Windows Azure platform hits general availability

As expected, Microsoft has announced the general availability of the Azure platform (Windows Azure, SQL Azure, and AppFabric) in 21 countries. Starting today, Microsoft customers and partners in those regions will be able to launch their Azure production applications and services with the support of the full Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The Windows Azure platform AppFabric Service Bus and Access Control will continue to be free until April 2010 for those that sign up for a commercial subscription.

The final release was available last month, and since then Redmond says thousands of customers have moved from the Community Technology Preview (CTP) to the production code (Microsoft did not charge for Windows Azure platform usage incurred during January). This month though, Microsoft’s partners will be able to begin selling paid commercial subscriptions based on their own solutions to their customers. Billing and SLAs for all commercial accounts technically begins today.

Read more: arstechnica.com