diff --git a/plugins/inventory/windows_azure.ini b/plugins/inventory/windows_azure.ini
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..133a5e5ff6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/inventory/windows_azure.ini
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+# Ansible Windows Azure external inventory script settings
+#
+
+[azure]
+
+# The module needs your Windows Azure subscription ID and Management certificate path.
+# These may also be specified on the command line via --subscription-id and --cert-path
+# or via the environment variables AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID and AZURE_CERT_PATH
+#
+#subscription_id = aaaaaaaa-1234-1234-1234-aaaaaaaaaaaa
+#cert_path = /path/to/cert.pem
+
+
+# API calls to Windows Azure may be slow. For this reason, we cache the results
+# of an API call. Set this to the path you want cache files to be written to.
+# One file will be written to this directory:
+#   - ansible-azure.cache
+#
+cache_path = /tmp
+
+
+# The number of seconds a cache file is considered valid. After this many
+# seconds, a new API call will be made, and the cache file will be updated.
+#
+cache_max_age = 300
diff --git a/plugins/inventory/windows_azure.py b/plugins/inventory/windows_azure.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..594e69b5c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/inventory/windows_azure.py
@@ -0,0 +1,222 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+'''
+Windows Azure external inventory script
+=======================================
+
+Generates inventory that Ansible can understand by making API request to
+Windows Azure using the azure python library.
+
+NOTE: This script assumes Ansible is being executed where azure is already
+installed.
+
+    pip install azure
+
+Adapted from the ansible Linode plugin by Dan Slimmon.
+'''
+
+# (c) 2013, John Whitbeck
+#
+# This file is part of Ansible,
+#
+# Ansible is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# Ansible is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with Ansible.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+######################################################################
+
+# Standard imports
+import re
+import sys
+import argparse
+import os
+from urlparse import urlparse
+from time import time
+try:
+    import json
+except ImportError:
+    import simplejson as json
+
+try:
+    import azure
+    from azure import WindowsAzureError
+    from azure.servicemanagement import ServiceManagementService
+except ImportError as e:
+    print "failed=True msg='`azure` library required for this script'"
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+
+# Imports for ansible
+import ConfigParser
+
+class AzureInventory(object):
+    def __init__(self):
+        """Main execution path."""
+        # Inventory grouped by display group
+        self.inventory = {}
+        # Index of deployment name -> host
+        self.index = {}
+
+        # Read settings and parse CLI arguments
+        self.read_settings()
+        self.read_environment()
+        self.parse_cli_args()
+
+        # Initialize Azure ServiceManagementService
+        self.sms = ServiceManagementService(self.subscription_id, self.cert_path)
+
+        # Cache
+        if self.args.refresh_cache:
+            self.do_api_calls_update_cache()
+        elif not self.is_cache_valid():
+            self.do_api_calls_update_cache()
+
+        # Data to print
+        if self.args.list:
+            # Display list of nodes for inventory
+            if len(self.inventory) == 0:
+                data_to_print = self.get_inventory_from_cache()
+            else:
+                data_to_print = self.json_format_dict(self.inventory, True)
+
+        print data_to_print
+
+    def is_cache_valid(self):
+        """Determines if the cache file has expired, or if it is still valid."""
+        if os.path.isfile(self.cache_path_cache):
+            mod_time = os.path.getmtime(self.cache_path_cache)
+            current_time = time()
+            if (mod_time + self.cache_max_age) > current_time:
+                if os.path.isfile(self.cache_path_index):
+                    return True
+        return False
+
+    def read_settings(self):
+        """Reads the settings from the .ini file."""
