The Microsoft Windows Azure cloud computing site is ramping up piece by piece. The Microsoft Windows Azure cloud computing site is at www.azure.com, as you might have guessed; that redirects to www.microsoft.com/azure/, as you might also have guessed.As of a couple of minutes ago, I was able to register for the Azure Services CTP, but not able to download the Windows Azure SDKs and tools. I haven’t yet received a registration confirmation. An hour ago, I wasn’t even able to start my registration.[See the Azure announcement news from the PDC as reported by InfoWorld | Keep up with all the developments at Microsoft’s 2008 Professional Developers Conference in InfoWorld’s special report. ] I’ll update this post when I see the situation change.Update 3:55 EDT: The Azure White Paper is available here as a Word 2007 file. Highlights: For the CTP in 2008, Azure will only run ASP.NET and other .Net executables. In 2009, there will be some support for unmanaged code. Here’s the architecture diagram:Azure storage is not based on SQL Server: instead, it is a REST-based API. Azure is intended to be used with .Net Services, which used to be called BizTalk Services; with SQL Data Services, which are built on SQL Server; and with Live Services, which include access to Hotmail contacts and a bunch of other services.Update 4:10 EDT: The Windows Azure SDK is now available for download. The prerequisites are:Windows Vista SP1 (when installing on Windows Vista) or Windows Server 2008 .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 IIS 7.0 (with ASP.NET and WCF HTTP Activation) Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 or Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 Windows PowerShell (optional) You’ll also want the Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio. Software Development