During the opening keynote at the Microsoft PDC the company’s chief software architect, Ray Ozzie, announced the Windows Azure Service Platform, a new OS platform for the cloud. Ozzie explained that Azure is “a Windows offering at the Web tier.” It combines “the best of software and the best of services” Ozzie said.

The seriousness of this venture is shown by the development team’s leaders—Dave Cutler (the father of Windows NT) and Amitabh Srivastava to leverage MS systems expertise to build a new platform for the Web. The platform designed for the almost infinite scalability required by the Web, but leverages the skills, runtimes, and tools Windows and Web developers currently have: .NET Framework languages, Visual Studio. It provides higher level developer services including bringing more of the power of SQL Server to the cloud via SQL Service Data Services. In addition, Azure will provide an open environment for the varied world of tools developers use—some from Microsoft, some from the Web, and others that developers create.

The point that all the keynote speakers (Ray Ozzie, Amitabh Srivastava, Bob Muglia) hammered home is that Azure is a fundamentally new platform that sets the stage for “for the next fifty years” of development.” According to the press release Azure will help web developers “build the next generation of application that will span from the cloud to the enterprise datacenter and deliver new experiences acprss the PC, Web, and phone.

The press release lists the key components of the Azure Services Platform as:

• Windows Azure for service hosting and management, low-level scalable storage, computation, and networking
• Microsoft SQL Services for database services and reporting
• Microsoft .NET Services which leverage familiar .NET Framework concepts in service-based implementations
• Live Services for a consistent way to store, share and synchronize documents, photos, files and information across PCs, phones, PC apps and web sites
• Microsoft SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services for business content and collaboration

A limited community technology preview (CTP) will be made available to PDC attendees today, to give these developers a first crack at trying the features and functions of Azure.