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Lokesh Goyal - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at Infosys
MSP
Straightforward to implement with good monitoring and good reliability
Pros and Cons
  • "You can scale the product."
  • "They need to work with other cloud providers - not just Azure."

What is our primary use case?

I use Azure Monitors and Azure monitoring to monitor our applications.

It is used for balancing how your servers are working and how your servers are responding to the end user in the form of your inputs and output responses, your gate input responses and post request, and how your server is working about the workload, et cetera. We can monitor all of this by using Azure monitoring tools. There are some application insights also that we can use to put in more detailed metrics as related to the logs and the failure of the servers, and downtime, et cetera.

What is most valuable?

We like the monitoring. We can look for the downtimes and look at the log to see whenever there is a crash and all the information around it.

It's very straightforward to set up.

The solution is stable.

You can scale the product.

The pricing is less than Dynatrace.

What needs improvement?

They need to work with other cloud providers - not just Azure. We'd like them to work with clouds such as GCP, AWS, and Alibaba, for example. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for quite a long while, however, recently we moved from on-premise to the cloud. 

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's quite stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

I've never used technical support. I can't speak to how helpful or responsive they would be. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are moving our applications to Azure Web Apps.

Earlier we used Dynatrace, however, it was quite costly.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is very straightforward. It's very easy to implement. 

We can use different services by Azure, such as virtual machines or Web Apps. These are all quite frequently deployed and it's not difficult. 

What about the implementation team?

We handle the initial setup in-house. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm not concerned about the pricing. Actually that is handled by a different team.

It is a pay-as-you-go service. We pay as needed.

What other advice do I have?

I'm not sure which version of the solution we're using. A centralized team handles that aspect.

I'd recommend the solution to others. 

I'd rate the product eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Founding Partner at 2Five1
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A comprehensive cloud-based monitoring with seamless integration, offers robust resource utilization insights, but it may require further development of the detailed issue analysis capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "The dashboard allows us to easily track various metrics and quickly understand the overall health of our system."
  • "Enhancing and reaching a level of detail that facilitates pinpointing and addressing issues at such a refined level within the application and database components would be helpful."

What is our primary use case?

Our main focus is on monitoring the utilization of resources, specifically within the ARRIS environment, where we utilize MySQL as the server. We actively track metrics such as CPU and memory utilization, as well as internet usage. The primary objective is to closely monitor resource utilization, providing insights that help us determine when adjustments to resource allocations are necessary.

What is most valuable?

One standout feature is its user-friendly dashboard. It simplifies the process of monitoring by providing a comprehensive overview of metrics, particularly in terms of resource utilization. The dashboard allows us to easily track various metrics and quickly understand the overall health of our system.

What needs improvement?

Establishing a threshold for resource utilization below 40% over a specified duration could trigger an automated scaling down, and vice versa. This way, the system could dynamically adjust configurations based on predefined conditions, such as scaling up or turning off resources. Enhancing and reaching a level of detail that facilitates pinpointing and addressing issues at such a refined level within the application and database components would be helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using it for one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We currently find it stable since our present requirements are relatively straightforward, and we are utilizing its basic functionalities.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is highly commendable with around three hundred users currently using it within our organization. The application we are employing primarily caters to the education sector. It is currently in use by the Ministry of Education, in conjunction with their division offices, and the plan is to extend its usage to the school level. Upon full implementation, we anticipate the user base to grow significantly, reaching an estimated range of twenty to thirty thousand users.

How are customer service and support?

We have utilized Microsoft's Azure technical support services, both from the global cloud support and the local support team in the Philippines. Most of our technical support requests to Microsoft Azure have revolved around resource allocation issues. Initially, we deployed services across different regions, but we later consolidated in the Asian region. However, due to limited space in the Asian region, Azure imposes restrictions on certain resources.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used New Relic. While Azure Monitor covers resource aspects, New Relic excels in providing a thorough examination of application issues. New Relic can precisely identify problems related to resource allocation, pinpointing issues within the application, whether they originate from application resources or the database.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We operate as a collaborative effort, partnering with Microsoft's education group, which supports the Ministry of Education. Under our agreement, we have an Azure expert within our team whom we can approach for support and assistance in implementation and deployment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Since we are using the basic set, it is more cost-effective compared to other third-party APM solutions.

