Microsoft bins Azure Blockchain without explanation, gives users four months to move
- Reference: 1620881951
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/05/13/azure_blockchain_eol/
- Source link:
A [1]support document dated May 10 delivered the news as follows:
On September 10, 2021, Azure Blockchain will be retired. Please migrate ledger data from Azure Blockchain Service to an alternative offering based on your development status in production or evaluation.
The document offers no explanation for Microsoft’s decision.
But it does offer some hints and tips for what to do next (after you finish cursing the beast of Redmond for pulling the rug out from under your cloud-hosted blockchain on four months’ notice.)
However, that advice is likely to get you cursing again because it opens:
The first step when planning a migration is to evaluate alternative offerings. Evaluate the following alternatives based on your development status of being in production or evaluation.
Whaaaat? Buyers should survey the market for the products they need? Thanks, Microsoft. We wouldn’t have figured that out without your wise counsel.
[2]Microsoft says Outlook hit by 'email visibility issues' – as in, they're blank
[3]Microsoft reveals what a growth mindset does to the letter ‘A’
[4]Privacy activist Max Schrems on Microsoft's EU data move: It won't keep the NSA away
[5]Bumper third quarter for Microsoft as Azure revenue grows 50% year on year
Microsoft’s document eventually recommends the [6]Quorum Blockchain Service from ConsenSys as a very fine replacement because it uses the GoQuorum Ledger technology that Azure's Blockchain uses too. Unsurprisingly, Quorum is also right at home in Azure. So even after Microsoft causes you considerable inconvenience, it still wants your cash.
As noted above, Microsoft hasn’t explained the reason for the demise of its cloudy blockchain service. In The Register ’s experience, the reason is usually a lack of customers, reliance on old infrastructure that Microsoft doesn’t want to replace nor maintain, or a combination of the two. ®
[7]
[8]
Get our [9]Tech Resources
[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/blockchain/service/migration-guide
[2] http://www.theregister.com/2021/05/12/outlook_outage_patch/
[3] http://www.theregister.com/2021/05/10/new_azure_icon/
[4] http://www.theregister.com/2021/05/07/schrems_slams_microsoft_eu_data/
[5] http://www.theregister.com/2021/04/28/microsoft_third_quarter_2021/
[6] https://consensys.net/QBS
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YJz4wTg2URIFyC2r--AMLwAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YJz4wTg2URIFyC2r--AMLwAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: How very cryptic...
They couldn't hash out the kinks while signed chains were being unprofitable.
Cut to the chase
None of this embracing and extending malarkey.
Not to worry
How many customers could they have had for a slow and expensive database anyway?
Re: Not to worry
Plenty. But all of these would-be customers are locked-in with Oracle.
Blockchain is the answer
It's just that no one figured out the question.
Re: Blockchain is the answer
"It's just that no one figured out the question."
I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is.
- Deep Thought, HHGTTG, Douglas Adams
How about a cup of tea icon, El Reg?
When my servers are in-house, it's only our own management that can unexpectedly cancel services.
Apart from when your OS supplier stops supporting your OS, and your app vendor has long since gone bust or been sold/moved on and won't supply versions for a later OS. On prem/on cloud - you swap one set of problems for another set.
"Buyers should survey the market for the products they need?"
How many Windows users did that? They might have surveyed the market for PCs but weren't given a view of alternatives for the bundled OS.
Yeah but, for Joe User, there are no alternatives.
He wants to use Outlook, because everyone he knows uses Outlook. He wants to use Office, because everyone is talking about Word and Excel. He wants to play some games, because they're all the rage these days.
He doesn't know about Linux and, if he did, he couldn't go about installing it himself. If he did install Linux, he would have to learn a different mail program. He would have to install LibreOffice, and that's not Word. And he couldn't play many of the games that "everyone else" is playing anyway.
Now that Borkzilla is laser-focused on The Cloud (TM), and has finally started porting parts of its software empire to be Linux-compatible, we have a chance to see the day when Office will run natively on Linux and DirectX maybe as well.
That will be the day that will signal the start of Linux on the Desktop, because there will be a real alternative, ironically brought about by the same entity that has done its level best to keep Linux out of the desktop.
How very cryptic...
I'll see myself out..