Alistair Croll is interviewing Amitabh Srivastava, Senior Vice President, Windows Azure, Microsoft. Amitabh is responsible for Azure, his background is core O/S. Once again, I’ve captured some, but not all of the conversation.
AC: Are you faced now with open cloud/closed cloud dilemma?
AS: Big advantage in cloud is centralized control. Cloud provider picks the hardware, don’t have to worry about accommodating old equipment and software. This control and homogeneity drives down the cost. However, still want to build a very general purpose platform. Microsoft views cloud as extension of enterprise. Developer can choose how to write the apps for the 3 screens – pc, phone, tv – in the environment that makes most sense. We are still 5 minutes into the first quarter of cloud.
…Microsoft has been doing services for years. Have over 200 services running today.
AS: Look at cloud as massive distributed computer scaled across globe. Manage resources efficiently to drive Capex down. Deliver efficient solutions to drive Opex down. Azure gives customers the choice, on-premise or cloud, for any portion of an application.
AC: 2.4 million Microsoft Service Professionals, is Microsoft’s strategy “use the same APIs you’ve always used”?
AS: On Azure you can use Eclipse, Python, Ruby etc. You should be allowed to use the environment and languages you use now. The key goal to preserve is that the skill of a developer who wants to move to the cloud should transfer.
AC: Can developers still do joins?
AS: SDS (SQL data services) allows developers to do this.
AC: Does it scale (yes). Why can’t Google do this?
AS: SQL data services work on partitioned database.
AC: Will existing SQL code just work?
AS: Can’t state this unequivocally. There are certain good principles you need to follow to write scalable, available application for the cloud. [software architecture anyone?]
If you don’t want to make any changes, run existing SQL in VM in cloud. If you want to achieve scale, you need to work on the application.
AC: Are ISVs rewriting for cloud? Or, are they just running existing app in VM?
AS: Microsoft is not forcing re-write. ISVs can port applications, or can do extra work. Providing choice.
AC: what if I rewrite my application, and then want to move application back in-house? Can I get an Azure cloud in-house (private cloud)? Or, do I have to rewrite my app again?
AS: Plan is to take learning from cloud and push those into on premise offerings. Emphasizes “over time”. Then, the on-premise and cloud will interconnect via management services.
AC: So, your whole mission is to completely blur the line?
AS: Yes.
AC: Microsoft is late to the game, not the 800lb guerrilla..
AS: Took our time. Wanted to consider what customers really need.
…Big customer issues/needs are compliance, latency, trust (data mostly
…three variables – where is it, who manages it, whose policies? answers to these questions, maps to public cloud, hybrid cloud, private cloud models
AC: Buy O/S patches are free. Cloud, subscription model, pay as go. How does this impact business model and partner models?
AS: Assessing this now. Has to make sense for existing customers, existing systems integrators.
… Will be a big cultural change. Hugely influenced by Ray Ozzie and Ray’s service vision. This is a powerful vision, resonates with customers, gives power of choice, exposes platform for new generation of applications.
AC: Twitter fail whale is new blue screen of death. What happens when cloud fails?
AS: Massively distributed computing environment. Hard computing problem. Microsoft, Amazon and Google are all working on automating this environment. Everyone is learning and refining systems. Will get there. Enterprises want SLAs with teeth. Want recourse beyond refund. This will evolve as cloud matures. No one is committing to this level of service today, or even in near future.
AC: Will there be a free level to Azure, similar to Google AppEngine? Google AppEngine free level is traffic based, not time based.
AS: This is being worked on. Not part of Amitabh’s responsibility. His responsibility is the technical problem, making sure the data center stays up.
AC: Organizations need to think in respect to containers rather than servers…
AS: Yes…
AC: Will Microsoft be making cloud based services of existing products, such as the analytics suite?
AS: Yes, many services offered today. … Fourth layer of services are “finished services”, such as Sharepoint.
AC: Will the use of finished services breed lock-in?
AS: The underlaying platform is designed to be opened. The higher you move up the stack, the greater potential for lock-in. [This is no different than any on-premise business application use. Think SAP or Oracle applications]
Audience question on cloud interoperability (inter-cloud). Both Alistair and Amitabh are in the “it’s too early to try to standardize camp”. Standardization (at this point) could slow down innovation. Or, could make standards excessive – outpace actual customer needs [Think WS-*].
Audience question: Does Microsoft plan on releasing metrics on cloud offerings, database performance, etc?
AS: The beauty of cloud is anyone can write app to surface these metrics. But yes, good question, and we do have metrics.
Audience question: Is part of business plan to let a third party run Azure?
AS: Azure will be available via server products. Azure will not be packaged and offered as an operating system.
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