Does Azure DevOps have a Future?

It's not unknown for Microsoft to have duplicate products. Just think of Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone, Teams and Skype, Project and Planner. The list goes on. So the fact that Microsoft has two rather similar code storage and management tools in GitHub and Azure DevOps shouldn't surprise us. But how long can this charade last?

I was curious to find out as it looks like a project I am working on might be moving to Azure DevOps. I did some research and couldn't find much beyond speculation, however one juicy source I found is from the Episode 321 of the Azure Podcast Episode in which they interview Sasha Rosenbaum, a Senior PM from the GitHub team. In the podcast she says (around 10:30-12:00):

"We can’t effectively run two products and have internal competition between two things so we are going to move towards having one in the end.

“GitHub is the future, [it is] much better positioned to accomplish certain things

“If you are in Azure DevOps now, you probably have five years (emphasis mine) that you can safely continue working in Azure DevOps.

If you’re starting out, check out GitHub first because that’s where we’re going to make investments mostly."

This episode is from March 2020 so that five years is now less than two.

This might be terrifying news for any of you currently working in Azure DevOps and whilst I don't imagine the transition will be painless I think it absolutely will and should happen.

But what does what one PM says count for? After all she no longer even works at Microsoft. Well, for one, looking at her LinkedIn biography, she was actually originally on the Microsoft Azure DevOps team so the fact that she moved onto the GitHub team may tell us something. Furthermore, the sentiment is widespread in the Azure DevOps community that slowly this product will be phased out. Try to lookup "GitHub actions to Azure DevOps pipeline" and you'll see which way the wind is blowing.

And despite the evidence, the truth is that if Microsoft want to streamline their offering, which I think is safe to assume, and the choice comes between GitHub and Azure DevOps. Microsoft would have a much harder time trying to carry people over to Azure DevOps. GitHub Enterprise is the future of Azure DevOps.