I am using the Azure Stack for Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Basically, I use the OCR from Microsoft, which is the reason for using Azure.
Powerful OCR functionality on a stable platform
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the OCR, which I use for reading PDFs."
- "The price of the OCR could be more competitive with Google."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the OCR, which I use for reading PDFs.
What needs improvement?
The price of the OCR could be more competitive with Google.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the Azure stack for about four months.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have had no issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
My rating for scalability would be an eight out of ten. I just have not used it long enough to rate it higher than that.
How are customer service and support?
I have not yet needed to contact technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
I did not need help with deployment and we have an in-house team for maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of using Azure Stack for OCR is more expensive than using OCR by Google.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have tested many different OCRs, including one from Google Cloud, and this is one of the best that I have ever seen.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to start small. As you gain experience and confidence with the platform, you can expand to larger tasks.
I would rate this solution an eight 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.
IT Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Stable, easy-to-use and good technical support
Pros and Cons
- "Azure Stack is a good product because it's flexible and easy to work with."
- "Azure Stack should be open to different technologies for more virtualization environments to accept it."
What is our primary use case?
We use Azure Stack to deliver Microsoft's Azure services from our organization's data center.
What is most valuable?
Azure Stack is a good product because it's flexible and easy to work with.
What needs improvement?
It depends on the type of user, as some users prefer an easy tool and environment for management. Other users prefer a detailed setting of the environment and console. I can tell you what would be better from the point of view of different users. It is one of the programs we are finding a proper solution for to know if a user finds it easy using only pictures and the possibility of what they can do in this environment.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Stack for the past year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In our small testing environment, we had no problem with stability. However, we already created special technologies, so it's an evaluation of all the environments that we'll bring to do the final project because they have something created on their own technology and now it is a question if they will change it or not.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Azure Stack should be open to different technologies for more virtualization environments to accept it. With that, it would be acceptable to have different interfaces from other technologies, as they are already included in some environments.
How are customer service and technical support?
We had the possibility of communicating with a Microsoft technician, and their support was satisfactory.
How was the initial setup?
I cannot answer this question because I joined the project when they had installed Azure Stack on computers used for the projects.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Azure Stack because it is one of the best technologies in this environment and the programs are easy to use.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Azure Stack
November 2024
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Head of Technology at qvinzbridge private limited
Stable, easy to use, and the support is responsive
Pros and Cons
- "Azure is less complex and easier to use than AWS."
- "In the future, I would like to see more machine learning features."
What is most valuable?
Azure is less complex and easier to use than AWS.
What needs improvement?
I would like to have access to more services and more functionality.
In the future, I would like to see more machine learning features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Stack for approximately six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is definitely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
You can scale easily.
How are customer service and technical support?
The support is good and they are very responsive.
How was the initial setup?
It is not too complex to set up Azure Stack. It was faster to deploy than the AWS solution that we tried.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution an eight 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.
Head of Technology at qvinzbridge private limited
Easy to set up, easy to scale, and customer support is good
Pros and Cons
- "It's not as complex compared to Amazon or AWS products. Azure Stack is easier to use within the cloud."
- "It would be better to have more services and functionality when it comes to database software and computing."
What is most valuable?
It's not as complex compared to Amazon or AWS products. Azure Stack is easier to use within the cloud.
It would be better to have more services and functionality when it comes to database software and computing. I would also like to see more computing features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Stack for four to six 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?
It's easy to scale.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer support is good and was handled responsibly.
How was the initial setup?
The setup isn't complex and is faster than AWS.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Commercially, Azure Stack is cheaper than AWS.
What other advice do I have?
I would give Azure Stack an eight 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.
Lead Enterprise Architect at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Secure, reliable, and good support but the bandwidth is limited
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are that it is a Hybrid, and we can easily integrate with the Microsoft Public Cloud."
- "There are limits to the bandwidth and sizing of the images."
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are that it is a Hybrid, and we can easily integrate with the Microsoft Public Cloud.
It is totally CSA compliant.
It's secure. It's not open. Anything we need to do has to be validated by the OEM, and software vendor.
It's an engineered system. everything that needs to be done such as a dispatching order when there is a new feature has to be completed by the vendors. It's totally dependent upon the vendor.
What needs improvement?
We need an expressway from a different network to allow for connectivity purposes. For example, If we want to have remote storage on-premises or off-site, I have to go through the public cloud. That is the only way.
There is a dependency. They don't encourage having it on-premises in different networks.
I have an HCI model hyper-converged infrastructure. It's a minimum of four nodes with Microsoft Azure and I want to attach additional storage, but I cannot attach it without connecting directly and finding a new network.
There are limits to the bandwidth and sizing of the images.
Kubernetes as a service is there, but not as a platform as a service. I would like to have a Kubernetes cluster in a PaaS. They have it in the Azure public cloud, but they haven't released it in the Azure Stack.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Stack for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Azure Stack is scalable. You can add it immediately.
We have a cloud operator, we have our own provisioning team, cloud engineers, cloud architects, cloud evangelist, and cloud developers who use this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
I had contact with technical support once. There was a miscommunication between the hardware vendor and Microsoft OneNote.
