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Article from ADMIN 16/2013

By ADMIN Magazine

Microsoft Embraces Linux Workloads

Microsoft is dialing up its recent policy of Linux affinity with a new emphasis on making the Azure cloud platform "the best infrastructure to run Linux workloads." The announcement, which came in a blog post by Brad Anderson, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President for Windows Server and System Center, was part of a more general discussion of cloud features for the upcoming R2 upgrade for Windows Server 2012.

Anderson begins the post by saying the Microsoft cloud is the best place for running Microsoft workloads, then he goes on to add that the Microsoft cloud will also be the best for Linux.

Microsoft has long been over its legendary efforts to squelch Linux and has been for several years open to some level of cooperation. The Azure cloud added Linux support in 2012.

The new emphasis on Linux is a result of Redmond's efforts to market their cloud as a single source for IT cloud services. According to Anderson's post, "Today, you may be using separate hypervisors, separate management tools, and separate user interfaces for your customers. You may even have separate technical staffs for the two environments. This bifurcation dramatically increases complexity and costs…"

The goal is to make sure that loyal customers who are using Azure for Windows virtualization don't have to look elsewhere for Linux support. Of course, many other cloud hosts offer both Windows and Linux support, so Anderson's blog post is not necessarily a game changer for the cloud industry, but it signals that Microsoft is strongly interested in getting better at Linux cloud support. Redmond's acknowledgment that Linux is a permanent feature of the IT infrastructure marks an increased emphasis on cloud and a de-emphasis on Windows as a solo server and client operating system in its own isolated universe.

Windows Server 2012 R2 is slated for release

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