Microsoft warns some Azure usage notifications – including abnormalities – are broken Microsoft has warned its partner community that real-time tracking and notifications of customers' Azure spend is broken until mid-March, creating the possibility that spending overruns will go undetected. "If you bought Azure Savings Plans for your customers, even though you set budgets for their customers, you temporarily …
I must admit it did make me wonder whether Micros~1 was experiencing a downturn in revenue and did it on purpose... but that would be the sort of wacky conspiracy theory that nobody should be listening to, right?
But no, there's no way they're going to discount customers' bills, of course. I can smell the Saul Goodmans* of this world sharpening their polyester suits as we speak.
* still haven't decided whether this should be Saul Goodmen. Maybe Sauls Goodman?
"Microsoft has warned its partner community that real-time tracking and notifications of customers' Azure spend is broken ..."
Nothing is broken. Microsoft sends me daily emails telling me that my card has expired and could I please update my payment details, etc...
The bill is for the princely sum of... 6 cent (0.06 €) for some December Azure stuff which their customer service actually wasn't able to explain.
Maybe I should update my card details? After all, it looks like M$ needs the money right now...
Either it's broken, in which case they can't tell if you've used to much; or it works, in which case they can tell you when you're running into the extra pay zone.
If they can tell, but they won't tell you (the excuse is irrelevant), then how is that not a breach of contract? If you're relying upon that facility to control your expenditure, but it happens to conveniently not be functioning, whilst they're able to know your usage....come on, pull the other one.
It seems the autmated notification system is the only part that is broken. Which means Microsoft will claim it made the information available and it is the partner's fault they did not go through every client, one at a time, in that awful Azure interface, with no telling how easy it is to find, create, and print.
And ofc, Microsoft will gladly scoop up the extra revenue every time someone misses a day of work and their customer did not get notified in time. They would not want the customer to have to worry about where else they spend it, as MS executive team finds this is far too onerous a task to lay at the feet of the client.
Fat chance when so manyu businesses have willingly signed away their control for complete dependency on a single vendor with a shockingly bad track record when it comes to reliability and security.
And Microsoft partners can do little more than to suck up the extra work (and costs!), knowing well that their clients will be way more attached to Microsoft than to them.
Corporate Servitude at it's finest.
Seems to me like this could be a sales feature of the future. "Sure, we can move you to Azure and will be glad to do it. But before you make that decision, I'd like you to look at this chart showing our other client's spend before and after moving to Azure - at least the ones that were still in business after."
This post has been deleted by its author
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
