My client used Azure Monitor to monitor the environment in Azure.
Scalable and stable monitoring tool with data collection, analysis, and alerting features
Pros and Cons
- "The feature that I found most valuable in Azure Monitor is its monitoring abilities. With Azure Monitor, you are able to monitor all of your cloud resources across multiple subscriptions in one dashboard and create solution-specific alerts that can trigger an email to the team responsible for that specific solution."
- "Setting up this solution is complex. It's also missing the functionality of assigning alerts."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The feature that I found most valuable in Azure Monitor is its monitoring abilities. With Azure Monitor, you are able to monitor all of your cloud resources across multiple subscriptions in one dashboard and create solution-specific alerts that can trigger an email to the team responsible for that specific solution.
The ability to customize is endless. The majority of the data used for creating alerts does not require any agent installed, like so many other monitoring tools.
Azure Monitor is a monitoring solution that you should not miss out on the second you move workflows, solutions, infrastructure, and much more onto the cloud.
What needs improvement?
Azure Monitor is a complex product because you can use it to monitor different things, and that could be an area for improvement. Having templates by Microsoft added to it is another area for improvement.
What I'd like to be added in the next release of Azure Monitor is an overview of best practices from Microsoft and what they'd recommend users to monitor.
Assigning an alert is another feature I'd like to see in the next release of the solution. Currently, you can't assign an alert to anyone, if a server crashed and you need to assign that alert to a specific team, it's not possible.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Azure Monitor is a stable solution.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Azure Monitor is a scalable solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for Azure Monitor is quite complex. If I would rate its setup from one to five, with one being complex and five being straightforward, I would rate it 1.5.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Azure Monitor is not too expensive. On a scale of one to five, with one being expensive and five being affordable and competitively priced, I'm giving the solution a four.
What other advice do I have?
I have not used the technical support for Azure Monitor.
Azure Monitor relies more on your ability to collect data and make the correct queries, while on-premises solutions rely on an agent and have many templates to choose from.
Azure Monitor is a nice monitoring tool, particularly if you have the skills. I'm rating it nine out of ten, I can't give it a ten because there's still something missing in it.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Consultant / Implementer
S/W Technologies & Processes Unit Manager at Unisystems
Extremely reliable with good load and metrics gathering and very good analysis
Pros and Cons
- "Good load and metrics gathering and very good analysis."
- "Automation related to gathering metrics from more applications could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Our use case for this solution is application monitoring using the Insights app. We have about five specialists in our operations team and we also have an application management team of around 10 people. There are plans to increase usage but that's something that is driven by the customers that we provide our services to. We partner with Azure Monitor and I work as a SW technologist and process unit manager in the company.
What is most valuable?
There are a few good features in this solution. First, it's integrated with Azure DevOps. Second, it has good load gathering and very good analysis. Finally, the metrics gathering, even though it requires some actions and application level, is also fairly good.
What needs improvement?
I think the product could be improved if they were to work on automation related to gathering metrics from more applications without the need for instrumentation and things like that. I'd like them to work more on that.
Additional features they could include would be more automations related to applications and monitoring, user experience monitoring on the application level. Improvement on technical support would also be helpful.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I haven't tested the solution for scalability but from the specifications it seems that it would be easily scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support could be improved - their response time can be quite slow.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to using Azure Monitor I used SolarWinds. I think that SolarWinds is more infrastructure level oriented while Azure covers infrastructure but also covers the application side. That's why we migrated to Azure.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very straightforward. Transfer to the solution required some training so I think in total it took us about two weeks.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Azure Monitor, we evaluated it compared to SolarWinds and Dynatrace, which was a more expensive solution.
What other advice do I have?
This is a good enough product for anyone wanting something that might not be top of the range but it does the work easily, is simple to configure and is a fair price.
I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
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January 2025
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Enterprise Architect at a mining and metals company with 10,001+ employees
Monitors the infrastructure and applications but needs connectivity in cost management
Pros and Cons
- "I use the solution to monitor the infrastructure and applications."
- "I need connectivity with cost management."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution to monitor the infrastructure and applications.
What needs improvement?
I need connectivity with cost management.
How are customer service and support?
Azure Monitor's customer service is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The tool is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Azure Monitor a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Full Stack Software Engineer at Collabera Philippines
Provides good stability and maximizes the application's performance
Pros and Cons
- "The solution's most valuable features are its ability to focus on delivery and maximizing the performance of applications and services."
- "The solution's monitoring feature has limitations for analyzing multiple metrics."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to develop AI technology, particularly for financial services. It involves creating a chatbot or conversational AI system.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable features are its ability to focus on delivery and maximizing the performance of applications and services.
What needs improvement?
The solution's monitoring feature has limitations for analyzing multiple metrics. Also, its support services could be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been a customer of AWS Monitor for less than a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have more than ten people using the solution.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support services need improvement.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup was straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is expensive, but it is worth the price.
What other advice do I have?
You can use this technology, as it is unique to Microsoft's services. It focuses on performance monitoring. It is highly effective for diagnostic purposes, viewing metrics, and enabling/disabling logs. It facilitates data gathering and logging, as its name suggests.
I rate it an eight out of ten, as we had a great experience learning the technology.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Principal Application Developer at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Provides an overview and high-level information of where problems lie; lacks sufficient user flow information
Pros and Cons
- "Provides an overview and high-level information."
- "Lacks information including details related to where problems lie."
What is our primary use case?
