Windows Azure isn't ready for prime time, but it has the potential to be the biggest, baddest cloud of them all. If there's any company you associate with deskbound fatware, it's Microsoft. Most of its revenue still comes from Windows and Office, and so far, Redmond's ventures into Web-based applications have been pretty timid. For example, the browser-based versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint unveiled at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) last fall still lack a firm pricing model or release date.
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