Bolstering its plan to bring the Windows operating system and Windows Azure cloud service closer together, Microsoft has released a toolkit that helps developers use Azure to build applications optimized for the forthcoming Windows 8.
The aptly named Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8 “is designed to make it easier for developers to create a Windows Metro style application that can harness the power of Windows Azure Compute and Storage,” Windows Azure technical evangelist Nick Harris writes.
Windows 8 for desktops and tablets, now available in a developer preview, brings a markedly different user interface based on the Metro-style tiles also seen in Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 operating system. Microsoft is focusing heavily on integrating Azure, a cloud platform for building and hosting applications, with both Windows desktop and server software. At the BUILD conference this week, Microsoft demonstrated new features that let developers build applications in Windows Server and easily move them to the Azure cloud.
The Azure toolkit for building Windows 8 applications includes a Visual Studio project template that “generates a Windows Azure project, an ASP.NET MVC 3 project, and a Windows Metro style JavaScript application project.” This lets developers rely on Azure to host applications and data, and gives them an easy way to enable Windows 8 features, such as push notifications.
While Windows 8 itself won’t be released until sometime in 2012, Microsoft is giving developers plenty of tools and time to get ready. The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8 can be downloaded on Microsoft’s Codeplex site for hosting open source projects. This isn’t the only Windows Azure Toolkit, by the way. Microsoft also has released such toolkits for Windows Phone, Android and iOS.
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