At the Microsoft Build developer conference last week, Microsoft showed that it is ready to embrace technologies and platforms not invented within its walls.  This is like trying to get your grandparents to learn how to use an iPhone.

Rather than relying solely on internal tools, the Azure cloud services platform has incorporated a number of non-Microsoft technologies.  This includes popular open source tools such as the Chef and Puppet configuration management software, as well as OAuth authorization standards, and Hadoop data processing-related tools and technologies.

This is not the first time that Microsoft claimed they would work and play well with other technologies.  However, this is a step in the right direction, considering their very closed and proprietary past.  There is new leadership in there, and perhaps the Microsoft of the 90s is starting to think, well, with a bit more of an open mind.

The growth of cloud computing means that most technologies need to work well together, and also support the tools and standards that are most prevalent.  Microsoft seems to get this…finally.