Google tries to lure .NET devs with PowerShell cloud bait

For all its highs and lows over the recent years, one thing Microsoft has always had in its favour is developers – millions coding, first for Windows, then .NET.

The jury’s out on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, first as a platform and secondly due to Microsoft’s embrace of so many non-Microsoft languages and runtimes.

Many have tried to win over those millions, and now Google is taking a shot – attempting to lure the .NET devotees from Azure to its own cloud.

Google has unveiled new Cloud Tools for PowerShell – Microsoft’s scripting and automation platform for Windows, which it open-sourced and stuck on GitHub back in August.

Cloud Tools for Powershell is a collection of cmdlets that allow you to script and automate apps using the Google Compute Platform.

Currently in beta, the tools gives devs access to Google Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL and Cloud DNS, so you can build and deploy a VM, database or DNS domains. More tools are promised by Google, with the current set installed via a Cloud SDK for Windows.

The full list of commandlets is here.

Google is behind in the great cloud platform game and such tools will mean de facto access to an on-tap developer community.

This push to grab Microsoft devs comes after Microsoft’s own come-to-Jesus moment on developer tools for the cloud in 2014.

While it had the mindshare, Microsoft was losing .NET devs in the switch to Azure with tooling built for Windows but lacking for deployment to Azure.

It elevated .NET cult hero Scott Guthrie, renowned for his developer-focused thinking, from corporate vice president of .NET and Silverlight to the chief of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise, where he is tasked with ironing out the wrinkles from a position of power. ®