Running a Java Environment on Windows Azure

by Peter Galli on October 28, 2010 12:00pm

The Microsoft Interoperability Technical Strategy team today used the Professional Developers Conference 2010 (PDC 10) on campus in Redmond to announce a new set of tools based on Eclipse and updated client libraries for Windows Azure.

This means that customers can now choose to upload the Java environment of their choice and run it on Windows Azure, which is an an Open Platform that provides language choice such as C#, PHP or Java.

The Interop team announced:

• The Windows Azure tools for Eclipse/Java, an open source project sponsored by Microsoft, and developed and released by partner Soyatec, an international software company and Eclipse solution provider. Soyatec is expected to make a Community Technology Preview of the Windows Azure tools for Eclipse/Java available by December 2010. These tools allow Java developers to build and test Java applications and deploy these directly to Windows Azure.
• That Soyatec is releasing version 2.0 of the Windows Azure SDK for Java. This SDK enables Java developers easily use Windows Azure storage services in their web applications.
• The availability of the new November 2010 CTP of the Windows Azure Tools for Eclipse/PHP as well as a new November 2010 CTP of the Windows Azure Companion, a tool that aims to provide a seamless experience when installing and configuring PHP platform-elements and Web applications running on Windows Azure.
• The launch of a new online technical/resource website dedicated to Windows Azure and PHP. This site will be a one stop shop for PHP developers to discover, learn and get expertise on Windows Azure. A beta version of the site is available here.

In addition, Vijay Rajagopalan, the Principal Architect for Microsoft's Interoperability Strategy team, is also demoing a preview of the Windows Azure tools for Eclipse/Java, during his session: "Open in the cloud: Windows Azure and Java" today from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM Pacific Time. You can watch the session here.

He has also recorded an on-demand session, titled "Developing PHP Applications on the Windows Azure Platform," in which he demos the latest version of the Windows Azure and PHP tools and SDK. 

"I'm excited about all that we announced today and look forward to updating you on lots of exciting things moving forward. Stay tuned as we will follow up shortly with more technical articles and tutorials detailing scenarios using Windows Azure with PHP and Java. As always, do give us your feedback here,"  Rajagopalan said in his Interoperability blog.