It is a strange new world we find ourselves, where part of Microsoft's Azure infrastructure will be built on Linux. Azure Cloud Switch will allow software-defined networking to be used on Azure for those who are brave enough to dabble in SDN. Microsoft will be incorporating the OpenCompute developed Switch Abstraction Interface based on Linux, as The Register points out this is likely due to a lack of similar functionality in Windows software. In this particular case Microsoft will not be reinventing the wheel but will wisely focus on improving the functionality of Azure and Azure based products such as Office 365 which they have developed in house. The 'cloud' is a strange place and it just got a little bit stranger.
"Redmond's revealed that it's built something called Azure Cloud Switch (ACS), describing it as “a cross-platform modular operating system for data center networking built on Linux” and “our foray into building our own software for running network devices like switches.”"
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M$ is only using the Linux
M$ is only using the Linux Kernel, with a little bit of software on top to handle software defined networking on cloud based server systems. So there is no desktop environment or other services to make for a complete OS in the consumer sense of an OS. And every PC/laptop/other computing device uses the Linux kernel in some form as many of the SSD/Thumb drives/Hard drives/Other use controllers that use the Linux Kernel, and software/firmware to get their work done. So M$ is using the Linux kernel and software to, on the fly, configure hardware/software networking switches for its cloud computing systems. Where is the news in that, the source code for the Linux Kernel is available for anyone to use!
Why, that instead of
Why, that instead of Microsoft designing their own SDN platform they are using an open source one? Maybe not interesting to you but certainly of interest to some.