I have a new toy to play with today:  Windows Azure.

Azure is a development platform or operating system that allows for cloud computing.  In other words, clustering and fail-over handling.  So you can develop your website, put it in the “cloud” and Azure will automatically deal with the task scheduling and farming required to properly handle the scaling required for your application.

It’s currently in CTP for now (Customer Technology Preview).  You can download the SDK and VS2008 tools here and here.  Both are required to start creating applications using Visual Studio 2008.

Windows Azure will allow you to host your application on their servers, so they’ll handle any hardware failures.  However, they’ll charge you (prices still to be determined).

You need to register in order to get a token to create a hosted app.  I am still waiting for my token…