Comments on: Will Windows Azure succeed?

By: AJ.NET

AJ.NET — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 05:02:59 +0000

Amazon just announced the “AWS Free Usage Tier”, which gives developers free access to the cloud with limited recources:

“AWS’s free usage tier can be used for anything you want to run in the cloud: launch new applications, test existing applications in the cloud, or simply gain hands-on experience with AWS.”

Seems THEY got the message…

By: Stacy

Stacy — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:16:37 +0000

While MS sits back and tries to make up their mind, I’m already planning to making parts of my current app as static files and host cheaper off of windows . I waited for Azure and then they don’t target me. Where I need a small worker type role I’ll use PHP/AWS and design my UI to expect async results so latency is not an issue. Lots of db alternatives too. Azure pricing is driving me to look deep at alternatives that I’ve never considered until now. Once I get this setup and it’s working with no pain, MS has lost me forever or will have to “buy” me back. As a micro-isv that expects to grow big, it makes no sense to fool around with lip service.

I suggest we ALL stop begging MS for affordable pricing and just move on. They are listening/responding but not “hearing” us. Realize that MS needs to make a billion dollars overnite and that projects which are currently small don’t fit into that picture. We are not their sweet spot. Get over it!

Luckily, there are good alternatives – now that we see what Azure is all about, and MS’s focus. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link – and so is a stack.

MS – you have until July 31, 2010 to publish Azure web/worker roles at $29/each, or you’ve lost this fanboy!

By: David

David — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 07:14:21 +0000

Excellent article on the realities of trying to use Azure for smaller start up projects.

I have to say, after doing some research on how Azure bills for compute time and reading this article I just can’t see using Azure for my new start up idea.

I’m currently working on an idea that is all .NET based, Silverlight, WPF client app, WCF, blob storage, etc… I was thinking that Azure would be the natural choice for the backend as it gives me a way to scale the backend services if the app takes off. However the costs are completely prohibited for getting to that phase with Azure. I can’t afford one role per VM, wall clock time billing for a new venture that may or may not take off. It’s a shame too as I’ve been a MS developer all my life (and in the former part of my life was an actually MS developer for a good number of years). Google’s App Engine or even EC2 looks so much more attractive and viable, even if I have to move away from .NET in order to use it. And if I don’t start with Azure I’m probably never going there down the road either.

By: MatthiasJ

MatthiasJ — Thu, 27 May 2010 05:21:25 +0000

For those who haven’t noticed: there is an article with some interview of me on Azure here: http://searchwindevelopment.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid8_gci1507649,00.html

By: JoeS

JoeS — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:51:30 +0000

Nice article.
The comparison to OS/2 is spot on. It’s an old story (CP/M vs. MS-DOS, OS/2 vs Windows 3, now Azure vs AppEngine) but unfortunately, corporate memories are quite short.

By: Nicolas Meseth

Nicolas Meseth — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:05:41 +0000

Hi Matthias,
nice article! I fully agree, that’s why I chose Amazon E2C over Azure this time. Hopefully we will see a change here.

By: Sascha Michael

Sascha Michael — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:26:51 +0000

Hey Matthias,

great article and I hope that it will get the well deserved attention Mike indicated!

By: Steve Woods

Steve Woods — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:02:53 +0000

Matthias,
great post, and I wholeheartedly agree. I think that the “hobby” developer idea is actually even more important when you look at innovation within a company. Even in a company that is financially solid, much innovation comes from internal developers prototyping the next great idea, without it being an executive-funded project.

At a minimum of $200/month, no internal developer is going to ever innovate on Azure on a side project. It would have to go through a full funding process first, and we all know what that does to innovative ideas…

Hopefully this gets fixed soon… it’s a great platform, but this will definitely kill it.

By: Daniel Gerstner

Daniel Gerstner — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:39:37 +0000

Hi Matthias,

very good article!

DanielG

By: MatthiasJ

MatthiasJ — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:00:22 +0000

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your reply. You’re welcome for further discussions and updates on this important topic.

~ Matthias