The problem with SQL Azure is that it’s not named SQL Azure.
It used to be named SQL Azure, but in May of 2012 Microsoft announced that after 2 years of branding efforts they were going to put all their eggs into the Windows Azure basket. In doing so, SQL Azure became known as SQL Database. To be specific, SQL Azure became Windows Azure SQL Database, or WASD to those of us too lazy for all those syllables.
I understand that Microsoft would want to have all of their Azure offerings roll up into one brand of Windows Azure. That makes sense. And saying “Windows Azure SQL Azure” is silly, so it’s best to just name it in a manner that describes the service being provided.
What could possibly go wrong?
Just after their announcing the rebranding to Windows Azure, Microsoft announced that customers would have the ability to build their own virtual machines as part of their Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering. Now you could quickly and easily build your own VM and install your own applications, including SQL Server. For any customer that felt SQL Database was too limited with the features offered you now had the ability to run a traditional on-premises out-of-the-box version instead.
Life is good, right?
Not so fast.
Along the way I’ve seen more and more confusion regarding the concept of SQL Server and Windows Azure. Oh, sorry, excuse me. I mean Microsoft Azure. That’s the new name effective today. Apparently the rebranding hasn’t touched everything yet, as this page still says WASD. I expect the documentation will get caught up eventually. Since SQL Azure was released in 2010 (that’s when I started presenting on Azure, which makes me feel old experienced) we have had three name changes in four years. No wonder people are confused!
Communication Breakdown
As a software vendor that provides infrastructure monitoring solutions, including one specific for database performance, we often get asked a simple question:
“Do you support Azure?”
And the answer is “Maybe”.
Right now we don’t connect or provide monitoring for WASD MASD. But we can (and often do) connect to any VM running SQL Server, even VMs hosted in Microsoft Azure, or Amazon, or Rackspace, or wherever. It’s easy for us to tell the customer what we can do. But the conversations take a turn when we ask for the customer for more details. It goes something like this:
“Do you support Azure?”
“We can connect to a VM running SQL Server with no problem, but we don’t support SQL Database. Which are you using?”
“I don’t know. I was just told we are going to move everything to Azure.”
So, even when we get everyone on staff here trained to ask the right questions we are finding the customers don’t often know the answers.
The Azure branding, which was done in an effort to make things simpler, has made effective communication harder. No one is clear as to what is being used, or purchased. The only words they focus on are “Azure” and “SQL”. For many the term “SQL Database” doesn’t mean anything different than SQL Server. As such, when we give back our answer of “maybe”, it leads to the customer losing confidence in our solution. Microsoft could have taken a marketing lead from Abbot and Costello and had the same effect:
“Do you support Something?”
“We can connect to a VM running Anything with no problem, but we don’t support Something. Which are you using?”
“I don’t know. I was just told we are going to move Everything to Somewhere.”
“Naturally.”
It’s frustrating to have these same conversations over and over. As Scott Hanselman says in his post regarding productivity tips, we only have so many keystrokes left in our lives. Instead of repeating myself over and over on this matter I’m writing this post and I’m going to just send the URL to everyone the next time there is a question.
Here’s What You Can Do
If you find yourself in a similar situation (and I would wager all my Microsoft Azure Power Coin* that you will soon enough), here’s what you can do:
- Ask – Ask them for more details about what they are doing. You never know, you may find other chances to help offer a solution for what they are trying to accomplish.
- Tell – Tell them that there is a difference between hosting a server (IaaS) and offering a platform as a service (PaaS), and which one you are able to help with (preferably both!).
- Show – Show them this link and this one, and help them understand the differences.
Technology changes fast these days. The only thing changing faster is the branding for Azure services.
</rant>
*- This is likely the name of what we will use for global currency in the future
I’ve run into the same confusion on job interviews. “Do you have experience with SQL in the cloud?”, “yes”, “so SQL Azure”, “no, we running IAAS and had Enterprise….”
Yeah, it’s a lot like that. Lots of confusion about who is doing what. Fortunately for some people they get to charge by the hour to explain it all!
Excellent post which hits the problem I have with Microsoft’s offering. It’s not the technology, but the constant rebranding that is getting to me. The communications breakdown because of this that you cite was avoidable. Yet, here we are. Thanks for not just ranting about the issue, as too many of us are quick to do, but also providing “how we can help.”
Thanks KBK, glad you enjoyed the post!
thanks for the update. i have not kept up with Azure and i’m glad I haven’t so maybe when I do it will be settled. anyways, in addition to your reference to Abbot and Costello, one of me and my kids favorite movies is ‘Good Burger’. There is a scene where the guy asks for a burger with nothing on it, and he gets just a patty, and the character goes, is a bun something or nothing. lol.
I’ve said about as much to everyone I know. I’m sick of the renaming thing. As you pointed out, it’s made communications nearly impossible. They pay someone for this silliness??
Thanks!