The Linux operating system has long been considered a major rival of Windows, so Microsoft has certainly raised eyebrows in revealing that it has developed its own Linux-based OS.
This new OS is called Azure Cloud Switch and, as revealed by the Redmond tech giant in a blog post, is run by its cloud computing infrastructure, Azure. Kamala Subramaniam, Principal Architect at Azure Networking, has described the OS as “a cross-platform modular operating system for data center networking built on Linux”.
Subramaniam added that it is “our foray into building our own software for running network devices like switches.” This new platform also “allows us to debug, fix, and test software bugs much faster”, while enabling “the flexibility to scale down the software and develop features that are required for our datacenter and our networking needs.”
While the blog post details many of the features of Azure Cloud Switch, it stops short of explaining why Linux in particular was chosen as its basis. However, Subramaniam’s reference to the demonstrated versatility of ACS suggests that the flexible open-source makeup of Linux could have been a deciding factor.
