Long known for their dominance on the desktop, Microsoft is now making a concerted effort to carve out a space of its own in the Cloud with Windows Azure. Amitabh Srivastava, the company’s Corporate Vice President with responsibility for Azure, spoke with me this week and the result has just been released as one of my podcasts.

Production of this podcast was supported by Talis, and show notes are available on their Nodalities blog.

Amitabh talks about the company’s aspirations for Azure, and reports on the success of the current ‘Community Technology Preview;’ effectively a beta programme for Azure ahead of its formal launch towards the end of this year. We also discuss the nature of Azure, digging into the question of where Azure will be deployed, and the extent to which it will interact with desktops and data centres beyond Microsoft’s control.

In line with recent announcements from the likes of 3Tera, Amitabh stresses the importance that Microsoft sees in a comprehensive Service Level Agreement (SLA) for Azure.

Have a listen, and see what you think.

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