggest that open source developers may be enticed by the first Windows Azure software development kit (SDK), which includes language libraries for Node.JS with support for hosting, storage, and service bus.
Continuing the free-license theme, Microsoft says it is also delivering an Apache Hadoop based service for Azure for, logically, big data functionality. Of interest is the fact that developers will be able to use this service using the languages and frameworks they already know.
According to Microsoft's nameless STB blogger, "In addition to interoperability improvements, we've been working hard to make the experience of getting started and managing applications on Windows Azure easier. Customers can check out the new Windows Azure Management Portal to view real-time usage and billing details that put them in control of how much they spend and use on the cloud platform."
In addition to tripling the maximum database size for SQL Azure from 50 GB to 150 GB, Microsoft is also introducing a price cap that lowers the effective cost per GB for customers with large databases. This change should allow customers with 50-GB databases and larger to continue to grow without additional costs.
