Azure Takes Over

Microsoft’s new CEO comes from the Azure group.

I have some experience with Azure — with Mobile Services, specifically. Yes, they paid me to create some videos, and they’ve sponsored two of my podcasts. Which I agreed to only because I like what they’re doing.

Creating services for iOS apps doesn’t sound at all like the Microsoft I used to know. Using Node.js and JavaScript doesn’t sound like that Microsoft. The old Microsoft would create services for their OSes only and you’d have to use Visual Studio.

There’s still a lot of the old Microsoft there, the Windows, Office, Exchange, and Sharepoint (WOES) company. It’s most of the company by far, surely. (I just made up the acronym WOES. It fits.)

But in the Azure group, at least, there’s recognition that Microsoft can’t survive on lock-in, that those days are in the past.

Even if you don’t choose to use Microsoft’s cloud services, I hope you can agree on two things: that competition is good, and that Azure’s support-everything policy is the best direction for the future of the company.

My worry about the future is an Amazon monopoly on cloud services. Amazon’s services are fantastic, and they’ve changed how people make web apps. But they should not be the only game in town.