It took 20 to 25 days to get it back up and running. OneNote failed and Microsoft had an update without coordinating with the Microsoft engineer. There was a lack of communication.
Overall, the support is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously we used other solutions but we didn't want to use third-party outsourced companies. We have our own infrastructure.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy, I didn't find it to be complex. Because it's validated hardware and software, any patches that have been released are validated by Microsoft itself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Azure Stack is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
In the Middle East, we deal with a company called Logicom that Microsoft promoted and suggested to us. We are customers of Logicom and Logicom has a relationship with Microsoft.
I don't see any levels of risk involved unless there are different levels of risk that I am not aware of.
We have concepts called foil domain, availability domain, and geo-location. If you have this large domain in one rack and it is hyper-converged, and if one rack goes down then it's gone. You have to invest more money to get another rack to distribute the load amongst the two and make it high availability.
The more that you invest the more availability you get.
If you have applications running in a Microsoft-oriented platform then you have to be very clever, especially with architecture and design. It depends on your requirements.
It's an expensive solution and even if you don't have the instances up and running, you are having to pay for the storage.
If the company is established with good returns and they are looking for a secure, safe, and reliable system, Azure Stack is a good choice.
Cost matters, no one wants to pay for virtualization. It is now available for free with the OS.
Assessing cost and reliability, I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
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.
Lead Enterprise Architect at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Good IaaS capabilities and it is stable, but it is expensive
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is IaaS."
- "PaaS is not ready because they are only offering MS SQL as a service, web applications as a service, and containers as a service."
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and the Azure Stack is one of the technologies that we use to provide services to our customers.
How has it helped my organization?
Need more time
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is IaaS. I find it to be good.
Third-party dashboards are supported in the PaaS.
The rapid provisioning is good.
They have VPN connectivity, which promotes encapsulation.
What needs improvement?
In PaaS Model, they are only offering MS SQL as a service, web applications as a service, and containers as a service. When it comes to containers, I could not find how to use the functionality. Recently, one of our customers wanted to have Sybase as the database for their SAP applications, but it was not in the Azure Stack Marketplace.
It is closed and It doesn't allow you to customize networks or any new features.
Better flexibility in the network is needed.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Stack for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a cloud concept, so we expect stability but it's broad scoping with IT. I have been working in the field for the last 18 years and stability is affected by new technologies. We are told that new systems are quite stable, but we are still struggling to provide a service that is a reliable one. This is because of the different complicated scenarios, demands, and requirements from the end-user.
The cloud is challenging and from a stability point of view, it depends on what services you are running inside and what scalability you are providing to the end-user.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Good
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is okay. There is a technical support gateway and Microsoft is working in the background. There is some kind of coordination between engineers from Microsoft and Dell, because one time when we had an upgrade, the people from Dell upgraded it without coordination from Microsoft.
How was the initial setup?
Azure Stack is a closed box, but it is compliant. It doesn't permit you to customize the network or the features. You have to take what Microsoft is offering and just simply obey it.
We are using a connected model, as opposed to a disconnected model.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is very expensive. If I were rating it on cost then it would be a five 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.
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Very easy to learn and apply to other things
Pros and Cons
- "It is very easy to learn and apply to other things."
- "There are some minor issues or bugs with it that I know are there."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Azure Stack for the indicators and automation build.
What is most valuable?
It is very easy to learn and apply to other things.
What needs improvement?
If they could integrate with Jira, this would be very useful for someone using Jira and TFS. This would make it easier to use.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for the past year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There are some minor issues or bugs with it that I know are there.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not contacted the technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward, not complex.
It took a week to deploy this solution.
What about the implementation team?
I deployed the solution myself.
What other advice do I have?
It is very good. I would rate the solution an eight (out of 10).
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Lead Enterprise Architect at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Offers good hybrid connectivity, but it's pricier than some other solutions
Pros and Cons
- "Azure Stack is like a hybrid model with a CI/CD pipeline. The IaaS and PaaS model works well with a hybrid type of connectivity."
- "Our only issue with Azure Stack so far is that the networking is very closed. You need to have the extended LAN to connect the internal LAN to the Azure Stack. Any connection we have needs site-to-site VPN connectivity instead of an internal connection, so Azure Stack has room for improvement in the networking area."
What is most valuable?
Azure Stack is like a hybrid model with a CI/CD pipeline. The IaaS and PaaS model works well with a hybrid type of connectivity.
What needs improvement?
Our only issue with Azure Stack so far is that the networking is very closed. You need to have the extended LAN to connect the internal LAN to the Azure Stack. Any connection we have needs site-to-site VPN connectivity instead of an internal connection, so Azure Stack has room for improvement in the networking area.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using Azure Stack for more than two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Azure Stack is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Azure Stack is scalable, and it has governance features also.
How are customer service and support?
We have third-party technical support. Sometimes it's good, and sometimes it's extended.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up Azure Stack is easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Azure Stack is higher relative to other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Azure Stack seven out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
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Updated: November 2024
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