11/18/2009 03:25:05 AM EST

I think windows is more then ready for the cloud... If you look at the core components of a clound infrastucture such as IIS 7 and SQL server then have very few vulnerabilities (2 fix for IIS, 4 for SQL server 2005, 0 for SQL sevrer 2008). As for windows server itself most of the vulnerabilites that were found are in components not user for cloud apps (The latest one the SMB flaw for example will never hit a production web server as nobody has any reason to allow SMB connections from the web) All this is just from a security point of view of course .. because if you factor in other important things such as features, ease of programming, performance etc. then windows is actually doing great :)

United Statesdevilmaster

11/20/2009 07:30:25 PM EST

It will actually be far easier to secure Azure as a Microsoft-operated cloud OS than it has proven to secure Windows or Windows Server as a system operated on hundreds of millions of personally owned computers. Each user is effectively a sys admin, but few of them act that way. As a result, many machines are unpatched, even though the patches are available. Microsoft will keep the cloud up-to-date and quickly apply patches. There is no silver bullet in this battle - there is too much money to be made in exploiting security flaws, just as there is in credit card fraud, car theft and other criminal activity - but I think Azure will prove to be a more secure, reliable and scalable platform than anything available today.

United StatesMike Kelly