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Today large companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, that have extensive experience managing large data centers, are offering customers to "rent" data capacity. This is great news for companies that want to focus on their core business application and not worry about the underlying platform. Microsoft’s cloud platform offering is called Windows Azure.

Microsoft Azure, Microsoft’s premiere cloud platform, has contributed to significant revenue growth for Microsoft since its launch in 2010, coinciding with the company’s ongoing transition into the cloud market by forming strategic partnerships with cloud leaders like Salesforce.com. Not only does Azure boast strong platform-as-a-service (PaaS) capabilities, but the solution is currently the only major cloud platform that is a leader for infrastructure as a service (IaaS), as ranked by Gartner. Recently, Forbes predicted that annual revenue for Azure would be close to $2.3 billion.

office 365 integration is gaining traction as the cloud infrastructure of choice for many IT professionals. Here are a few reasons these pros are turning to Azure as their cloud platform of choice-and perhaps why your organization should also consider doing so:

Cost Savings and Quick Scalability

With a model such as Windows Azure, companies only need to pay for the resources that their applications are using. Should a company need to increase its number of users or its data storage, for example, Microsoft can simply adjust their rate, making it extremely convenient and scalable. With this "pay-as-you-go" approach, businesses only pay for the amount of space that they need, instead of having to pay for empty storage at the maximum amount which they may never use.

Reliability

In addition to cost savings and quick scalability, another advantage of Windows Azure and the IaaS/PaaS model is reliability. Windows Azure services are provided from cloud data centers which have multiple built-in redundancies. If one server crashes, a company’s applications will automatically run on another server in the data center.

Easy Upgrades

Microsoft Azure supports many different programming languages, tools and frameworks, including both Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems. New web applications and upgrades can easily be added.

Closely integrated with other Microsoft tools

For organizations that are reliant on Microsoft tools like SharePoint (which was recently ranked the No.1 platform for enterprise collaboration), Office 365 and Outlook, investing in a cloud platform that seamlessly integrates with Microsoft products makes sense. Organizations can also use the same virtual machines in Azure that they use on-premises, like Windows and Linux, which further simplifies operations. Many industry experts expect Azure to slowly but surely gain adoption due to this ability to offer users a completely seamless and integrated service package.

IaaS and PaaS

Azure boasts an enticing combination of IaaS (managed) and PaaS (unmanaged) services. IaaS enables companies to outsource their cloud computing infrastructure and pay for only for what they use. PaaS allows companies to create their own Web apps and/or software without having to buy and maintain the underlying infrastructure. This enables organizations to customize their cloud software-like Office 365, for example-to meet their exact specifications and requirements. Because Azure is an industry leader in both of these categories, companies can more quickly and easily build, deploy and manage applications.