Microsoft Azure Block Storage Reviews

We have a few clients that use the solution. 

The use cases have been huge. One of the applications we are developing is an internal tax system. We tend to get a lot of client files through different channels and store them in the Block Storage. It's standing on a huge system. It's a multi-cluster, multi-AG kind of informer.

The features are pretty good. Our company mostly uses Java and Microsoft technology. We get good metadata and can save different metadata within the solution.  

It can scale. It's at 99.99%. We can always use a different life cycle on objects so that means we don't want to store the object. On one side probably we can do cold storage and kind of thing. 

Basically, there are a lot of features that are provided and we have a lot of options.

The solution is stable. 

We found the initial setup to be straightforward. 

The solution could use a couple of security features. They still have a lot of other features and everything is coming along quite nicely now, however, I would expect more features in the near future. We'd like more policies and authentication.

We've used the solution for about five years or so.

The solution definitely offers durability, and, stability-wise, we have no complaints. AWe tend to make a backup since it is working on the cluster side, so we do a backup every day. We are also able to access it at a global level.

Speed-wise, I don't see any latency issues.

The solution can scale quite well.

We have 100 clients using the solution. We have a big team in general. 

We have a relationship with and are directly partnered with Microsoft. That means we have our own technical support directly from Microsoft. They are our dedicated architects. We have a data communication channel open, so we can talk to them anytime about anything. We're quite happy with the arrangement.

We have a lot of internal products. The development team has been using Azure Storage and Block Storage and Databricks and other products from Azure.

The initial setup is pretty simple. It's not overly difficult or too complex. 

The solution is pay-as-you-go. We don't have any subscriptions; it is more like an on-demand arrangement.

Our company has ties with Microsoft. We kind of partner with Microsoft so we always attempt to propose Azure Solutions, especially in the cloud.

I would recommend the solution to others.

I'd rate it nine out of ten.

We use the solution for several key purposes: first, as a source code repository; second, for software testing life cycle management, including test cases and bug tracking; and third, for deploying our projects through pipelines, supporting continuous deployment and continuous integration.

Microsoft Azure Block Storage has high-security features and is very reliable. Its maintenance is done through the cloud, which reduces costs. 

Microsoft Azure Block Storage needs to improve its migration and reporting processes. 

I have been working with the product for three years. 

I rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten. 

My company has 35-50 users. 

We chose Microsoft Azure Blob Storage because we've been using their solutions for a long time, starting from Team Foundation Server since 2010 and even earlier with Visual SourceSafe. We kept upgrading versions, which led us to adopt Azure Cloud. Additionally, the licensing cost was favorable for us. 

Deploying the tool is easy, but we encountered challenges while migrating our old repositories from EFS 2015 and 2019. The main issue was that we had to migrate the entire default collection to do it properly, and there wasn't a straightforward way to handle this. For example, while test cases must be migrated through the default collection, repositories for source code can be migrated alone, which poses a significant challenge for us.

It generally took more than a day to set up and plan everything for on-premises setup. For cloud installations, it was easier because you could pick items from Microsoft storage or repositories and switch them on. However, final configurations for pipelines and other elements still require significant time.

We expect ROI through cost reduction after three years. 

I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten. 

I rate Microsoft Azure Block Storage a ten out of ten. 

Use cases for Microsoft Azure Block Storage involve cloud storage for website publishing and customer data sharing. Many customers utilize it for data-sharing purposes. Customers commonly use flash storage to store and access data. Storage is integral to various Software as a Service solutions, where Block Storage is automatically provisioned for premium or standard tiers.

Performance improvement depends on how we utilize the resources. The tool is most valuable for scenarios involving logs and monitoring. For example, logs are generated when using services like Front Door. The tool's most valuable function is providing secure access. Additionally, it connects with websites, allowing users to upload and download data. 

The tool is reliable and works fine. 

Improving the pricing structure would be beneficial. If the pricing could be more flexible and reduced, Microsoft Azure Block Storage would likely see increased usage.

I have been working with the product since 2014. 

I rate the solution's stability a nine out of ten. 

I rate the tool's scalability a ten out of ten. 

I've had a poor experience with Microsoft's technical support. Even without premium support, Microsoft's assistance hasn't been satisfactory. There have been instances where support staff lacked sufficient expertise to address issues. 

The tool's deployment is simple. 

The solution is useful for enterprise customers. I rate it a nine out of ten. 

We are using the solution for storage purposes.

Microsoft Azure Block Storage is an easy-to-use solution. Storing and then retrieving data are the most valuable features of Microsoft Azure Block Storage.

The solution’s user interface could be improved.

I have been using Microsoft Azure Block Storage for three to four years.

Microsoft Azure Block Storage is a stable solution.

I rate Microsoft Azure Block Storage a nine out of ten for stability.

