This week I got a peculiar mail regarding an almost forgotten Azure “Service”, although not forgotten by me, namely Azure Datamarket.
A Year One “Service” (there has to be a DC , or even better Batman reference, right?) is being carried to the grave. As Jen Stirrup (@jenstirrup) also mentioned in her post earlier this week ( https://jenstirrup.com/2016/11/18/whats-next-after-azure-datamarket/ ) that it was due to a lack of customer interest. And secondary, due to the lack of MDM consideration. Azure Datamarket was a market were data could be exchanged, sold or put up as reference data.
Well I can relay to that. Actually Microsoft now even made it harder to themselves to make their own MDM and DQS better, as their own products integrated into the Datamarket, as it can be set as Reference Data “infrastructure”.
But as it now shows it seems somehow dat MSFT is already looking at a full replacement inside of the Azure MarketPlace , as the normal URL http://datamarket.azure.com/ gets rerouted to https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/?source=datamarket
And that makes sense, somehow I guess. the issue was that most services today are moving to new environments. we seeing the convergence, once more , but now in the cloud landscape. ASM went to ARM. multiple portals to one, data to a central place.
Microsoft still realizes that, the expression or quote they made a while ago that Data is the new currency, it is still accurate. only the form the handed out wasn’t maybe the best way, so time for v2 I guess? and we’ll be seeing impact on that too from other aspects. look at services like Block chain or Project Bletchley (not even to mention LinkedIn). maybe all still comes together now somehow. although these are some mere speculations, it would make sense.
So yes Datamarket failed, but only due to being early and ahead of the curve. I totally agree with Jen: the audience was wrong and the timing was bad. I do, just as she, hope that from the ashes the Phoenix will rise again.
It may seem an insignificant service, but the impact may be big.
Azure Datamarket is dead, Long Live Azure DataMarket.
PS: mostly only an opinion and observation and thus my own, so feel free to do your own interpretation.
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