According to Redmond Channel Partner, Microsoft will release the Windows Azure Platform Appliance during the fall of 2010. Initially, only three Microsoft partners and one customer will deploy the solution that is composed of Windows and SQL Azure, as well as a combination of servers, storage, and networking gear that is Microsoft specified. If transitioning and migration challenges can be overcome and the solution can be scaled down, it is thought that the platform appliance may eventually be used by large businesses, public sector users, and providers of cloud infrastructure.
“Wahbe explains the Windows Azure Platform Appliances that the three partners and eBay will deploy are intended to determine if there’s a broader market for these systems. ‘One of the reasons we announced this limited-production release is so we can have a broad conversation with customers and partners to determine the right set of configurations to service a really wide range of scenarios,’ Wahbe says. ‘So we will scale this up and scale this down and see how low the appropriate level is and how high we’ll go. I think we need to determine that as we roll out this roadmap.’
“The OEM partners will work with Microsoft to take that concept to start to drive it down in terms of scale, Gillen says. ‘So over time, for the Windows Azure Appliance to be truly successful, it really has to scale way, way down, from where it is now, and Microsoft needs to be able to offer a Windows Azure Appliance, which has maybe hundreds of nodes rather than thousands of nodes. Then it becomes something that no longer even comes in a container, it comes as a series of half a dozen racks that come fully preconfigured with a network built into them. You buy them from Dell or HP and you call up and say I want to buy one unit of Windows Azure Appliance.'”
