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Microsoft Azure: The cloud service that wont abruptly close out of nowhere with no transition plan leaving you stranded, and a service that actually comes with

by basch 7y ago

Microsoft Azure: The cloud service that wont abruptly close out of nowhere with no transition plan leaving you stranded, and a service that actually comes with that thing you call when you need help and support. The marketing writes itself.

Jasper_ 7y ago
They already wrote that marketing 8 years ago. Only gets more and more true over the years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QI4KmlcQr4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QI4KmlcQr4
- basch 7y ago
  Half of that criticisms applies to Microsoft now. :/
- vosper 7y ago
  I enjoyed that more than I thought I would :)
ocdtrekkie 7y ago
Mostly all you need to know about Microsoft's support lifecycle is that my Windows Mobile phone just got a security patch on Patch Tuesday, and apparently Microsoft also extended its support an extra month into January just because. Microsoft platforms most people think are long dead and buried still get maintenance updates years later.
- chupa-chups 7y ago
  Like the Microsoft Azure "German Cloud", assured to be GDPR compliant. We spent quite some time and money to migrate from AWS to that solution in 2017. Guess what? It has been shut down by the end of 2019. We're back on AWS now. We were (I guess) not an insignificant customer, paying around 8k €/month, with the prospect of growing significantly (which has happened in the mean time, but on AWS).
  - paulddraper 7y ago
    ?? They still have the GDPR-compliant Frankfurt and Berlin datacenters. [1] I've not see any announcement about closing them. [1] https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/global-infrastructure/germany/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/global-infrastructure/germ...
    - chupa-chups 7y ago
      https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/germany/germany-welcome https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/germany/germany-welco... Apparently they reversed their decision again, which kind of underlines what I said :)
      - paulddraper 7y ago
        > Existing customers can continue to use the current cloud services available today, which we’ll maintain with necessary security updates. No one said MS developed new services for years and years and years; they said they supported existing offerings for a long time, which they do.
        chupa-chups 7y ago
        https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-is-discontinuing-the-german-data-trustee-model/ https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-is-discontinuing-the-germa... https://hackernoon.com/microsoft-announces-the-end-of-the-germany-cloud-431bbe407b94 https://hackernoon.com/microsoft-announces-the-end-of-the-ge... https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/issues/14944 https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/issues/14944 If you still don't believe me, please provide your public key or email address so I can publish a response. Maybe it doesn't stand out: Microsoft Germany delivered the promise that US authorities are technically unable to access stored data. The "new" data centers were without that promise, making the USP obsolete.
        paulddraper 7y ago
        This is precisely my point: > Existing customers can continue to use the current cloud services available today. > Existing customers are not affected by this and can continue to use the Germany cloud without restriction. You don't see any Windows Phones being sold, but they still years later being supported with security updates. No one can possibly fault a business for stopping continuing development of an unpopular offering. It's when it becomes unsupported and leaves people stranded that the the real problems happen.
- Lammy 7y ago
  Microsoft have plenty of platforms and products that were abandoned overnight. It’s hard for me to even think of Windows Phone, for example, without thinking of what happened to WP7 buyers when they abruptly pivoted their mobile OS/runtime strategy with the incompatible WP8. The most they got was a WP7.8 update that skinned the immediately-dead platform to look like the new one. It’s a matter of visibility and what kind of customers own the products being shut down. From a PR perspective there’s a big difference between killing an enterprise product with few large customers, and killing a consumer product with many small ones. Even if the few complaints are louder, the many complaints around the latter would still totally drown it out. I’m sure they have analytics to know how many people still use Windows Phones and weighing the possibility of an outcry e.g. if all their unsupported phones got 0wned and they collectively took to Twitter about it.
  - wvenable 7y ago
    Windows Phone was like the opposite of Microsoft's strategy over the last several decades. They decided to move fast and break things like we're all told to do and they were roundly punished in the marketplace for it.
  - jhoechtl 7y ago
    > At least a non-cloud service will work after it has been officially declared dead.

by basch 7y ago

Jasper_ 7y ago

They already wrote that marketing 8 years ago. Only gets more and more true over the years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QI4KmlcQr4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QI4KmlcQr4

basch 7y ago
Half of that criticisms applies to Microsoft now. :/
vosper 7y ago
I enjoyed that more than I thought I would :)

ocdtrekkie 7y ago

Mostly all you need to know about Microsoft's support lifecycle is that my Windows Mobile phone just got a security patch on Patch Tuesday, and apparently Microsoft also extended its support an extra month into January just because. Microsoft platforms most people think are long dead and buried still get maintenance updates years later.

chupa-chups 7y ago
Like the Microsoft Azure "German Cloud", assured to be GDPR compliant. We spent quite some time and money to migrate from AWS to that solution in 2017. Guess what? It has been shut down by the end of 2019. We're back on AWS now. We were (I guess) not an insignificant customer, paying around 8k €/month, with the prospect of growing significantly (which has happened in the mean time, but on AWS).
- paulddraper 7y ago
  ?? They still have the GDPR-compliant Frankfurt and Berlin datacenters. [1] I've not see any announcement about closing them. [1] https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/global-infrastructure/germany/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/global-infrastructure/germ...
  - chupa-chups 7y ago
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/germany/germany-welcome https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/germany/germany-welco... Apparently they reversed their decision again, which kind of underlines what I said :)
    - paulddraper 7y ago
      > Existing customers can continue to use the current cloud services available today, which we’ll maintain with necessary security updates. No one said MS developed new services for years and years and years; they said they supported existing offerings for a long time, which they do.
      - chupa-chups 7y ago
        https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-is-discontinuing-the-german-data-trustee-model/ https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-is-discontinuing-the-germa... https://hackernoon.com/microsoft-announces-the-end-of-the-germany-cloud-431bbe407b94 https://hackernoon.com/microsoft-announces-the-end-of-the-ge... https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/issues/14944 https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/issues/14944 If you still don't believe me, please provide your public key or email address so I can publish a response. Maybe it doesn't stand out: Microsoft Germany delivered the promise that US authorities are technically unable to access stored data. The "new" data centers were without that promise, making the USP obsolete.
        paulddraper 7y ago
        This is precisely my point: > Existing customers can continue to use the current cloud services available today. > Existing customers are not affected by this and can continue to use the Germany cloud without restriction. You don't see any Windows Phones being sold, but they still years later being supported with security updates. No one can possibly fault a business for stopping continuing development of an unpopular offering. It's when it becomes unsupported and leaves people stranded that the the real problems happen.
Lammy 7y ago
Microsoft have plenty of platforms and products that were abandoned overnight. It’s hard for me to even think of Windows Phone, for example, without thinking of what happened to WP7 buyers when they abruptly pivoted their mobile OS/runtime strategy with the incompatible WP8. The most they got was a WP7.8 update that skinned the immediately-dead platform to look like the new one. It’s a matter of visibility and what kind of customers own the products being shut down. From a PR perspective there’s a big difference between killing an enterprise product with few large customers, and killing a consumer product with many small ones. Even if the few complaints are louder, the many complaints around the latter would still totally drown it out. I’m sure they have analytics to know how many people still use Windows Phones and weighing the possibility of an outcry e.g. if all their unsupported phones got 0wned and they collectively took to Twitter about it.
- wvenable 7y ago
  Windows Phone was like the opposite of Microsoft's strategy over the last several decades. They decided to move fast and break things like we're all told to do and they were roundly punished in the marketplace for it.
- jhoechtl 7y ago
  > At least a non-cloud service will work after it has been officially declared dead.