As Microsoft prepares to officially launch Windows Azure — its cloud-based Windows platform — the software giant has introduced key perks for those within the Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN). Here are the details.

For starters, Microsoft Windows Azure has opened up for developers. If you’re among the ranks of the Microsoft Developers Network, you’re going to get perks when it becomes available to the public at large, mostly in the form of complimentary hours.

All MSDN subscribers will get 750 hours on Azure a month for the first eight months of Azure’s commercial availability, as well as other freebies including 1,000,000 messages through .Net Services, three 1GB SQL Azure databases, and 7GB in and 14GB out of data transfer bandwidth. After that introductory period, subscribers will still get time and bandwidth on Azure, though markedly less. For a complete breakdown of who gets what, check Microsoft’s own chart here.

As you may recall, Microsoft is seeking to recruit software developers to Windows Azure, much in the way that the software giant recruited developers to Windows NT Server in the 1990s.

The Windows Azure platform is expected to become commercially available in November 2009, presenting the opportunity for VARs and MSPs to migrate customer applications into Microsoft’s cloud.

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