+        config = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser()
+        config.read(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)) + '/windows_azure.ini')
+
+        # Credentials related
+        if config.has_option('azure', 'subscription_id'):
+            self.subscription_id = config.get('azure', 'subscription_id')
+        if config.has_option('azure', 'cert_path'):
+            self.cert_path = config.get('azure', 'cert_path')
+
+        # Cache related
+        if config.has_option('azure', 'cache_path'):
+            cache_path = config.get('azure', 'cache_path')
+            self.cache_path_cache = cache_path + "/ansible-azure.cache"
+            self.cache_path_index = cache_path + "/ansible-azure.index"
+        if config.has_option('azure', 'cache_max_age'):
+            self.cache_max_age = config.getint('azure', 'cache_max_age')
+
+    def read_environment(self):
+        ''' Reads the settings from environment variables '''
+        # Credentials
+        if os.getenv("AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID"): self.subscription_id = os.getenv("AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID")
+        if os.getenv("AZURE_CERT_PATH"):       self.cert_path = os.getenv("AZURE_CERT_PATH")
+
+
+    def parse_cli_args(self):
+        """Command line argument processing"""
+        parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Produce an Ansible Inventory file based on Azure')
+        parser.add_argument('--list', action='store_true', default=True,
+                           help='List nodes (default: True)')
+        parser.add_argument('--refresh-cache', action='store_true', default=False,
+                           help='Force refresh of cache by making API requests to Azure (default: False - use cache files)')
+        self.args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    def do_api_calls_update_cache(self):
+        """Do API calls, and save data in cache files."""
+        self.add_cloud_services()
+        self.write_to_cache(self.inventory, self.cache_path_cache)
+        self.write_to_cache(self.index, self.cache_path_index)
+
+    def add_cloud_services(self):
+        """Makes an Azure API call to get the list of cloud services."""
+        try:
+            for cloud_service in self.sms.list_hosted_services():
+                self.add_deployments(cloud_service)
+        except WindowsAzureError as e:
+            print "Looks like Azure's API is down:"
+            print
+            print e
+            sys.exit(1)
+
+    def add_deployments(self, cloud_service):
+        """Makes an Azure API call to get the list of virtual machines associated with a cloud service"""
+        try:
+            for deployment in self.sms.get_hosted_service_properties(cloud_service.service_name,embed_detail=True).deployments.deployments:
+                if deployment.deployment_slot == "Production":
+                    self.add_deployment(cloud_service, deployment)
+        except WindowsAzureError as e:
+            print "Looks like Azure's API is down:"
+            print
+            print e
+            sys.exit(1)
+
+    def add_deployment(self, cloud_service, deployment):
+        """Adds a deployment to the inventory and index"""
+
+        dest = urlparse(deployment.url).hostname
+
+        # Add to index
+        self.index[dest] = deployment.name
+
+        # List of all azure deployments
+        self.push(self.inventory, "azure", dest)
+
+        # Inventory: Group by service name
+        self.push(self.inventory, self.to_safe(cloud_service.service_name), dest)
+
+        # Inventory: Group by region
+        self.push(self.inventory, self.to_safe(cloud_service.hosted_service_properties.location), dest)
+
+    def push(self, my_dict, key, element):
+        """Pushed an element onto an array that may not have been defined in the dict."""
+        if key in my_dict:
+            my_dict[key].append(element);
+        else:
+            my_dict[key] = [element]
+
+    def get_inventory_from_cache(self):
+        """Reads the inventory from the cache file and returns it as a JSON object."""
+        cache = open(self.cache_path_cache, 'r')
+        json_inventory = cache.read()
+        return json_inventory
+
+    def load_index_from_cache(self):
+        """Reads the index from the cache file and sets self.index."""
+        cache = open(self.cache_path_index, 'r')
+        json_index = cache.read()
+        self.index = json.loads(json_index)
+
+    def write_to_cache(self, data, filename):
+        """Writes data in JSON format to a file."""
+        json_data = self.json_format_dict(data, True)
+        cache = open(filename, 'w')
+        cache.write(json_data)
+        cache.close()
+
+    def to_safe(self, word):
+        """Escapes any characters that would be invalid in an ansible group name."""
+        return re.sub("[^A-Za-z0-9\-]", "_", word)
+
+    def json_format_dict(self, data, pretty=False):
+        """Converts a dict to a JSON object and dumps it as a formatted string."""
+        if pretty:
+            return json.dumps(data, sort_keys=True, indent=2)
+        else:
+            return json.dumps(data)
+
+
+AzureInventory()