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azureazure-store

What's the point of Azure Add-Ons?

Windows Azure has a store.

The stuff you can by there are called Add-Ons, and they fall in two categories: Service and data.

I understand the point of some of the service offerings, but not all, and I don't yet understand the point of the data offerings at all.

With services, some offerings are database deployments such as ClearDB (MySQL) and MongoLab. That makes sense to me: You get those databases deployed and monitored with a few clicks, yet those databases run in the same data center as the applications that consume them, which is good for performance and security.

For most other services (there is a simple scheduler application, for example), it seems that the only advantage is the unified billing method. Is that a correct observation, or is there more to it?

Then the data offerings: The fact that I can buy bing query transactions cannot really have anything to do with the rest of my azure account, right? Technically, it's just bing (or whatever other data offering you look at) and presumably I'm going against the same bing api that I would have used previously (I'm assuming that was possible). There is nothing really deployed in any Azure data center the moment I buy it, is there? So in what sense is that an Add-On?

In a nutshell, am I missing something or are most Add-Ons just a method of buying external services and having the billed on my Azure account?

Solution

  • If you can answer the question for other 'app stores', you can answer it for Windows Azure. We know about THE App Store (as per the court battles over the name) which is the only way to get applications onto the closed (iOS) device. There is also a Mac App Store which would seem unnecessary because of the ability to install apps by yourself (which makes it more similar to the Azure store). In this case the reason for the store is discoverability, association with the store brand (where the buyer assumes a degree of vetting), a single point for updates, and simplified billing.

    The Windows Azure Store (and data marketplace) exist for similar reasons. It is less about the technical benefits than the association with the Azure brand. Since SO is technical, let me highlight some (largely) technical aspects:

    1. Don't assume that the service will run in the same data centre. In most cases it probably won't.
    2. There is an advantage of having everything in one place from an operational point of view. Granting of operator access to the subscription means that you don't have to administer accounts on the service. I have had problems with this though - where the service made it difficult to do other things (such as get support) because the Azure identity wasn't handled very well. (I had this with New Relic).
    3. The combined billing works on credit card payments only. Last time I checked (Summer 2013) there was no way to get an add-on with a pay-by-invoice subscription, so a second subscription (with credit card) was needed anyway.
    4. Add-ons seems to still be in 'preview', which may indicate low adoption. Microsoft probably hasn't seen it grow the way they expected and may not be developing it much in future. This is opinion only, and shouldn't affect the service (after all the store is just a gateway, and has no (little) technical impact on the service provided)

    Don't completely ignore the store however. The biggest benefit seems to be the free tier of the servers and reduced pricing, where Microsoft has managed to get service providers to make the store attractive. For example, the SendGrid free option provides 25,000 emails per month, and there doesn't seem to be a free option on SendGrid.com. New Relic pricing was (and maybe still is) significantly less.

    Pay attention mainly to the pricing benefits, rather than perceived technical benefits.