Update: Microsoft sets Windows Azure commercial production date [Video]

The cloud platform, which has been in the community technology preview stage, goes to the next phase early in 2010

Credit: StockStudio Aerials / Shutterstock

Microsoft is set to move its Windows Azure cloud platform to a a commercial production stage, Microsoft officials said on Tuesday.

“On January 1, for the first time, Windows Azure will switch to a production service for paying customers,” said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect, at the Microsoft PDC (Professional Developers Conference) in Los Angeles. Microsoft will execute its production systems and billing systems for Azure, Ozzie said.

[ Recently, a Unisys executive let slip that cloud computing can generate cost savings by cutting U.S.-based jobs. ]

Actual charges, however, will not accrue until February. Azure, introduced at the PDC in October 2008, has been in a community technology preview phase.

“Tens of thousands of developers have participated in the CTP and you’ve made a tremendous — a tremendous — impact on the product,” Ozzie said.

Microsoft …