Tools such as Java, PHP, Ruby and Eclipse are all supported for developing applications for Windows Azure. Microsoft is going to step up its Java support for Azure in the coming weeks thus stepping up the Java to a “first-class citizen” in the Microsoft cloud universe. There are many Java developers out there whom Microsoft would be excluding from its potential cloud customer base if it did not support anything beyond .Net. And Microsoft cloud competitors like VMware, Amazon and Google all have built Java support for their platforms.