Azure Dev Spaces will retire on October 31, 2023

[azure-deprecation-automation]

Azure Dev Spaces will retire on October 31, 2023

Deadline: Oct 31, 2023 Impacted Services:

• Azure Dev Spaces

More information:

• https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/updates/azure-dev-spaces-is-retiring-on-31-october-2023/
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/dev-spaces/migrate-to-bridge-to-kubernetes
• https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/bridge-to-kubernetes-ga/

Notice

Here's the official report from Microsoft on Azure Updates:

Bridge to Kubernetes provides a lighter-weight alternative to many of the development scenarios that Azure Dev Spaces supports. It is a client-only experience offered through extensions in Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. Bridge to Kubernetes provides an improved experience with enhanced capabilities, and as such, Azure Dev Spaces will retire on 31 October 2023.

Next to that, the documentation states the following:

Azure Dev Spaces will be retired on October 31, 2023. Developers should move to using Bridge to Kubernetes, a client developer tool.

The purpose of Azure Dev Spaces was about easing developers into developing on Kubernetes. A significant tradeoff in the approach of Azure Dev Spaces was putting extra burden on developers to understand Docker and Kubernetes configurations as well as Kubernetes deployment concepts. Over time, it also became clear that the approach of Azure Dev Spaces did not effectively decrease the speed of inner loop development on Kubernetes. Bridge to Kubernetes effectively decreases the speed of inner loop development and avoids unnecessary burden on developers.

The core mission remains unchanged: Build the best developer experiences to develop, test, and debug microservice code in the context of the larger application.

Timeline

Phase	Date	Description
Deprecation	Oct 31, 2023	Service will shut down

Impact

Here's the official report from Microsoft:

After 31 October 2023, Azure Dev Spaces will no longer be supported, and all projects using Azure Dev Spaces will no longer function.

Required Action

Here's the official report from Microsoft:

Developers should move to using Bridge to Kubernetes, a client developer tool.

Contact

Here's the official report from Microsoft:

If you have questions, get answers from community experts in Azure Dev Spaces Q&A. If you need technical assistance, create a GitHub issue, or reach out to the product development team.

Contact Azure support (link).

More information

A migration guide is provided to help you migrate to Bridge to Kubernetes which includes a feature comparison.

Here's an overview of the different development approaches:

Azure Dev Spaces helped Kubernetes developers work with code running directly in their AKS cluster, avoiding the need for a local environment that did not resemble the deployed environment. This approach improved certain aspects of development, but it also introduced a prerequisite of learning and maintaining additional concepts such as Docker, Kubernetes, and Helm before you could start using Azure Dev Spaces.

Bridge to Kubernetes allows developers to work directly on their development computers while interacting with the rest of their cluster. This approach takes advantage of the familiarity and speed of running code directly on their development computers while sharing the dependencies and environment provided by their cluster. This approach also takes advantage of the fidelity and scaling that comes from running in Kubernetes.

[azure-deprecation-automation]

This issue is automatically managed and suggest to use GitHub Discussions to discuss this deprecation.

[tomkerkhove]

Notice was updated with more information