Azure by Default

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When I first started with Azure it only existed in PaaS form and had a very limited set of services compared to the rich variety available now. Adopting Azure at the time was seen as something as a risk, even within a heavy C# / .Net shop, and my first use of it was on a carefully targeted project – one on which I wasn’t betting the bank so to speak.

Over the last few years the platform has matured significantly adding additional PaaS features and IaaS features along the way and proven to be robust, reliable, cost effective and flexible in the development and operation of real systems running real customers. It’s done what it says on the tin and the people I have worked with who also have significant Azure experience largely say the same.

As such it’s been interesting to observe my own corresponding shift in behaviour over the last 12 months and throughout 2014 in particular. When I started on this journey back in 2011 I would have spoken of it in terms of interest and caution. Throughout late 2012 and 2013 I would have spoken of it as being an excellent option to be considered for many systems. Finally leading me to today where in the last few weeks I have found myself recommending it as the “default choice”.

By this I don’t mean it’s the only tool for every job but it’s the platform I now look to first for greenfield development and then look for reasons as to why it might not be a good fit, drilling into those reasons hard as the benefits of the platform are so great. The kind of thing that can make me look elsewhere are regulatory or compliance considerations, or a peculiar or edge case technical requirement.

It’s been a fascinating journey and still is, at this point I consider Azure to be amongst the best things Microsoft have done, right up there with C#, it’s a massively enabling technology. If you’ve not looked at it yet, and particularly if you’re a .Net / Microsoft developer, you really should.