Johnson says Epicor's ERP customers were having trouble accessing data outside the firewall from mobile devices. Navigating around huge ERP files through a VPN was too cumbersome, so in its latest release, Epicor added search capabilities through an Azure service.

According to Johnson, the search tool creates an up-to-date index of ERP data, then pushes the index to the Azure cloud. Mobile users, including those who have iPhones, can search using phrases such as "shipments by part number." He says it took three to four weeks to create the service.

Microsoft has not yet determined when Azure will . Martin says pricing will be based on the amount of resources used.

Because Azure is still in beta, Forrester Research Inc. analyst John Rymer has said that he believes those seeking immediate, stable options for cloud applications might be better served by developing for the Amazon.com or Salesforce.com platforms.

However, FullArmor's Kim says his team had built a PC monitoring application for Salesforce.com's environment but scuttled the project after it was complete, moving it to Azure. He says that the company's 20-plus years as a Microsoft developer made switching to Azure a better bet.