Today was the first day of Microsoft’s PDC with a keynote from Ray Ozzie & Bob Muglia and, as you’d expect from “The Ozmeister” (as I’m now calling him!), the “Cloud” featured pretty heavily in the form of Windows Azure.
Windows Azure Launch Date: Windows Azure will officially launch 01/01/10 (January 1st 2010) and, as a little sweetener, the 1st month will be free 
WordPress runs on Windows Azure: This is pretty cool – who knew?!
Oddly Specific runs on Windows Azure: From the creator of “I Can Haz Cheezburger?” comes a new site “Oddly Specific”. Funny AND runs on Windows Azure.
Microsoft Project Dallas: This is an “information and brokerage service” designed to allow access to commercial and reference data from people such as:
- Associated Press
- NASA
- National Geographic
- UN
and more.
The aim is to create Data As A Service (DAAS) and let data become a commodity…this could be huge!
Microsoft Project Sydney: This will enable you to connect existing in-house/on-premise services with those running in the cloud on Azure. This is a huge leap forward for Azure becoming an integral part of corporate environments.
Microsoft AppFabric: Windows Server AppFabric is:
“set of integrated technologies that make it easier to build, scale and manage web and composite applications that run on IIS”
It has 3 main parts to it which are:
- Caching
- Workflow Management
- Service Management
What was once known as “Dublin” is now makes it easier to build/manage services using Windows Workflow Foundation & Windows Communication Foundation.
Another codename that’s been wrapped into AppFabric is “Velocity”. I haven’t heard of this before but it provide caching capabilities to
“provide high-speed access, scale, and high availability to application data”
You can see more info and some AppFabric samples here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/windowsserver/ee695849.aspx
These are the main points I’ve picked up today from Twitter using the hashtag #PDC09 as I’m not in L.A myself 
As more details become available, I’ll update this/do some new posts.
Also, tomorrow’s keynote is going to include talk of Internet Explorer 9 (that’s right NINE!) so I’ll be covering that ASAP…