Microsoft Azure Block Storage is a highly scalable solution. Most of our clients for Microsoft Azure Block Storage are medium and large sized businesses.

I rate Microsoft Azure Block Storage an eight out of ten for scalability.

I rate Microsoft Azure Block Storage a nine out of ten for the ease of its initial setup.

The solution's deployment doesn't take much time and can be done in a few minutes.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six or seven out of ten.

We are using the latest version of Microsoft Azure Block Storage.

Overall, I rate Microsoft Azure Block Storage an eight out of ten.

We are managing numerous data sources, including Excel, CSV, and ZIP files, with some of them being located on the public Internet. Our current task involves transferring this data into a data warehouse using Microsoft Azure Block Storage.

The major benefit of using Microsoft Azure Block Storage is that it supports various types of data, including structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data, without requiring different tools to read each type. This comprehensive approach simplifies the data handling process for data engineers and allows for seamless data transfer to downstream applications. In essence, this is a data paradigm shift that enables easy ingestion of diverse data types.

I encountered a challenge where certain metadata was located on a secured network that could only be accessed through a VPN. As there was no direct connector available to reach the private networks that require VPN access, we had to rely on manual effort to access the data. This could potentially be addressed as an area of improvement, especially with regard to accessibility issues where data is only accessible through a VPN connection.

It appears that the solution we are working with is already in a beta version, and we have been managing a large volume of files by pulling them in at fixed schedules to determine whether a file is new or has been modified, we need to obtain the last modified date and compare it with the previous value. However, there is a new concept of a rolling window that can automatically detect newly arrived files and push them into downstream processes. From the logs I have seen, it appears that Microsoft is actively working on simplifying the file management process and reducing the need for engineers to manually pull files using specific logic. This includes developing a feature that automatically identifies new files and distinguishes them from old ones based on their metadata. It would be helpful to have this feature implemented.

I have been using Microsoft Azure Block Storage for approximately two years.

I did not face any glitches or stability issues.

I rate the stability of Microsoft Azure Block Storage a nine out of ten.

We have more than 20 developers and 50 to 100 business users using the solution in my company. 

The scalability of Microsoft Azure Block Storage has different options.

When opting for a pay-as-you-go service, several options exist, such as enabling the Autoscale feature or fixing the scalability ratio. It is essential to keep in mind that choosing the scale-out option comes with additional costs. Therefore, it is crucial to select whether to go with auto-scaling or manual scaling carefully. The system provides the flexibility to choose either option based on specific needs and budget constraints.

I rate the scalability of Microsoft Azure Block Storage an eight out of ten.

The level of support provided by Microsoft Azure Block Storage is impressive, as they offer three different levels of assistance based on the priority level of the issue. For technical issues, they can typically provide support within one day for critical issues, two days for high-priority issues, and three or four days for normal-priority issues.

I rate the support of Microsoft Azure Block Storage a nine out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup of Microsoft Azure Block Storage does not take long to deploy. Each service can take 10 to 15 seconds to set up.

The price of Microsoft Azure Block Storage has a fair price. However, the price could be lower.

I rate the price of Microsoft Azure Block Storage a seven out of ten.

We have evaluated Amazon AWS. They provide a good service. However, Microsoft solutions have more user-friendly interfaces.

I would advise others that this is a good solution and it is reliable. I strongly recommend this solution.

I rate Microsoft Azure Block Storage a nine out of ten.

The solution is compatible with every format, and different types of data. This is useful for data engineers. This is the best solution to have because everything is in a single point.

We use the solution for data storage. 

We can store data and not worry that it might be lost. 

Although cheaper than Amazon, licensing expenses for Block Storage are pretty high. 

We've been using this solution for several years.

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable although we have very few users.

The customer support is very good. 

The initial setup was straightforward, we had assistance from a third party.

Licensing is paid on a monthly basis and it's on a pay as you use basis. 

We evaluated Amazon as an option but went with Microsoft because it was a cheaper solution. 

I recommend this solution and rate it seven out of 10. 

Block Storage can be used for storing files of varying formats. It can be used as an object storage as well, so people can dump a variety of files into it. It's called a storage account, actually. This storage account can be used to store any application-specific files and there could be different Azure services which can consume the files, like that storage account, as part of the architecture. There could be an application storing the data, and there could be some other service that picks those files up from there. This solution is part of that entire architecture. It's kind of similar to a history you have in a website. It is almost exactly the same as that.

It has capabilities such as versioning and, from a security point of view, you can also back it up. It has resiliency features as well.

You can have GRS, like a during and end storage feature, enabled so that it can be replicated to a secondary region in Azure. This can prevent an outage in the primary region. 