What other advice do I have?

It is a more seamless and effective monitoring solution compared to third-party options like New Relic. The alignment of Azure Monitor with our Azure-based infrastructure simplifies the monitoring process, ensuring all applications and resources are easily accessible within the Azure ecosystem. While third-party APM solutions, such as New Relic or NetNix, are useful for troubleshooting specific issues, they face limitations when applied to Azure app services. These services often have restrictions and prerequisites that impede the full utilization of third-party APM for cloud monitoring, especially with the latest Azure technologies. Given these considerations, our recommendation is twofold. For those utilizing the latest Azure technologies, Azure Monitor is advised due to its seamless integration. If choosing a third-party APM provider, it's essential to confirm compatibility with the latest Azure technologies to ensure effective monitoring without encountering potential issues. Overall, I would rate it seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Lead architect at Ziggo Services B.V.
Real User
Top 5
Extremely stable, scalable, and quick to deploy
Pros and Cons
  • "Log analytics and log queries are the most valuable features of Azure Monitor."
  • "We encounter some difficulties in monitoring the operating system on its own."

What is our primary use case?

Azure Monitor is utilized for observability purposes, specifically for monitoring and alerting Azure states to customers.

What is most valuable?

Log analytics and log queries are the most valuable features of Azure Monitor.

What needs improvement?

We encounter some difficulties in monitoring the operating system on its own. Therefore, we require additional tools to obtain a comprehensive view of the entire application chain.

The technical support can be faster and has room for improvement.

The dashboarding and reports could benefit from improvements, as Microsoft seems to prioritize Power BI as their main dashboarding tool. Perhaps these enhancements could be integrated natively into Azure, as there is certainly room for improvement in that area.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I give the stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Monitor is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is not always perfect. Sometimes it takes a long time to get the right person who actually understands the issue to work on the case.

How was the initial setup?

We find the initial setup to be straightforward as we have extensive experience in it. However, configuring Azure Monitor may prove to be complex for those who are less experienced. The deployment takes about 30 minutes. The deployment process is using a CICD workflow that is fully automated.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed in-house. I work as an integrator and am responsible for implementing solutions for our customers.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a monthly fee for the alerts triggered and the data stored.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

We have 35 customers using the solution.

We have a small DevOps team of about ten developers that maintain this life cycle.

The reason for using this solution is to align with the hyperscaler's capabilities as close as possible, and this is the best-integrated solution we can find.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Senior Solutions Specialist (Network & Security) at Ooredoo Qatar
Real User
Top 20
Excellent visibility options but integration could be better
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure Monitor's best features are its graphs and charts, the different visibility options, and reporting."
  • "Azure Monitor's integration with applications could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

I mainly use Azure Monitor to monitor my WordPress site for availability, performance, and error logs.

How has it helped my organization?

Azure Monitor provides visibility and proactive alerts, which means that if anything happens, I get automated alerts from the performance monitoring tool and can fix the problem.

What is most valuable?

Azure Monitor's best features are its graphs and charts, the different visibility options, and reporting.

What needs improvement?

Azure Monitor's integration with applications could be improved. There is limited support in terms of what it can monitor, and the connectors are built in a way that only monitors a specific area. In the next release, Azure Monitor should improve its visibility features, especially for WordPress websites.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Azure Monitor for over a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure Monitor is very stable - I'd rate its stability ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Monitor is very scalable - I'd rate its scalability ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

Microsoft's technical support is ok, but its response time is quite high, and you have to buy very expensive support to get a better response time.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously worked with SolarWinds and ManageEngine, but both were developed for on-premise environments.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward, and deployment took around thirty minutes. I would rate the process nine out of ten.

