Microsoft revealed a set of new Windows Azure features when it announced the availability of the platform at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference on Tuesday.

Bob Muglia, Microsoft Server and Tools president, said that the company’s strategy and road map for extending the Windows developer platform to the cloud is a "common developer platform for both servers and services".

"Through this convergence, Microsoft will enable developers to continue using familiar .NET Framework and Visual Studio tools and technologies, as well as third-party tools such as Eclipse, to create and monetise applications that run on the server and as services in the cloud," said Muglia.

Microsoft then discussed the launch of Windows Server AppFabric Beta 1, a set of integrated application services that enables developers to more easily deploy and manage applications spanning both server and cloud.

Muglia explained that Microsoft will offer Windows Server virtual machine support on Windows Azure, enabling customers to more easily support virtualised infrastructure across the continuum of on-premises and cloud computing.

Microsoft's strategy ss to make it easy for developers to move applications to the cloud and enhance them with additional services.

"This is a mover towards more open standards," said Mark Taylor, director of developer and platform evangelism at Microsoft UK.

"There's a significant groundswell of support around these tools. Unless we work with them, we are isolating ourselves from large chunks of the market."

Finally, Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie described the company's "three screens and a cloud" vision, where software experiences are seamlessly delivered across PCs, phones and TVs, all connected by cloud-based services.