Today, Microsoft is announcing the availability of Virtual Machines as part of the Microsoft Azure Gallery.
Using the Azure Portal, customers can now create, deploy, monitor, and manage applications within pre-configured, or customizable, Virtual Machines. If you choose a pre-configured VM, Microsoft is providing automation for quick VM creations by including application templates optimized for the application instance.
Virtual machine templates include the key components of SQL Server, SharePoint Server, Oracle, MySQL, Redis, and MongoDB. Using Azure as the basis, the VMs can scale significantly to 1000s of instances, includes built-in Virtual Networking and Load Balancing, and works with on-premises implementations through Hybrid consistency.
Check it out: Azure Virtual Machines
