Except Microsoft's "lock in" is lighter; if you build using AWS or Google tech; you are using proprietary tech that can only be hosted by them, which is a deep

Except Microsoft's "lock in" is lighter; if you build using AWS or Google tech; you are using proprietary tech that can only be hosted by them, which is a deep lock in. If you build on Azure tech; you aren't locked into MS being the host of the services; you can run an Azure cloud entirely in your own datacenter; you can use Azure as overflow in a Hybrid model http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/solutions/hybrid-cloud.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/solutions/hybrid... or if you have legal or compliance needs to not host with a US company you can use one of their many partners: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/dec13/12-12cosnpr.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/dec13/12-12co... as the "Cloud OS" provider. They even providing server and datacenter blueprints as part of the Open Compute Project http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2014/01/27/microsoft-contributes-cloud-server-designs-to-the-open-compute-project.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2014/01/27... with datacenter rack management software, if you want to build your own datacenter. All their client libraries are even on GitHub https://github.com/WindowsAzure https://github.com/WindowsAzure