With these changes Microsoft has shifted its emphasis from Windows developers building Windows apps via Windows Azure to all developers building all apps via Microsoft Azure – an important distinction and one likely to grow more apparent over the coming months.
It sounds like Build is a nice conference with some dramatic changes from previous Microsoft policy (strong ties to Windows and NIH). To be fair, many bits and pieces on Microsoft have long been “heterogenous,” it just wasn’t emphasized too much as a big deal. All of this should help.