Microsoft Previews Hybrid App Development Opportunity with Visual Studio Tooling for Apache Cordova

Among a number of announcements, Microsoft announced a preview of Visual Studio tooling for the Apache Cordova platform, allowing developers to build multidevice hybrid applications using their HTML and JavaScript skills.

Visual Studio developers can build Windows, iOS and Android native applications with .NET and Xamarin or hybrid applications with Apache Cordova. Microsoft also released Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 RTM including support for universal Windows apps.

Microsoft also extended Visual Studio Online, the cloud-based application lifecycle management offering, by releasing a set of APIs and service hooks that integrate with third-party services.

Office mobile app management with Windows Intune - Later this year, Intune and Office 365 will deliver mobile productivity across Office for iPad, iPhone and Android phones including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook Web App. Part of the Enterprise Mobility Suite, Intune will also deliver a tool to help customers manage existing iOS and Android line-of-business apps.

Microsoft Azure RemoteApp - Available in preview, Azure RemoteApp helps companies give mobile employees access to Windows applications across a range of devices. Combining Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Services capabilities with the scale and cost-efficiencies of Microsoft Azure, RemoteApp will help end users stay productive and enable IT to scale and meet customer needs.

Optimized .NET for the cloud - Microsoft is offering a preview of the next version of ASP.NET, a streamlined framework and runtime that enables developers to optimize cloud and server workloads. ASP.NET vNext will be a new Microsoft contribution to the .NET Foundation as an open source project.

Private connections to the cloud - Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute enables users to create private connections between Azure and on-premises environments. Through alliances with providers such as AT&T, BT, Equinix, Level 3, SingTel, TelecityGroup, Verizon and Zadara Storage, ExpressRoute offers enterprises new options for embracing the cloud, including fast speeds, security and reliability features, and low latency.

Simplified cloud storage - Microsoft Azure Files streamlines cloud storage by enabling a single file share from multiple virtual machines.

Enterprise-grade performance and networking - Microsoft also announced the availability of compute-intensive virtual machine sizes, in-region and cross-region virtual networking connections, and reserved IP addresses. Together, these advancements help customers architect, deploy and manage global-scale services.

API management - Available in preview, Azure API Management lets customers improve interdepartmental information sharing and create new business models by exposing APIs through the cloud.

Enhanced disaster recovery - Available in preview in June, Microsoft Azure Site Recovery, formerly Hyper-V Recovery Manager, enables disaster recovery in the cloud. With this new capability, customers can replicate and recover virtual machines and services to Azure in the event of an outage at their primary datacenter.

New anti-malware - Microsoft Antimalware for Azure, available in preview, offers customers the ability to install an anti-malware agent for both cloud services and virtual machines. In addition, Microsoft announced solutions with cloud security partners Symantec and Trend Micro that integrate with Azure virtual machines.

Enhanced encryption technologies - Beginning in July, Microsoft will begin to deploy new encryption technology for Microsoft Office 365 business customers, ensuring that every file stored in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business is encrypted with its own key for highly secure content storage.

Expanded data loss prevention - Starting in June, existing Data Loss Prevention capabilities available in Exchange will now expand to include documents stored in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business for Office 365 E3 enterprise customers. Data Loss Prevention helps prevent the sharing of sensitive content inside and outside an organization.