What about the implementation team?

I implemented Azure Monitor myself.

What was our ROI?

Given its low price, Azure Monitor gives good ROI.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Azure Monitor's price is minimal to the point of being almost negligible. I would rate its pricing eight out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

Azure Monitor is simple and cost-effective, but make sure that it can provide you with the information you're looking for, the right metrics, and what you need in advanced and application monitoring. I would give Azure Monitor a rating of seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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reviewer2392941 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
Real User
Offers alerting and logging features along with impressive integration capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "The features that are most valuable are the alerting function and also the logging functionality to analyze certain issues using log analytics"
  • "The onboarding process of certain assets and the overall UI can be improved in Azure Monitor"

What is our primary use case?

I have used the cloud version of Azure Monitor. If customers actively use a bunch of servers or resources and need to monitor the metrics of those devices or resources. Azure Monitor is used in such aforementioned cases for monitoring.

For instance, if a resource has been changed or access has been granted to a specific resource, a certain hard disk is offline, or a critical amount of disc space is in use, an alert needs to be generated and forwarded to the concerned professional, who is meant to work on resolving the alerts. 

Suppose a CPU is running at 100% capacity for a long duration. In that case, a service desk professional or a system administrator needs to be alerted using Azure Monitor to take appropriate action. 

What is most valuable?

The features that are most valuable are the alerting function and the logging functionality to analyze certain issues using log analytics or queries. The solution also supports deployment towards a set of resources based on data collection rules. 

What needs improvement?

The onboarding process of certain assets and the overall UI can be improved in Azure Monitor. 

The solution should allow the addition of certain assets to the monitoring process so that they can be incorporated into the existing monitoring set. The aforementioned process is possible using data collection rules, but it might also be possible to use agents or a network scan to find resources that can be implemented. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Monitor for one and a half years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. The solution can offer impressive scalability because there aren't any limits in terms of tiers that need to be adhered to. Resource addition to Azure Monitor can be carried out in a straightforward manner. The cost of the solution escalates with the proportion of data ingestion, but it's quite logical. There are between 100 to 200 users of Azure Monitor in our organization. The usage of the solution varies day to day in our company. 

I would recommend others to use the solution and to keep it updated, but presently, in our company, we don't have plans to increase the usage of Azure Monitor. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

In our company, we previously used PRTG Monitor which had similar capabilities to Azure Monitor. Our company decided to switch to Azure Monitor because they were willing to deal with solutions from a single vendor. As our company expanded, they needed a vendor as a partner who had solutions suitable for large-scale companies and their internal base units. 

How was the initial setup?

I would rate the initial setup as seven out of ten. The tool's configuration and usage are highly intuitive. The maintenance of the solution is majorly handled by the vendor in our company, but we still remain responsible for the data collection rules and alerts.

Our company team also remains in charge of actively incorporating the correct resources that need to be monitored by the customer team from the vendor. In our company, a team of eleven professionals remain involved in the maintenance process. 

What was our ROI?

When the solution's monitoring feature is implemented, you can guarantee the continuity of your company's IT environment and prevent data outages. Due to the high availability of your company's services, you can achieve a high ROI with Azure Monitor. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten. Besides standard licensing fees the customer needs to additionally pay based on the ingested data size. The settings of the solution can be tailored during purchase based on the size of data collection and monitoring, but the cost of the solution will also increase with the data size. 

What other advice do I have?

For infrastructure monitoring in our company, the alerting feature has been the most beneficial as it notifies on time to manage certain actions. Azure Monitor has impressive integration capabilities. It's not only a complete infrastructure in terms of certain resources residing in the Azure tenant; edge resources can monitor certain assets that are not in the cloud but are on-premises.  

Some time ago, our company had high CPU usage, and it was across Azure Virtual Desktops, we used certain metrics to view how many resources were in use and what was the cause of it. Then, based on the overview of the aforementioned step our company team decided to upscale some services so that the resources were more evenly divided and spread out.

