Tech students, want to get ahead of the curve?

If you answered yes to the above question, then may I suggest that you check out an offer that Microsoft has for you.

Microsoft is offering all students a free 30-day pass for access to Windows Azure. Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing offering, and by using tools that you are most likely already familiar with such as Visual Studio, IIS, C#, and SQL Server, you can build web applications that are highly reliable, scalable, and can be built quickly.

The 30-day trial pass includes:

• 4 small compute instances
• 3GB of storage
• 250,000 storage transactions
• Two (2) 1GB Web Edition databases
• 100,000 Access Control transactions
• 2 Service Bus connections
• 3GB in/out data transfer (per region)

By signing up for and using Windows Azure, you will gain valuable experience into the future of computing. More and more companies are moving towards cloud based computing, and you as a student and an end user are already using cloud-based services. If you own an iPod or a Zune and buy music through Apple or Microsoft, that’s a cloud service. If you like Dominos pizza and order online, you’re using a cloud service (powered by Windows Azure). Are you a Gmail user or a Hotmail user? Then you are a user of a cloud based service. See where I’m going with this? Cloud computing is where the future is at.

If you’re ready to dive in, click here, and use the promo code AC30D to sign up. (there isn’t a continue button, so you’ll have to press enter after typing in the promo code.)

If you’re not so sure, and want to learn more about Windows Azure, click here.