By now, you’ve heard a lot about the “Microsoft Cloud”. We’ve talked a lot about what is Windows Azure, the problems it solves, the business opportunities it presents, and even more so, about its capabilities, functions, APIs, and developer tools. But there’s one aspect of Windows Azure that has always been a mystery to most – what’s underneath the hood of Windows Azure?

For this week’s Windows Azure Wednesday (#AzureWednesday), I thought I would share something that is completely not related to development but has crossed the mind of every developer at least once. You’ve probably asked yourself, “When I deploy an application to Windows Azure, where does it go?” or perhaps “What do Windows Azure data centres look like?”.

The following video should be able to answer those questions for you as it takes you on a tour of a few of Microsoft’s data centres and shows you how Microsoft’s Global Foundation Services Team, the team that designs, builds, operates, and secures Microsoft’s Cloud infrastructure, delivers all of the things that Windows Azure promises its users:

High Availability Reliability Smart Scalability
High Efficiency Sustainability Secure and Trusted Cloud
 
Microsoft GFS Datacenter Tour
 
 
Dive Deeper
 
The video in-and-of-itself is fascinating, but if, like me, you’re now intrigued even more. Dileep Bhandarkar, a distinguished engineer at Global Foundation Services dives deeper into the details of the data center. Read >>

Share Your Thoughts

What did you think of the video? Does the tour and the transparency that Microsoft is providing make you feel more comfortable about deploying your applications and data to the Cloud? Share your thoughts >>