While Windows Azure is designed first and foremost to appeal to .Net developers, Microsoft has been adding tools for those who want to work on cloud apps using PHP, Ruby and even -- gasp -- Java.

Microsoft has announced the private preview of jaz, a new Java Virtual Machine (JVM) launcher tailored for cloud deployments on Azure. The tool aims to address long-standing challenges developers face ...

The new Microsoft tool for the Azure cloud aims to improve launch times for Java applications and thus reduce cloud costs. Microsoft presents jaz, a JVM launcher that automatically configures and ...