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Microsoft will donate $1B in cloud services to nonprofits and universities

blogs.microsoft.com

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Re: Microsoft will donate $1B in cloud services to nonprofits and universities

#61

Post by josteink »

ralmidani wrote: post #8

This is the same old strategy of giving students discounts which get them accustomed to proprietary products, then marketing to those same students when they graduate. Now it's just adapted for remotely-hosted software.

> This is the same old strategy of giving students discounts which get them accustomed to proprietary products, then marketing to those same students when they graduate. Now it's just adapted for remotely-hosted software.

Sure. But how is Azure and Microsoft cloud services any more proprietary than AWS or Google's offerings?

Re: Microsoft will donate $1B in cloud services to nonprofits and universities

#63

Post by outside1234 »

jupiter90000 wrote: post #62

My favorite part is this piece: "Cloud services can unlock the secrets held by data in ways that create new insights and lead to breakthroughs" How's that? Am I missing something?

Big Data Processing? Machine Learning on that data?

I can think of lots of ways the cloud can help.

Re: Microsoft will donate $1B in cloud services to nonprofits and universities

#64

Post by jupiter90000 »

outside1234 wrote: post #63
jupiter90000 wrote: post #62

My favorite part is this piece: "Cloud services can unlock the secrets held by data in ways that create new insights and lead to breakthroughs" How's that? Am I missing something?

Big Data Processing? Machine Learning on that data? I can think of lots of ways the cloud can help.

Cloud services alone don't make what is said possible. Perhaps they'll be able to afford specialists to build what you are thinking of with the money saved from the Microsoft granted credits? Won't the university or non-profit need to hire a 'big data engineer' to build something using the services? Also analysts to know what to look for? The statement makes it sound as if the cloud can unlock it, but it's really people trained to know how to use the cloud to unlock it that make it possible, in my opinion.

Re: Microsoft will donate $1B in cloud services to nonprofits and universities

#65

Post by alimbada »

avar wrote: post #6

Between this and the ChakraCore news item on the front page I've been wondering whether Microsoft really has been changed its behavior since the 90s, or whether this is just how they play the game when they're not in a position of strength as they are with node.js and cloud services. It's pretty telling from the ChakraCore thread not entirely being "They're obviously trying to embrace, extend, extinguish node.js like…

> "They're obviously trying to embrace, extend, extinguish node.js like they did Java"

But they haven't extinguished Java yet. Unfortunately. And it seems it's going to be around for a long time.

Re: Microsoft will donate $1B in cloud services to nonprofits and universities

#66

Post by jenscow »

biot wrote: post #21
x5n1 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many successful startups have actually been built on top on Microsoft software. I know Plenty of Fish is one example, but you just don't hear of that many examples of successful startups built on top of Microsoft's stack. The reason being that paying Microsoft's tax as you scale eats into your profits and your growth.

I'm sure a few here have run across Stack Overflow. edit: http://highscalability.com/stack-overflow-architecture

The article confirms:

It's hard to separate out the Microsoft stack and the scale up approach because for licensing reasons they tend to go together. If you find yourself in the position of transitioning from scale up to scale out by adding dozens of cores, MS licensing will bite you.

Re: Microsoft will donate $1B in cloud services to nonprofits and universities

#67

Post by dzhiurgis »

x5n1 wrote: post #18
ralmidani wrote: post #8

This is the same old strategy of giving students discounts which get them accustomed to proprietary products, then marketing to those same students when they graduate. Now it's just adapted for remotely-hosted software.

How many successful startups have actually been built on top on Microsoft software. I know Plenty of Fish is one example, but you just don't hear of that many examples of successful startups built on top of Microsoft's stack. The reason being that paying Microsoft's tax as you scale eats into your profits and your growth.

Current example - Xero.

Re: Microsoft will donate $1B in cloud services to nonprofits and universities

#68

Post by biot »

jenscow wrote: post #66
biot wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure a few here have run across Stack Overflow. edit: http://highscalability.com/stack-overflow-architecture

The article confirms: It's hard to separate out the Microsoft stack and the scale up approach because for licensing reasons they tend to go together. If you find yourself in the position of transitioning from scale up to scale out by adding dozens of cores, MS licensing will bite you.

You know what else is crazy? If you find yourself in the position of scaling your dev team because your business is successful, salaries will bite you. If you thought MS licensing was expensive, try hiring senior developers! :)

Re: Microsoft will donate $1B in cloud services to nonprofits and universities

#69

Post by xg15 »

nrb wrote: post #30
xg15 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every cloud service would have, indeed. But there is no reason the support has to be "free" access to cloud resources at all. Why not just donate the money and let the nonprofits choose which cloud to use (or whether to use a cloud at all)?

Because if you give 1 billion dollars away, you are 1 billion less wealthy. If you give away 1 billion dollars worth of Azure credits, you are some much smaller percentage of 1 billion less wealthy, and the recipient is still receiving 1 billion in value.

Only because you declare that something has the value of 1 billion doesn't make it so.

First, you're not giving away physical goods, but eligibility for a service - but what exactly this service entails and how useful it is can still change in the future.

Second, it's a service that requires a substantial level of commitment from your clients - a commitment that causes risks for the clients in its own (lock-in) as discussed in many other places in this thread.

Re: Microsoft will donate $1B in cloud services to nonprofits and universities

#70

Post by [deleted] »

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #44
nrb wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because if you give 1 billion dollars away, you are 1 billion less wealthy. If you give away 1 billion dollars worth of Azure credits, you are some much smaller percentage of 1 billion less wealthy, and the recipient is still receiving 1 billion in value.

> you are some much smaller percentage of 1 billion less wealthy, and the recipient is still receiving 1 billion in value. Would you mind explaining how one can create value merely by donating?

[deleted]
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