back to article Microsoft delays Azure updates so you can catch up with the cloud

In the cloud, we're constantly told, we won't have to bother about staying up to date with new versions of stuff. Our service providers will make non-disruptive upgrades for which we'll be non-disruptively grateful. Except when we're not, as Microsoft has just found out with two cloud service upgrades it has had to delay …

  1. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    Analogy

    The cloud is a bit like renting a house rather than owning it. If you rent, then you've got to put up with the landlord wanting to send builders/decorators in to fix guttering, sort out damp patches, etc., whereas if you own the place then you decide whether or not to fix the guttering, and to a timetable that suits you. If you have to move out whilst the work is being carried out, then you want to be able to dictate when that might be.

    OTOH if you want the landlord to fix something you've pointed out, many times, how soon does it get fixed? Will withholding your rent expedite repairs or will you be kicked out onto the streets, along with all your possessions?

    This is just another of the examples I trot out as to why it is not as advantageous to move to the cloud as would appear from the marketing hype.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Analogy

      "will you be kicked out onto the streets, along with all your possessions?"

      Or will you be kicked out without them?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not surprised

    Absolutely not surprised. We've been bitten quite aggressively because some software still only works with the classic API, not the new ARM API. As such, it's quite severely borked "working" systems, and even as a Microsoft Partner, they literally couldn't give a toss.

    That's the polar opposite experience I have from working with AWS, they release a feature/api, it stays there and works happily ever after, end of story. There is still literally a giant cavern between the quality of service/product craftsmanship from AWS to Azure right now.

    Anon Coward for this one!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: they literally couldn't give a toss.

      So what's the article about then? They're keeping old services running to keep customers happy. How is that not giving a toss?

      AWS is great once you know what you're doing, but if you run on an MS stack then migrating to Azure is a lot easier than moving to AWS. (And their front end is, IMHO, icky!) It's horses for courses.

    2. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      Is it a Colossal Cavern?

      Not to tell you your business, but I have a feeling that the more common verbal expression involves a sizeable chasm rather than a cavern.

      It might be descended from the bible story about Lazarus and Dives - this probably isn't "died then got better" Lazarus but someone else with the same name - who found themselves on opposite sides of a particular chasm. Dives was in Hell, and Lazarus was in Heaven - one of the joys of which seems to be to look over to Hell and see people that you know. So the chasm is between heaven and hell. You're nominating Amazon cloud as heaven. Or, anyway, Microsoft cloud as hell.

    3. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Re: Not surprised

      Why would Microsoft care about you? Or anyone? They're Microsoft.

  3. Dan 55 Silver badge

    COM, CORBA, .Net, WPF, Silverlight, UWP...

    ... anyone really think it would be any different in the MS cloud?

    1. sabroni Silver badge

      Re: COM, CORBA, .Net, WPF, Silverlight, UWP...

      Different to what? Is that a random list of MS tech or is it supposed to prove something?

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: COM, CORBA, .Net, WPF, Silverlight, UWP...

        It's proves that they change technologies every few years, so why would Azure APIs be any different? In three years time we'll be talking about Incompatible API 3.0.

        1. sabroni Silver badge

          Re: COM, CORBA, .Net, WPF, Silverlight, UWP...

          So you're complaining about them developing new technology?

          They try stuff, if it catches on or is useful they keep it (COM, .Net are still both going strong in Windows) if not popular or useful it gets phased out (eg. Silverlight).

          If you're waiting for technology to stabilise for a bit before you learn it you're in for a long wait....

  4. Erik4872

    Funny because Azure is the "legacy cloud"...

    There are plenty of hipster Web startups on Azure, but Microsoft has been quite accommodating to legacy IT shops who want to use cloud technologies. Deprecating features is going to be a hard thing for all cloud providers as more businesses start relying on things being the way they were when their applications were first deployed. Azure Resource Manager has existed for a while, but they're just now getting around to building semi-automatic migration tools to move Classic resources to ARM in place without redeploying them.

    What's been interesting as an Azure customer is watching the speed at which new things are developed and released. If you're an IT person at a very old school company, this is the most surprising change. It must be tough from a Microsoft standpoint too -- they're beating the rapid release drum, but they have to support things that they put out there potentially forever if customers keep paying for them, and migration institutes a breaking change (like an Azure AD cert rollover, for example.) I imagine there will be a few more iterations of "release, make it "classic", then migrate or retire" while Azure completes its buildout.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Funny because Azure is the "legacy cloud"...

      Legacy IT is what keeps the business running that brings in the money that pays (inter alia) for new developments. Experienced sysadmins know this. Inexperienced ones will discover it and become experienced. (Who cares about what the hipsters know?) Disrupting the smooth operation of that legacy is very expensive.

      Historically MS have been simply pushing the burden onto in-house admins; the disruption simply hasn't been on their radar. Now they're discovering for themselves that it's not just a matter of installing new shiny every couple of years or so.

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