Microsoft has launched a free cybersecurity service for customers of its Azure cloud platform.
Antimalware is available as a security extension through the Azure interface, and includes the core features of real-time monitoring, scheduled scanning, and malware remediation, among others.
Tim Rains, director of cybersecurity at Microsoft, said: "This new security extension for Microsoft Azure provides an additional layer of security by helping to identify, block and remove malicious software on virtual machines managed by Azure customers.
"It provides real time protection from the latest threats, can perform on-demand scanning, and monitoring at no additional charge to Microsoft Azure customers."
Data from the antivirus system is accessible through the user’s Azure Storage account, and can be viewed on an analytics dashboard through the Azure Preview Portal.
The service is built on the same platform as Microsoft’s Security Essentials, Windows Defender and Forefront Endpoint Protection, and is supported on Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012, and 2012 R2.
