Whenever a new platform style appears, independent software vendors need to understand how it might help their business. When personal computers first became popular, for instance, successful ISVs adapted their applications to this new kind of computing platform. More recently, mobile phones have emerged as a platform, with many ISVs creating mobile clients for their applications.Cloud platforms represent another new options that ISVs must understand and evaluate. For Windows ISVs, this means understanding the Windows Azure platform. Can it improve your business? If so, how? What follows walks through a simple set of questions to help you make the right decision.