Azure Stack Reviews

Our primary use cases are computing, data platform along with migrating event-driven architecture. We use a lot of data bricks and data components. From the integration to data, and from the application deployment perspective to the platform as a service.

Azure Stack enhanced the productivity from the developers to testers to infrastructure engineers in the following way:

* Developers and the QA team focused on delivering business values rather than thinking about the build and deployment

* The infrastructure team focused more on automating the infra-build pipelines for different environments in no time 

* Azure Pipelines automated 80% of manual efforts on both the Development and Infra front. 

We have found the Kubernetes version is one of the key components which we are using heavily.

I would like to see the AI side come to one hundred percent in the near future. I would love to see a more reliable SAP improved.

I have been working with Azure Stack for the past seven years.

Azure Stack is highly stable across the globe from my experience.

Azure Stack is extremely scalable across the globe.

One of the best parts of technical support is they are really on top of all the issues. Once an incident has been raised, their team will call our technical engineers and start supporting them immediately. This is one of the major reasons why I have used Azure Stack. Azure Cloud is becoming so popular because in the end, businesses need assurance and they are always on top of it.

We were using an on-premise solution, but you know that an on-premise solution is not scalable with a cloud-based environment.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. It is a lean, shallow learning curve. They can quickly grasp it and can start working on deployment. The deployment was pretty smooth because we set up the CI/CD pipeline and Azure pipeline, which automatically builds the solution. It does the unit test and performance test, and if everything goes well, it is scheduling the deployments for production quickly.

We have both in-house and third-party teams, depending on the requirements and complexity of the deployment.

The licensing is pay-as-you-go, and Azure also provides a bring-your-own-license. I believe that is a good option if anyone is looking at it and they already have a license. They can get the infrastructure and the provision in a very short time and it will save the existing licenses. 

Different applications will have different licensing needs. It depends on which tool you use. You will then need to secure that license.

We evaluated AWS and Google. It depends on the company and what the best fit is for the organization. If companies have similar requirements, they can follow us, or if they have a different requirement, I believe that Google or AWS might fit their needs as well.

I think that anybody who wants to move on to Azure Stack, needs to assess their requirements, and what business needs they have. I would rate Azure Stack an eight out of ten.

I don't have a specific feature, my customers use all of the features that are available and the entire stack.

I believe the only room for improvement is that I am based in Nairobi, if it has even a local node for Azure, I believe most customers will prefer that to reduce latencies and everything else when using the Azure Stack. They'll be better off if they can set up a local node in Nairobi, Kenya.

There are local things specific to the Kenya market, which are integrated into local development platforms available in Kenya, which would be helpful if it could be integrated with Azure Stack. We have a solution called M-Pessa, for example. If that can be done on a regular basis, I believe it is time to look for customers who want to use that channel today.

I have been working with Azure Stack for six years.

Azure Stack is a stable product.

Azure Stack is a scalable solution.

Technical support is okay. My customers have not complained about the technical support.

I actually work for an integrator company that specializes in UiPath. I primarily use UiPath, but I also use Automation Anywhere and Microsoft Power Automate.

We use Power Automate, but we also use Power BI for dashboard visualization. Then there's the standard Office 365, and we do have customers who use Azure.

I would say the initial setup is medium. It all depends on who is using it, but most customers rate it as a medium. It's not easy, but it's also not difficult. It's average. It's a medium.

In terms of pricing, my customers believe AWS is slightly more reasonably priced than Azure. They believe it is significantly less expensive than what Azure offers. It is simply a matter of pricing.

I would advise them to conduct a thorough assessment of the types of applications they want to host on Azure Stack before beginning the migration process. They must be absolutely certain. Then there are all kinds of local policies, security policies, on migrating data into the Cloud, to put it mildly. They should be on the lookout for such things. So, first and foremost, a proper assessment of what types of applications should be moved entirely to Azure Stack. Then, examine the policies, security policies, and cybersecurity that are associated with all of that.

I would rate Azure Stack an eight out of ten.

There are multiple use cases for us in regards to this solution, including IoT, DevOps, storage, analytics, and many, many other scenarios.

We use it for our periodic builds, and for our source control.

The IoT, DevOps, microservices, micro functions, and storage are all valuable features.

The solution should be more open to allowing access to other tools and environments.

Technical support also needs a lot of improvement.

The solution is pretty stable.

The scalability of the solution is good. We have hundreds of users internally and thousands of users externally. We do plan to increase usage shortly.

Technical support is very poor. When we meet Microsoft in the coming weeks to discuss expansion, we'll be speaking to them directly about this.

Previously, we used AWS.

The initial setup was quite a long time ago, so I don't remember the details of the implementation.

We received some help with the implementation from Microsoft.

We are using the on-premises deployment model.

