Is it just us or is Azure going down the tubes?

We’ve been equally advocating for AWS and Azure for quite some time, but a recent experience has caused us to lose a lot of confidence in Azure.

A small client had 2 VMs in a certain region, and wanted to integrate a SQL Server into their stack. So we walked them through setting up a SQL server in the same region as their VMs and got hit with a block on the region. This is not a large client, just a few VMs, so we contact Microsoft and here is what ensued:

MS: “why do you need that region”
US: “because all their other resources are in that region”
MS: “ok, will get back to you…”
(a few days later)
MS: “why do you need that region”
US: “because all their other resources are in that region”
MS: “send us a screenshot”
US: (sent)
(a few days later)
MS: “why do you need that region”
US: “because all their other resources are in that region”
MS: “send us a screenshot”
US: (sent)
(a few days later)

Finally, after far more repetitions of the above we get this message:

“We are in the process of getting that Sql Database enabled for you. Unfortunately we do need a SKU to further this process”

SMH… this is now more than a month later! At some point during the infinite loop mentioned above we asked whether this would even be scalable after all of this nonsense, and they assured us yes… but when they ask for a SKU, can we really believe that? At this point we are just wishing we’d never recommended Azure to this client and am trying to decide how to break this to them.

On the bright side, so far, AWS has been great, so we now officially endorse AWS over Azure. We’re working with our existing clients to get them onto a reliable platform. When a cloud provider becomes as unresponsive & tyrannical as the back-office staff organizations fled from in the first place, it’s time to find a new cloud provider.