Steve Jones - SSC Editor (6/10/2013)
Eric M Russell (6/10/2013)
My understanding that that the SQL Azure branch is being folded back into the SQL Server codebase, and going forward the same release of SQL Server / Azure will support installation in a hosted cloud, a private cloud, or even on bare metal similar to what we've always had. Does anyone know different?My understanding is the reverse. The Azure codebase was a branch, but it's become the mainline, with the box product being a branch. Things happen in Azure first (even as they're catching up with some features) and they may or may not get into the boxed product.
My read is that at one time Microsoft added a second product to SQL Server embedding into the codebase all the additional functionality that is Azure. The code was homogenous with many shared components and functions. in the original set the emphasis was in the main money making product SQL Server and it remained in that focus until Microsoft determined the profitability of Azure.
If Microsoft "follows the money" as we all believe it does, when the possibility of Azure being profitable became more of a reality, more development and emphasis was put on the additional product, Azure, incrementally. The revelation now is that Azure appears to be the coming "cash cow" and Microsoft bet at least a large part of the farm on that probability. As such they are realigning the code base to not be SQL with Azure appended into it, but Azure first and foremost, and SQL as part of the Azure solution set.
M.
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!