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Azure Sphere - is Azure Cloud "designed to fail"? (account startup problems)

doorknob

TLDR version: Can Microsoft possibly make it any more difficult to sign up for an Azure Cloud account if you live in a rural area without available mobile wireless connectivity? (Rhetorical question only - if they put some more creative thinking into it, of course they can.)

 

I can't seem to find the proper magic spell to get registered for the Azure Cloud account that I will need to participate in the Azure Sphere contest(s).

 

Maybe it's due to simple user error(s), but I'm wondering whether it's because I live in the middle of nowhere as far as mobile phone connectivity is concerned, but the sign-up process evidently requires a mobile phone connection to receive either a text or a phone call from Microsoft as part of account verification. Google Voice did not work for me for either text or phone call.

 

Are the folks at Microsoft so comfortable in their metropolitan-center-high-speed-mobile-phone-access bubble that it never occurred to them that there are people who live in rural locations that may have hot-and-cold-running-wired-internet service but no wireless network access whatsoever? If so, then Azure Cloud has a fatal flaw that makes it "designed to fail". It has me wondering what other unexpected lacunae I'm going to encounter if I ever do manage to successfully get signed up for Azure Cloud.

 

The response from the Azure Cloud sign-up server was decidedly "less-than-helpful" - it suggests contacting 'support' for assistance, and helpfully provides a link - but that link takes you to an Azure sign-in page - how can I sign in to contact support if my registration attempt was not successful?

 

I understand that for security purposes they might be reluctant to provide me with any possible clues as to why my sign-up failed, but it leaves me stuck in 'nowheresville' wondering if I might be better off taking up a safer sport such as stamp collecting.

 

Yeah, this is mostly a rant, but it is also useful feedback in case anyone who cares about Azure Cloud usability and has an opportunity to make a difference stumbles across this post.

 

My next plan of attack is to try signing up using the Edge browser instead of Chrome (to help appease the deities), and I will submit my smartphone's phone number and request that they send me a text - and then I will hop in the car and drive 20 minutes to somewhere where I can get a wireless data signal.

 

I'll report back in about an hour, stand by for the update...

Parents

  • I'm glad you finally got things sorted. It does sound like it was a PITA in your particular circumstance.

     

    To be fair though, multi factor authentication using a phone is not unusual nor confined to Microsoft. If they didn't do it they'd probably be criticised for poor security.

     

    If you go into this hoping that Microsoft disappoint you then I'm sure you will confirm and reinforce this. I started with Microsoft and progressed to feeling comfortable with Linux. I hit bumps. It wasn't always easy and often unfamiliar. It would have been easy to "pick a side" in the pointless battle. We all need to be polyglots these days. Approach it with an open mind and you'll get help over the inevitable bumps along the way.

     

    Over gone all hippy on you, so I feel I should sign this off with "peace, man".

Reply

  • I'm glad you finally got things sorted. It does sound like it was a PITA in your particular circumstance.

     

    To be fair though, multi factor authentication using a phone is not unusual nor confined to Microsoft. If they didn't do it they'd probably be criticised for poor security.

     

    If you go into this hoping that Microsoft disappoint you then I'm sure you will confirm and reinforce this. I started with Microsoft and progressed to feeling comfortable with Linux. I hit bumps. It wasn't always easy and often unfamiliar. It would have been easy to "pick a side" in the pointless battle. We all need to be polyglots these days. Approach it with an open mind and you'll get help over the inevitable bumps along the way.

     

    Over gone all hippy on you, so I feel I should sign this off with "peace, man".

Children
  • in reply to Fred27

    I have no quarrel with MFA, rather it is Microsoft's insistence on only using a mobile phone text or call to provide the second factor that is the issue.

     

    I log in to AWS using MFA without being constrained in that way - via an authenticator app providing the second factor.

     

    It's surprising that Microsoft is not doing something similar here, since they offer such an app as well:

     

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/user-help/user-help-auth-app-download-install

     

    Anyway, like you, I 'grew up' within the Microsoft app and development ecosystem, and later jumped across the aisle into the Linux world. Recently Microsoft has been attempting to 'play nice' with the rest of the world, but they still have lots of ingrained, exclusionary tendencies which can bite you if you're not fully committed to their view of how the world should work. For example, in my day job, I still need to jump through hoops to get a complex, standards-based web app to work properly with Edge, while IE is a lost cause.

     

    I'll see what Azure Sphere brings to the table - and if possible will take advantage of the others in this group who have gone ahead and encountered, conquered, and documented the pitfalls along the way...

  • in reply to doorknob

    My primary desktop O/S for the last 20 years has been Linux. I have a hard drive with Win10 for little else than to calculate the taxman's toll once a year. My retirement gave me the opportunity to explore more and more of the Opensource applications. I had reason to improve my skills in GIMP, Inkscape and Scribus. No daily nine to five gave me the time.

     

    Sean

  • in reply to colporteur

    Sean - So what you're saying is that you have never tried to use Azure Sphere, you don't intend to and are here just as an opportunity to bash Micro$oft? If you find that fun then fine, but that's not helping Ed very much.