Microsoft's preview on its Windows Azure Cloud Platform, which is expected to go into production on January 1, 2010, stole the star spotlight at PDC 2009 in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The development is the technology giant's first step into cloud computing, and has come after the launch of the Microsoft Online Services offering.

With Azure, Microsoft is looking at offering new business avenues to customers who till now have been unable to think about hosting "high-intensity data center operations". With the new platform, these customers will be given access to an affordable and innovative new cloud computing method. The firm is also offering customers the provision, as Senior Product Manager for Windows Server Scott Ottaway said, "To move their deployed applications back off the Azure cloud, onto on-premises data center servers".

Windows Azure was first announced last year in October at the PDC, but many things were still vague. Tuesday's presentation has, however, put things in a much clearer light.

"Our goal is to provide a common application platform, just the way that we support ASP. NET in both places, PHP in both places. We want to supply a common platform so customers don't have to make the hard choice up front about where they're going to run something", Ottaway shared.

Eager to try out Microsoft's new system, users and experts are now waiting for the production to begin.