Microsoft Windows Azure is a cloud computing platform that provides infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software as a service. It allows developers to build and host applications and services through Microsoft's global network of data centers. Key components of Windows Azure include Web Roles, Worker Roles, Storage, SQL Azure database, Cloud Fabric for automatic scaling and failover, and development tools to facilitate building applications for the cloud. The document provides an overview of these services and components and how developers can get started using Windows Azure.