Azure: New Support for the Cloud, New Skills Not Required

Last October at PDC, the Windows Azure team released the first CTP of Windows Azure along with the first SDK for developers who are interested in pushing their apps to the cloud.  The team committed to releasing regular SDK updates, and today we are announcing an update to Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio.  This release includes:

• Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 support
• Update for Visual Studio 2008 support
• Improved Visual Studio integration with Development Fabric and Development Storage

This is in addition to the current Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio, which includes:

• C# and VB Project Templates for building Cloud Services
• Tools to change the Service Role configuration
• Integrated local development via Development Fabric and Development Storage services
• Debugging Cloud Service Roles running in the Development Fabric
• Building and packaging of Cloud Service Packages
• Browsing to the Azure Services Developer Portal

One of our key goals is to make your skills as a developer easily transferrable to new domains. If you learn .NET, pick a favorite language (like VB or C#), and learn Visual Studio, then you can easily use your skills to target the ASP.NET, Silverlight, SharePoint, Windows Mobile, and even the Xbox.  The tooling support for Azure brings your same skill set forward into the Cloud.

You can download the latest SDK for Windows Azure here.  If you’re interested in the cloud, check out the Windows Azure CTP and the SDK.  Make sure to check out the how to videos here.

Enjoy!