Modular datacenters running Microsoft Cloud Services, in this case Windows Azure, is no longer just a vision in a very nice video animation, but an actual solution for actual clients :
Microsoft and eBay Team Up for Cloud Computing Bliss
At its Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C., Microsoft isn’t just “hardcore” about tablets, the company is also ramping up its cloud computing efforts and has announced that eBay will be one of the first customers of Microsoft’s new Windows Azure platform appliance.
The appliance is designed to be a turnkey cloud platform aimed at large enterprises or service providers who already have their own datacenters. Rather than storing data off-site, customers can take advantage of Microsoft’s cloud computing infrastructure on their own existing datacenters.
eBay will be one of the first partners to take advantage of this solution with two of its datacenters.Microsoft and eBay have already tested Microsoft’s public Windows Azure platform as a way to deploy certain apps and functionality on a public cloud (i.e. making them accessible externally) while still being reliable. Windows Azure hosts eBay’s iPad listings page, for instance.
Check out this video from the eBay Ink blog, in which eBay VP of Technology James Barrese talks about eBay, cloud computing and how the new arrangement with Microsoft will work.
Continue at source : Microsoft and eBay Team Up for Cloud Computing Bliss
There is also a Microsoft press release on the eBay solution.
Microsoft has formed an alliance with Fujitsu, HP and Dell for delivering this type of Windows Azure based solutions to customers.
