• Microsoft made its ID@AZURE program available for all the developers; they do not need any invitation anymore.
• With the latest announcement, game developers can spin up game dev workstations and build servers for approximately five minutes with the integrated Game Development Virtual Machine.

In the last few years, Microsoft has been making efforts to allow game developers to utilize Azure and other Microsoft cloud services. And finally, the firm declared the launch of more services and programs customized specifically for independent game developers.

Microsoft launched its Azure Game Development Virtual Machine for all the game developers who want to create and test games in a production-ready cloud environment. The virtual machines will have inbuilt tools like Unreal Engine, Perforce, Incredibuild, Visual Studio, DirectX/GDK/PlayFab software development kits, and others.

Game developers can spin up game dev workstations or develop servers in approximately five minutes with these inbuilt Game Development Virtual Machines. Microsoft officials also said that the developers could use a configured Game Dev Virtual machine as a base image to build custom workstation environments or develop servers.

Ben Humphrey, a principal software engineer for Azure, wrote in a blog about virtual machines “We’re committed to making Azure the cloud of choice for game creators, so expect to see additional investments in the future, including: more powerful compute and GPUs; tighter partner integrations with improved cloud-native authentication; better end-to-end examples and documentation on running your game dev pipeline in Azure; better options for cloud pipelines leveraging Xbox development and more.”

Additionally, the ID@Azure program is being made available by Microsoft, which is similar to the ID@Xbox program. ID@Azure is a free platform to deliver Microsoft tools and infrastructure to game developers to design games that can run on all platforms. Developers will get services for validation and integration, educational resources, and support for Azure experts for free as a part of the program.

Earlier in December, when the ID@Azure program was launched, it was available as an invitation-only closed beta program. Now, Microsoft has made it available to everyone.

Azure executes all Microsoft’s xCloud game-streaming services. Game developers, including Microsoft, have access to Bing Maps, Microsoft Mesh, Bing Maps, Azure AI, PlayFab developer services, and other Microsoft cloud technologies for developing and maintaining their games. The officials also stated all the work game developers do on Azure is “inform and accelerate Cloud computing.”

Microsoft launched the Microsoft Game Stack, a collective of cloud services such as Azure, Power BI, PlayFab, Mixer and Xbox Live, and other development tools in 2019. Furthermore, Microsoft bought PlayFab, a tool service vendor for cloud-connected games, in 2018.

According to the report, Microsoft may launch the service around June or July this year. It is also speculated that it will let users access a remote Windows desktop and software like Office. Microsoft will probably host the Cloud PC service on Azure.

Users will run Windows 10 and Office 365 apps in a virtual, remote environment using their own devices as thin clients. Users of Cloud PC service will reportedly pay a monthly fee to access a remote Windows 10 desktop with other software like MS Office.

The Cloud PC services can be beneficial for those who frequently switch between devices and access their PCs remotely. The details about this service, ‘Cloud PC,’ will soon be revealed during its Build 2021 developer conference, and it will take place between May 25 and May 27 this year.

Also, it was reported last year that Microsoft would offer different cloud PC subscription plans, recognized as Medium, Heavy, and Advanced. Each of these plans has an additional capacity of storage, memory, and processing power.

A recent job posting on its Careers site talks about Cloud PC service –

“(The Cloud PC service) allows all users to be productive from anywhere, on any device with a cloud-powered, secure, and always up to date Windows experience. It also seamlessly allows endpoint managers to instantly provision cloud hosted PCs and manage physical and virtual devices through a unified portal and a fixed and predictable price.”

Until now, SD-WAN has been driving enterprise edge services. And now, there is a substantial increase in demand for additional services such as security, private 5G, security, video analytics, and carrier Wi-Fi, as per Enea. Therefore, such needs will be thoroughly fulfilled by virtualization platforms such as Enea Edge, particularly tailored for the requirements of enterprise edge.

The virtualization platform’s lucrative features include easy deployment in any location, including thin branches without data centers, such as small offices and retail outlets.

It fits well into the place of a software platform capable of hosting a wide range of premises-based services and applications.

Enea Edge’s small footprint well differentiates from cloud computing platforms such as OpenStack. These platforms are too complex and resource-incentive for uPCE-based solutions.

What leaders have to say

Roy Chua, Founder and Principal at AvidThink, said, “Efficient and scalable virtualization platforms like Enea Edge enable service providers to roll out any network service or application component in any location on any white-box, all centrally managed and orchestrated.”

Karl Mörner, Vice President of Product Management at Enea, said, “With Enea Edge, we continue to evolve our resource-efficient open platform, which gives service providers the flexibility to choose the optimal mix of hardware and applications for their enterprise customers.”

Andile Ngcaba, inq. Chairman, said: “With Edge AI Video Analytics solutions powered by Deep Learning, inq. clients are able to gain valuable insights from data that can be used to drive business, safety, and compliance decisions within their organisations. inq. is pleased to be an Enea Edge partner with a particular focus on video analytics services.”

This vgpu_unlock mod appeared recently On Reddit. It also observed Tom’s devices On. Users can find modification and installation instructions at GitHub. For the rest, users should use Nvidia GRID Driver Install to see the run-down working of GPU virtualization.

Though Nvidia offers a 9-day free trial, this program requires a license. The mod works well with different video cards using an Ampere GPU, Turing, or Pascal. Also, Mod makers warn that the devices haven’t undergone extensive testing.

In normal conditions, virtualization is just available for Nvidia’s Quadro video cards and GPUs. However, there is a limitation in this software functioning since the professional GPUs use the same chips as GeForce consumer video cards.

The limitation works on a driver level, as the creator of mod explains on GitHub. The driver can identify if the video card supports file virtualization, unique in the case of every PCI device. The mod functions to replace the identification number for the identifier used by the video card that supports virtualization so that the video card can be seen in the driver as a data center or quad GPU.

The GPU Virtualization allows users to split the video card and use it for controlling multiple virtual machines. Add to it, this allows several users to use one video card.

The visible benefits of this platform are improved network bandwidth, network security, multi-cloud access, troubleshooting, and simplified network provisioning. Targeted customers are from video conferencing, industrial IoT, 4k/8k streaming, and other industries that need guaranteed network SLAs.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Algoblu to develop a Network Element Virtualization chip built on leading-edge FPGA technology. The chip is key to Algoblu’s NEV architecture with an FPGA-based SMartNIC, all developed in an elegant way,” says Dr. Endric Schubert, CTO at Missing Link Electronics.

“Algoblu’s Network Element Virtualization technology allows carriers to provide services across complex networks and, more than this, offer different classes of network services in a simple way, customized for our customers’ needs and their applications’ requirements,” said Jordan Deng, Founder and CEO of CIK Telecom, the third-largest independent service provider in Canada.

“Most vendors focus on managing existing network resources. We virtualize and orchestrate underlying network resources, which is a different approach that benefits telecom companies directly,” said Lawrence Lee, Founder and CEO of Algoblu. “We know how challenging it is for telcos to provide services across multi-vendor networks. With NEV, they can virtualize existing network infrastructures to be one, providing personalized multi-tier services with different encryption, bandwidth and latency, as well as guaranteed SLAs.”