Microsoft just made its first cloud OS, dubbed Azure, officially official. The system allows developers and hobbyist alike to collaborate together on a flexible and interoperable application platform. Applications created within can run from the cloud or even enhance non-cloud based applications with the hive-like features. 

Azure reduces the need for up-front technology purchases, and it enables developers to quickly and easily create applications running in the cloud by using their existing skills with the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment and the Microsoft .NET Framework.

The entire service is an open platform that supports not only the Microsoft Visual Studio and .Net Framework, but also Eclipse, Ruby, PHP, and Python. The service isn’t up and running just yet, but curious geeks can register to be part of the Community Technology Preview.