I would advise others considering implementing the solution to ensure they understand the solution to a high degree, as they won't get much help from technical support if they have questions.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten.

We primarily use the solution to include Deployments of VM security, Sentinel Storage, and VPN tunnels.

Azure Active Directory is the most valuable feature. 

The technical support team's response time needs improvement. 

I have been using Azure Stack for ten plus years. 

The stability is an eight out of ten. 

The pricing is reasonable. 

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

We use Azure Stack for migration, application modernization, and cloud-native modernization.

Azure Stack's pricing could be improved.

I have been working with Azure Stack for around four to five years.

I rate Azure Stack a nine out of ten for stability.

Azure Stack is a very scalable solution.

I rate Azure Stack ten out of ten for scalability.

Azure Stack’s initial setup is easy.

Azure Stack is deployed on-cloud in our organization. I would recommend Azure Stack to other users.

Overall, I rate Azure Stack a nine and a half out of ten.

We are providing solutions based on Azure Stack to customers. It has the same interface as Microsoft Azure in a local context.

The admin dashboard is the main feature of the solution. Different services are running on it.

Azure Stack doesn't have all the services available in Microsoft Azure. It would be useful if Azure Stack could be developed to be like Microsoft Azure with all the services. Although Microsoft manages it, not all of Microsoft Azure’s services are available on Azure Stack. 

When we try to build a solution on Azure Stack, there are some limitations with the services available, most of which are available on Microsoft Azure. Adding more services to Azure Stack will be beneficial for customers. The product doesn’t have a DR solution available locally. The product does not support a local DR either.

I have been using the solution for three years.

I rate the product’s stability an eight out of ten.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

We are getting support through a local partner.

Neutral

I rate the ease of initial setup a four out of ten.

The deployment process took a few weeks. We needed two to three people to deploy the solution. It's an engineered system that comes with everything loaded. Microsoft’s team handles configurations. We only had to handle the equipment and manage it locally.

Pricing depends on the solutions which we build on. IaaS’s pricing is high. Other services might be competitive.

I am using the latest version of the product. Azure Stack is an on-premise solution that gives cloud services to customers. We give it as a cloud service to customers. Although it is a fully managed solution from Microsoft, it has limitations. Overall, I rate the product a six out of ten.

So we have offered Azure Stack to one of the biggest telco companies here in the Philippines. We have two sites there, and so far, their business has been growing good. They want to deploy more sites here in the Philippines using Azure Stack.

The most valuable features are related to managing Kubernetes cluster nodes.

When it comes to room for improvement, there should be more focus on the user interface, specifically for the management console.

In the future release, I would like to see better UI. 

I have actually been with HPE for five years now, and we have been a partner of Microsoft Azure's teams even before I joined. So I would say five years.

We always use the latest version. The latest is HCI version 21H2.

It is very stable. I would rate it a nine out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. Our clients are enterprise businesses. And I think they've been using it for about four years now.

Sometimes there have been software issues, but customers still need assistance from us, the hardware vendor. So I think the ticketing and issue logging need to be more available.

Positive

I would rate the initial setup a seven, where one is difficult, and ten is easy. The deployment took around two to three months. 

If we compare it in the market to other vendors, I think it would be around four out of ten, where one is low, and ten is high. There is additional fees required for support. 

I have conducted cost analysis and simulations using AWS, Azure Stack, and Google Cloud. So I've performed several cost analyses based on customer requirements. But I haven't had extensive hands-on experience with those public clouds.

Overall, I would rate the product a nine out of ten because Azure Stack is very reliable. It's highly available and provides the requirements needed by the customers' applications. It's also very secure.

The product is an on-premise data center for SQL servers and for virtualized environments.

The fact that it's integrated into Azure is its best feature. They go hand in hand.

It's very easy to set up the product.

The solution is pretty stable.

The product can scale. 

The fact that it is completely integrated into Azure, while positive, is also a downside. 

Azure Stack was implemented by Microsoft about eight months ago. That's pretty much how long I've been using it.

The solution is stable enough. It is not market-leading, however, it is reliable. 

The scalability is decent. It's not market-leading, however, it is possible. 

We have about 20 people using it in our company.

I haven't used technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they are. 

We didn't change solutions. We just added it and we are still utilizing a host of other solutions, including VMware's vSAN. They both do similar things, however, if I had my choice, I would go with VMware. That's just subjective, however. 

The product has been simple to set up. The deployment is quick and takes an hour. It's not complex or difficult to implement. It's really quite easy. It's a next, next, next flow where you click through and run the software. When you implement it, you attach it to your Azure account and that's when the real work starts, of course, as then you have it up and running.

I install the solution myself. We both deploy it in-house and use a consultant. 

We're resellers. 

I'd recommend the solution, however, for those considering it, the most important thing is to get ahold of somebody who knows what they're doing, for example, a consultant.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.