Microsoft Azure #1 in Recent Developer Survey

Microsoft out-performed Google, Amazon and VMWare in a recent survey among 400 developers on their cloud usage for apps.  36% of respondents claimed they were using Windows Azure in some capacity according to the developer firm Evans Data. 

Windows Azure has become open to a broad community of developers starting with .NET, and also has a home for developers using Java, Ruby, or PHP.  Organizations needing a mixed environment have Azure as a means to manage workloads, as well as SQL Azure for its database content.  Data handling between SQL Server and SQL Azure is made easier through a sync capability to replicate data between on-premise and cloud.

Evans Data also published those languages most used by developers: Java, 64%; C++, 60%; C#, 58%; and PHP, 49%. Developers surveyed claim they worked with more than one language at a time. 

Developers also prioritized their cloud needs in the survey, leading first with reliability and uptime, followed by price second and automatic scaling third.  Most cloud users rank security as a top concern, while cloud developers ranked security fourth. 

Respondents also claimed Windows Azure helped save time while executing a project. 28% of respondents claimed they saved 20% of the time developing apps for cloud, while 86% of respondents say they saved some degree of time managing cloud apps (largely due to ease of access to systems and storage).