Microsoft has just announced the preview of its Windows Azure store, giving developers a good reason to smile. By offering this preview, Microsoft has allowed developers to taste the Windows Azure and its features, which includes catalog of app services, ranging from monitoring and scaling, to mail delivery to databases.

“We’re releasing our Windows Azure Store this week,” said Scott Guthrie, a Microsoft corporate vice president. “The store is a list of services from Microsoft’s partners that users can purchase, including services from the likes of AppDynamics, Aspera, and New Relic, among many others.”

With the preview of Windows Azure Store, Microsoft is handing out lots of code-filled examples to developers, a roadmap of how to move ahead with Microsoft tools and technology. The company also said that the cloud OS is the back end for its Windows 8 platform and Windows Phone 8 apps. The same was announced by Satya Nadella, president of Microsoft’s server and tools business, who also demonstrated how to build apps that take advantage of Microsoft’s cloud services.

“We want the Cloud OS to be the platform any developer will want to build on,” Nadella said in an Oct. 31 blog post. “As part of that commitment, today we also announced a series of updates for Windows Azure, including Website language support for .NET Framework 4.5 and Python, making this service even more open for developers, the preview of the new Windows Azure Store and the availability of Visual Studio Team Foundation Service.”

Microsoft also announced the extension of Windows Azure Mobile Services to include support for Windows Phone 8, in addition to Windows 8. Plus, the Windows Azure as the back end for Halo 4, that will use Windows Azure to provide a robust, cost-effective way to scale up and down as demand ebbs and flows across the globe.