Following the aforementioned initiative, the complaints regarding performance issues were eradicated. Based on the input or reports from Azure Monitor, our company team could make a decision, which in turn led to performance enhancement for end users. I would overall rate the product an eight out of ten. 

My advice to others would be to decide upfront which resources you would prefer to add to your monitoring, which is crucial for your organization, and what aspects you need to have Azure Monitor for. Due to the aforementioned initiative, you can start with the most essential features of Azure Monitor, and then you can add upon the original set later on to extend the monitoring capabilities. 

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Senior System Administrator at BCBS of Kansas City
Real User
Good and stable for collecting data and monitoring the environment and the infrastructure
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure Monitor is really just a source for Dynatrace. It's just collecting data and monitoring the environment and the infrastructure. It is fairly good at that."
  • "There are a lot of things that take more time to do, such as charting, alerting, and correlation of data, and things like that. Azure Monitor doesn't tell you why something happened. It just tells you that it happened. It should also have some type of AI. Environments and applications are becoming more and more complex every day with hundreds or thousands of microservices. Therefore, having to do a lot of the stuff manually takes a lot of time, and on top of that, troubleshooting issues takes a lot of time. The traditional method of troubleshooting doesn't really work for or apply to this environment we're in. So, having an AI-based system and the ability to automate deployments of your monitoring and configurations makes it much easier."

What is our primary use case?

We're using Azure Monitor end connection as a hybrid model where it's integrated into Dynatrace. Azure Monitor monitors the infrastructure of Azure within our cloud environment. It doesn't give you any explanations or anything like that. It's just metrics, just data. We've integrated this data into Dynatrace so that the Dynatrace system and AI can give accurate response times, performance on metrics, and things like that. 

What is most valuable?

Azure Monitor is really just a source for Dynatrace. It's just collecting data and monitoring the environment and the infrastructure. It is fairly good at that.

What needs improvement?

There are a lot of things that take more time to do, such as charting, alerting, and correlation of data, and things like that. Azure Monitor doesn't tell you why something happened. It just tells you that it happened. 

It should also have some type of AI. Environments and applications are becoming more and more complex every day with hundreds or thousands of microservices. Therefore, having to do a lot of the stuff manually takes a lot of time, and on top of that, troubleshooting issues takes a lot of time. The traditional method of troubleshooting doesn't really work for or apply to this environment we're in. So, having an AI-based system and the ability to automate deployments of your monitoring and configurations makes it much easier.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Azure Monitor for nine months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I haven't scaled it. We're still building things.

How are customer service and technical support?

I didn't personally have to deal with them. I did contact them once or twice earlier on. It was okay. It seemed like the usual Microsoft kind of approach. You submit an email and all of your information, and then you get a response back the next day. I'm sure it would be better if you had a support plan, but I don't know that specifically.

How was the initial setup?

There needs to be a better process or method to deploy and configure it. Currently, there's a lot of manual intervention. It is not really an out-of-the-box solution.

If you want to get help, you will have to pay for it. Otherwise, you just do it on your own. The problem with doing it on your own is that if you're not so familiar with it, then you have to first familiarize yourself with Azure and setting up different alerts, etc. You really don't get a whole lot of these complexities with Dynatrace.

What about the implementation team?

I wasn't a part of Azure deployment. My area of focus is Application Performance Monitoring, and I was involved with that. For the rest of the Azure environment, there were several teams.

What other advice do I have?

There is Azure Monitor, and then there is Azure Application Insights, which is a component of Azure. Azure Application Insights does similar things as Dynatrace, but just not as good as Dynatrace. There's a lot of manual configuration for Azure Monitor and Application Insights, which isn't there with Dynatrace.

I would rate Azure Monitor an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
SaurabhSingh1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Sales Architect at Softline
MSP
Top 5Leaderboard
Offers ease of use to users and supports multiple environments
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's most valuable features are its ease of use and support for multiple environments"
  • "The product should integrate well with other tools or clouds in the future, as it is one of the areas where the product currently has certain shortcomings."