There is a drawback or limitation to the GRS storage feature because depending on the amount of data, it could take a lot of time. There are a lot of steps from the application perspective, so it's not easy and straightforward from a business continuity perspective. That is one of the limitations I see in the solution. 

It's about the time it takes to revert back. The failover takes a couple of minutes but then it takes a lot of time to fail it back to the primary region again, so you have to do a synchronization again. That's a bit of a challenge because if it contains a lot of data in terabytes, the cost to do a replication again but reverse the direction from secondary to primary is a bit extra. Obviously, though, this only happens when there is an out, when a DR is involved, so it's not very often that companies would come across this. It's only in the worst case scenario. 

It's not a big thing, but some companies have limited time for their DR, like there's a RPO, or a recovery point objective and recovery time objective, that is very short. In that case, this product may not be suitable or may not meet their customer's requirements. That is something that Microsoft should focus on, to bring the time down or make that process, the DR process, a bit easier for this product. Maybe as they continually improve this product they can add improvements in this aspect to reduce that DR time, recovery time, for the solution.

I have been working with this product for about four or five years.

I have seen this solution be pretty stable. I've never had an issue with it. I'd rate the stability as a five out of five. 

It's very scalable. It has really high limits, so I don't think most customers will hit that limit. I'll give it a five out of five for scalability. 

Big enterprises as well as medium enterprises use this solution, and even smaller enterprises. There are organizations with 100 users, 1000, and even some with 5000 and above. There could be only applications consuming this, or end users also, but the end users directly connecting to the solution are a lot less.

It's mostly the developers who configure the application to use this solution as the object storage. Eventually, the end users of the application could be in the 1000s, and they utilize this back end solution via the application, so it is getting utilized by the end users, but it's via the application.

There was one issue I had with the backup. I didn't get a proper response and it took a couple of days for the response. It turned out to be a restriction and limitation, so it didn't get solved, but I was told that it was a limitation. I would rate the technical support as a three out of five.

The solution can be deployed manually from the Azure portal, or it can be done programmatically, via code. The setup is very easy and straightforward. It only takes a few minutes. I rate it a five out of five. 

I have deployed this solution for customers, and just one person is required for deployment. Anybody who has knowledge of Azure and has some administrative experience in Azure can do this. It's a very straightforward solution to deploy.

There is hardly any configuration in this solution, so it's maybe a day's task to deploy, but not beyond that. Once the design for this product is confirmed and completed, then the deployment is just following those design inputs which have been already signed off on by the customer. Customer requirements and specific features that need to be enabled in this tool need to be finalized first, which happens in the design phase. Once all of that is finalized, deploying it with the agreed configuration can be done in a day, max.

It's fairly cheap and it's also fully managed by Microsoft, so you don't have to manage the storage as much.

The solution is pay as you go, so it depends on the amount of data that is stored and the transactions. There's no licensing requirements. Also, we can have a subscription, like reservations for the storage. If we have a lot of data, then that can help reduce the cost, at least to some extent. The technical support is part of the support plan. 

The price depends on each customer. If they use a lot of data, the cost can be very high. I think it would be the same case with other tools as well, though, so it is quite affordable. 

The solution has life-cycle management, versioning, and a lot of protection features like sub-delete and all of that. It's pretty much complete, so it satisfies most of my customers' needs and requirements. I recommend this product because it is straightforward and well-documented.

I would rate the solution as an eight out of ten.

We use the solution for application hosting only - in terms of giving an application which is serving to some customers, for a particular location service. 

From a UI perspective, we like the workflows. Its look and feel are quite good. 

The initial setup is quite simple and straightforward, especially if you have IT knowledge. 

It is very flexible and scalable. It's very easy to adjust the data. 

The stability is good.

As a technology product, it's always evolving. There are some feature challenges from my side, however, I am hopeful they will fix the issues. 

The integrations right now are limited, however, we are hopeful this will improve as the cloud continues to develop. We would like to see more capabilities in specifically hybrid scenarios. There are some third-party tools in Oracle and Linux we'd like to have access to via this product.

We'd like more failover capabilities or data recovery options. 

I've been using the solution for six months. 

The solution is stable. There are no issues with bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

It is a scalable solution. If you need to expand it, it's not a problem. 

We have about 50 users on this solution currently.

The initial setup is very simple and straightforward. It's not very complex. It's much easier if you do some planning and can anticipate some outcomes. Doing that work makes everything easier as you do the implementation. Those with IT backgrounds will find it easier to handle the setup as opposed to those who are not so technical.

The pricing varies. You might have different pricing, for example, in relation to your country or region. It's not standard. We pay around $300 to $400 a month for some scenarios where consumption is limited. However, going forward, we're seeing the likelihood of the cost coming to around $2,000 as consumption rises. 

We have never actually attempted to evaluate this solution in comparison to others. 

I would recommend the solution to others.

I would rate it eight out of ten.