Today at the Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft announced the Azure Services Platform (codenamed “Strata”), an internet-scale cloud computing and services platform.

As part of this announcement, a number of developer services were publicly announced in Azure, one of these services was Microsoft SharePoint Services. This is not the same as Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 which shipped in Windows Server.  Microsoft SharePoint Services is a developer service that will be available as part of Azure in the future.

Here are answers to a few frequently asked questions:

What is Microsoft SharePoint Services in Azure?

In the future, developers will have access to SharePoint functionality in the Azure Services Platform (“Microsoft SharePoint Services”). With the flexibility to use familiar developer tools like Visual Studio, developers will be able to rapidly build applications that utilize SharePoint capabilities as building blocks for their own applications. Developers can expect a breadth of SharePoint capabilities across the spectrum of on-premises, Online and the Azure Services Platform.

Where can I find more information about Microsoft SharePoint Services in Azure?

We have not announced any further detail or release dates. We will release more information about this in the future.

How do developers get ready for Microsoft SharePoint Services?

Keep developing on SharePoint technology (MOSS, WSS, SharePoint Online)! You can learn more about SharePoint Development here.