What is our primary use case?

I use the Azure Monitor in my company since it is a part of every solution we send to our customers. From a monitoring perspective, the use cases attached to the tool are enormous. Usually, my company uses it to monitor all Azure services that our customers use. My company also uses Azure Monitor if we want to monitor our customers' on-premises environment. In the case of any third-party cloud environment, my company suggests that customers have Azure Arc implemented in their environment. With it, they can monitor usage and monitoring while having one single dashboard for all their environments.

What is most valuable?

The solution's most valuable features are its ease of use and support for multiple environments. With the tool, the customer can have a single dashboard for all the environments.

What needs improvement?

The product should integrate well with other tools or clouds in the future, as it is one of the areas where the product currently has certain shortcomings.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have experience with Azure Monitor.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a pretty stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a very scalable solution.

I am actively working with around 20 to 25 customers, and I know that the monitoring process is a part of every solution. As a part of our company's best practices, we provide a pitch associated with Azure Monitor to each and every customer.

How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support team is fast, knowledgeable, and customer-friendly.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have experience with Azure Backup.

How was the initial setup?

The product's initial setup phase is straightforward.

To have a simple monitoring system in place, I don't think it will take more than a day to enable it with the basic dashboards. If customers have a very unique requirement and need a dashboard of a specific type, then in such cases, it takes some time to develop the dashboard and publish the data. The deployment and time to create a dashboard can keep varying.

The solution is deployed on the cloud. The tool supports another cloud on-premises as well.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product offers a pay-as-you-go model to users. The charges are to be paid according to the usage of the product.

What other advice do I have?

Azure Monitor's integration capabilities make integrations very easy. The tool supports on-premises and other cloud environments.

I suggest that for each and every solution in place, one should have a monitoring tool because it is a crucial component of any solution.

I don't think that much about AI-related stuff when it comes to the tool since I don't think it would make much of a difference.

The value provided by the product stems from the fact that its customers can monitor their environment on a single dashboard and can look at areas like usage, triggers, and IOPS and CPU memory utilization. If there are any alerts, one can set certain triggers in the tool.

I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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IT Manager at Software Gurus
Real User
Top 5
The solution provides observability to check everything in the cloud, but it’s really hard to query the logs
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure Monitor gives us the observability to check everything that we have in the cloud."
  • "It's really complex to retrieve or query the logs in Azure Monitor."

What is our primary use case?

We use Azure Monitor to monitor all the infrastructure that we have in the cloud.

What is most valuable?

Azure Monitor gives us the observability to check everything that we have in the cloud. We can set up some alarms to better manage what we have in the cloud.

Azure Monitor has a direct connection with the infrastructure in the cloud. It's like a built-in feature in public services.

What needs improvement?

It's really complex to retrieve or query the logs in Azure Monitor. They have another query language, and it's messy. It never works the first time. You have to check a little bit of queries. It's really hard to make queries in Azure Monitor.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Monitor for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We never had issues with the solution's stability. I rate Azure Monitor a nine out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate Azure Monitor a nine out of ten for scalability. It's a cloud service, and we don't have any issues with it.

How are customer service and support?

Azure Monitor's technical support overall is not perfect.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment with Azure Monitor because it's a tool that's out of the box in the cloud.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Azure Monitor's pricing is tied to the services. The Azure Insight is a little bit expensive. It's a little expensive if you want to avail all the features.

What other advice do I have?

I am using the on-cloud version of Azure Monitor.

If they are using the cloud, users can use Azure Monitor as the first tool because it already has integration with all the services. However, the query language that I use is really complex. So if users haven't built queries before, they will have several issues with it.

Even for technical people, they will have issues if they don't have experience using a query language. So if they are using Azure, they should use Azure Monitor initially. Later, they can improve the monitoring environment by applying some other tools.

Overall, I rate Azure Monitor a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Azure Monitor Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Azure Monitor Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.