Microsoft is making a hard push to support its rivals' software on its Azure Cloud Servers, and it appears Google believes two can play at the same game.
The Google Cloud Platform now supports Microsoft's server applications and customers can use existing subscriptions.
The Google Cloud Platform supports Microsoft License Mobility, and the Chrome RDP app and Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition both can now live on the Google Cloud Platform.
Now that Google supports Microsoft License Mobility, users can migrate cloud server applications to Google Cloud without having to revise subscriptions or purchase additional software from Microsoft.
"Not only does license mobility make the transition easier for existing customers, it provides customers who prefer to purchase perpetual licenses the ability to continue doing so while still taking advantage of the efficiencies of the cloud," says Martin Buhr, product manager.
While Google works to support Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 is available to users on the Google Cloud Platform.
"We know our customers run some of their key workloads on Windows and want rapid deployment, high performance and the ability to stretch their data centers to the cloud," Buhr says. "And with awesome features like Local SSD (which also supports live migration), and multiple ways to connect your data center to the cloud, Google Cloud Platform is the best place to run your Windows workloads."
Rounding out the list of updates to the Google Cloud Platform, Buhr announced Fusion Labs' Chrome RDP app is being offered free. The app works on Windows-based machines, allowing users to establish remote sessions with instances in Windows via the Chrome browser and the Google Compute Engine.
"[Because] Google Developers Console stores and passes the login for the Windows credentials to the RDP app, customers are able to leave the complexity of managing unique user IDs and passwords for each Windows instance to Google," states Buhr.
As Google expands its cloud platform to support some popular server software, Microsoft has been, for the past year and a half, preparing the launch of its "cloud in a box." Through a partnership with Dell, Microsoft is offering a bare-bone kits that will enable enterprises to roll out Azure cloud servers that'll work with other server systems on or off campus.
"We are not building our hyper-scale cloud in Azure in isolation," stated Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella back in October. "We are building to compose well with other clouds."
