Windows Azure Offers Developers Iron-Clad Lock-in

snydeq writes "Microsoft's move to the cloud is certain to create a whole new kind of developer partner, Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister writes. But as much as Microsoft ISVs will likely go along with the shift to Windows Azure to keep revenue streams going, the kind of lock-in they will experience will be worlds away from what they face today. Rather than being able to ignore the new version of a key framework, developers will have no other option than to update their code to suit Microsoft's latest platform. That kind of lock-in will leave customers in the lurch, subject to their vendors' bottom lines, as ISVs that can't afford to rework code to keep up with Microsoft's latest platform will begin dropping services, and customers will have little choice but to accept the new terms of service their vendors send along."

Comments

Re:That's the very reason we abandoned Windows

[HangingChad]

We built an application framework with a reporting module in it. Web service support was part of the specs from the beginning, it would be easy enough to add reporting requirements to that if we had a reason to do it. I don't understand the problem. You're locked into MS and SQL Server by SQL Reports? Or Crystal Reports? Or are you talking about exporting to desktop apps in Access or Excel? Neither one of those run on Ubuntu, so we don't have to worry about supporting them internally. We can spool off data to partners with web services, web page or csv, whatever they want. If they want some fancy report with charts and graphs in a portable format like a pdf file...we could figure out if someone wants to pay for the time. Otherwise we'll give them the data and they can write their own damn reports.

You'd be amazed how often I hear that. How do you do this or that? Then list off some...thing...MS wraps into their products with some cartoon wizard that some hack in accounting thinks makes him a haX04. How are you going to support that? Well, we won't. I'm not going to be locked into MSFT's way of doing things by bullshit like that. If it's that important to your company to support every bundled wizard that comes with MS, then shell out the money and shut your pie hole. Otherwise, we'll figure out a way to get the job far more efficiently for a fraction of the cost and while you're still at the office trying to figure out how to change the labels on your graph, we'll be at the bar having a couple after work and trying to flirt with the waitress who also dances at one of the local gentlemen's clubs on the weekend.

See ya Monday.

Re:That's the very reason we abandoned Windows

[cdrguru]

I keep hearing stuff like this. It must be nice to live in a world where you can dictate the platform to your customers. You say you are supplying their mission-critical application for Linux and they just (a) get another machine, (b) convert all their other stuff to Linux, or (c) tell theor other vendors to convert everything over to Linux.

Us, we get to work in a different (perhaps more familiar) world. We do not supply the application that completely rules how people do their jobs. Instead, it is a much smaller application that they just use in conjunction with 10-20 other applications. Now things being as they are, these other applications require Windows.

Sure, it would be great fun to be able to dictate to customers what platform they should run our applications on. But they are the ones with the money and they get to choose. If our stuff doesn't work they way they want it to, they will choose a different vendor that does in fact supply Windows applications.

And no, I haven't seen much in the way of lock in, other than customers needing things to work together. I have seen lots of development organizations suffering greatly from trying to follow Microsoft's bleeding edge. If you have tried to follow COM, ATL, DCOM, DCOM+, .Net (3.5 generations of it) and whatever else is coming along you have probably been suffering greatly. If every new language, framework or tool is something you have to try out in a product you have been suffering. There is another way to get along with Microsoft other than following their fads. Because for the most part all they are is fads which come and go.

Fuck cloud computing

[bluefoxlucid]

Move my computing to some insecure, long-latency remote location that I lose access to when my ISP decides to have down time? I'm already well-connected (IM, IRC, news through the Internet, system software updates, inter-operating with other human beings far away via the Internet, etc); why in the hell would I suddenly want to find out I can't edit a report or write program code because my ISP's end-point router has decided to route my packets to itself for the moment and I can't reach the cloud?

Ubuntu please.