We all use Microsoft in the company and we are customers of Azure Monitor.
What is most valuable?
The product is very good for developers who want to integrate with Visual Studio. The solution provides an overview and high-level information on what hurdles to expect, and which endpoints have problems.
What needs improvement?
If Azure Monitor wants to compete with other APM products in the industry, it has to stitch together the information and user flow. It also needs to provide all the information, as you get with Stock Trace, including details related to where the call came from and where the problem lies. That's what we'd like to see. With a solution like Dynatrace, you have a clear path and you know which calls were made before and after the problem, and where the issue occurred. That feature is lacking in Azure Monitor.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution scales easily. It's not a big deal for Azure Monitor or any other APM product.
How was the initial setup?
With Azure, implementation needs to be carried out in multiple places and you need to add other things to get the information and that's a tedious process. The Dynatrace setup is much easier.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We made a comparison between Dynatrace on-prem and Azure Monitor as to what each solution offers. Azure is great for developers wanting to integrate with Visual Studio but when it provides Azure monitoring information on the dashboard there is a lot of Google analytics. When it comes to the application performance monitoring information, Azure gives you the overview or high-level information regarding issues and which endpoints have a problem, but it doesn't give you anything in-depth at the matter level.
What other advice do I have?
It's important to know what your requirements are. If you're able to put best practices in place, and need to add SBKs and turn on profiling at the meter level to look into the details, then Azure Monitor can help. But if that's not something you need, Monitor might not be the best solution for you.
I rate the solution six out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Vice President - Network Management at ADS Securities LLC
A well-integrated solution with good troubleshooting features
Pros and Cons
- "It has good troubleshooting features."
- "If it is configured incorrectly, you can end up with a huge bill."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution for basically everything. For example, we use it for infrastructure, application and resource monitoring.
What is most valuable?
It has good troubleshooting features like automated troubleshooting. It is also a flexible solution and a low-cost product. It includes all the features that are required for multi-cloud and public cloud.
What needs improvement?
If it is configured incorrectly, you can end up with a huge bill. Sometimes, a lot of data is collected and stored, and we may get charged for that kind of storage which is an issue.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for more than two years and are currently using the latest version. It is a cloud-based solution and deployed on public cloud. Our cloud provider is Microsoft Azure.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable and constantly updated with new features and functionalities.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable and can scale to any size. Five people use this solution in our organization, primarily administrators, DevOps and security personnel. It requires about two to three people for deployment and maintenance. We have dedicated people from the monitoring team that do this. We plan to expand the number of users eventually.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is quite responsive. Microsoft support is pretty good. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward and not complex. Deployment took a couple of days, and it was deployed in-house.
What was our ROI?
We have seen an ROI. It is a helpful tool and provides proactive information about the infrastructure.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate other options. Azure Monitor is one of the most non-native tools from Microsoft, and it's well-integrated.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution an eight out of ten. I recommend this solution to others. They should try Azure Monitor to see if it fits their requirements gradually. Additionally, there isn't a lot of upfront investment required to set it up.
The configuration could be improved in the next release because it takes a little time. However, they regularly update their scalability and features.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Systems Administrator at Herbalife
Monitors the server and all of the CPUs so we can audit the bandwidth that has been consumed
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is that it's stable. It hasn't crossed any thresholds."
- "The troubleshooting logs need improvement. There should be some improvement there. I have a hard time finding the right logs at the right times whenever there is an issue occurring."
What is our primary use case?
We use it to monitor all the services and applications, whether it is running or whether it is standing still. We use it to monitor the server and all of the CPUs so you can audit the bandwidth that has been consumed - all the day to day administrative stuff.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is that it's stable. It hasn't crossed any thresholds.
What needs improvement?
The troubleshooting logs need improvement. There should be some improvement there. I have a hard time finding the right logs at the right times whenever there is an issue occurring. They should simplify the logs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for around two years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We definitely do have plans to increase the usage but it depends on what the management calls. I'm not the authorized person to make calls here but we do have plans to increase the current infrastructure.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have a separate team that handles creating incidents with Microsoft.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Azure Monitor an eight out of ten. In order to make it a perfect ten, the solution should be simplified. For a beginner, it's kind of complex. It should be made easier for beginners or newcomers.
I would recommend this product. We get good results from Microsoft Azure, so that's why we stick with Microsoft Azure.
I definitely recommend this product to all my colleagues or my friends or my friend's companies.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Helps with infrastructure monitoring and alert system can be customized to integrate custom metrics but needs improvement in interface
Pros and Cons
- "The tool's most valuable feature is the alert system, which can be set according to our metrics. The integration is smooth."
- "Azure Monitor is not user-friendly, and the interface is not exciting. Switching between the dashboards is not easy."
What is our primary use case?
Azure Monitor helps with infrastructure monitoring and getting application logs.
What is most valuable?
The tool's most valuable feature is the alert system, which can be set according to our metrics. The integration is smooth.
What needs improvement?
Azure Monitor is not user-friendly, and the interface is not exciting. Switching between the dashboards is not easy.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the tool's stability a seven out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
I am experienced with Azure, and hence, the installation was easy. However, an inexperienced person may find it difficult.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Azure Monitor is cheaper compared to other third-party monitoring tools.
What other advice do I have?
You need to go through the documentation before deploying the solution. Also, learn Kusto Query Language to create custom metrics and logs by yourself. I rate the product a six out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: January 2025
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