I'm looking for articles that delve into the origins of Azure and other cloud platforms. I'm curious about their development process and the technical writing behind how these platforms were created. Any insights or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
I was involved with a major cloud service provider back in 2011, and I can say that when Azure was evolving from just hosted IIS and SQL to a fully-fledged public cloud service, they had a couple of years of industry experience to draw from. Most early providers were barely keeping up, much like AI providers today. For instance, scheduling VMs to the right compute resources required way more effort than one might imagine—it involved a lot of trial and error before reaching the current state.
If you’re interested in the history of Azure, this book is a gem, even though it's focused on SQL. It offers one of the best insights into Azure’s early days. Check it out: https://www.amazon.com/Azure-SQL-Revealed-Next-Generation-Microsoft/dp/B0DFBLKBKX. Bob, the author, is a friend of mine, and I’ve referenced this book in my own writings about Azure.
Have you ever done any Q&As on the topic? Hearing about that process would be super interesting!