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Tech4Biz | 13 Jun 2012 :  Microsoft positioned Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure and server-side products as key components of what the company is calling "the era of the cloud OS" at the TechEd North America conference.
 
Organisations need server tools and operating systems in their data centres that can deliver and support a wide variety of internet-connected devices and of always-on web applications, said Satya Nadella, president of Microsoft's Server & Tools division.
 
These new requirements offer organisations and their IT departments "a huge opportunity to reinvent ourselves," said Nadella, who led the 90-minute keynote and was assisted by several Microsoft staffers who gave demos of Windows Server, Azure, SQL Server 2012 and other products.

Like previous Windows OSes for servers, Server 2012 still does the basic two tasks of managing hardware and providing a platform for applications, but the scale has changed now to data centre proportions, he said. Windows Server 2012 is still in beta test mode.
 
Meanwhile, the applications reside on the cloud and must be available via a variety of devices, while taking into account the users' identities and offering social features, Nadella said.
 
Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure - Microsoft's public cloud application hosting and development platform - have been designed with these new requirements in mind "so you can usher in the era of the cloud OS in your own organisation," he said.