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reviewer2678751 - PeerSpot reviewer
Full Stack Software Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Works efficiently and it's reliable and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "It has been very efficient so far. The team has been using it for quite a while. I am new to the team, but they always talk about how efficient it is."
  • "I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability."
  • "I had a challenging experience implementing the emulator with a Mac. I had to install the emulator in a Docker container because it is not natively compatible. A significant amount of time was spent researching how to enable HTTPS communication when connecting the container and the emulator."
  • "I am disappointed with the lack of compatibility of the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB emulator with Mac."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB emulator to display database contents and occasionally perform manual data edits when necessary. We utilize it for general database emulation tasks.

What is most valuable?

It has been very efficient so far. The team has been using it for quite a while. I am new to the team, but they always talk about how efficient it is. We are using the NoSQL version. It is easy to use for development. It is reliable and quick. 

It has been pretty efficient when it comes to search. I have no complaints about that. It is easy to use and very compatible with Java.

What needs improvement?

I had a challenging experience implementing the emulator with a Mac. I had to install the emulator in a Docker container because it is not natively compatible. A significant amount of time was spent researching how to enable HTTPS communication when connecting the container and the emulator. I encountered TLS and SSL errors but resolved most of them by setting an environment variable in the container and using HTTPS protocol communication. I also had to use gateway mode with the Cosmos client in my Java app. I am disappointed with the lack of compatibility of the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB emulator with Mac. I also found a scarcity of online resources regarding this issue.

It would be great to include compatibility with various databases like graph databases, adding to the existing NoSQL and MongoDB compatibility. I have used that for various projects on other platforms, and such additions would be beneficial.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for about a week now.

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
October 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
873,085 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I do not see any stability issues. I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability. We have had no issues with its ability to search through large amounts of data.

We have thousands of users. We are a big organization, and it is being used at various locations.

How are customer service and support?

I love the community forums. They provide a wealth of useful information, which gives me an advantage when it comes to support. The only disappointment was not being able to find any information about setting it up on a Mac.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

I have used the cloud-based Firestore database and MongoDB before. They largely perform similar tasks, and I have no problems using either one. They work and get the job done.

How was the initial setup?

For me, the setup was not complex because my team had everything ready.

I watched a couple of videos on YouTube. The onboarding was seamless, especially the database part. It took me no more than two days to learn the basics and necessary setup.

In terms of maintenance, it does not complain if you do not update it, but there are always updates that you can add. For example, for the emulator that I am using, there are a lot of versions I can install, but it works with most of them.

What other advice do I have?

I have no complaints. It does its job efficiently and is easy to set up. Our organization has been using it for quite some time. They must see a value in it. Otherwise, they would go for a better technology in terms of performance or pricing.

I would rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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reviewer2595951 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT, Infrastructure, Operations & Applications Development at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 20
It's helpful for big data applications, but we're still having trouble with performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is used because we get faster response times with large data sets than with SQL. It's essential for us because we have half a billion rows, and we need to return them quickly."
  • "The solution is used because we get faster response times with large data sets than with SQL."
  • "From about half a billion rows, we're returning maybe 20,000 in two or three minutes. We don't know why, but we are working with Microsoft and a third party to figure that out."
  • "The customer service is lacking. We have a premier support agreement, but support is hit and miss."

What is our primary use case?

We utilize the solution for big data, which is collected from IoT devices and streamed through a number of Azure services. The data is then landed in the Cosmos database for analysis later.

What is most valuable?

The solution is used because we get faster response times with large data sets than with SQL. It's essential for us because we have half a billion rows, and we need to return them quickly. 

What needs improvement?

Using it is easy. We are having trouble optimizing it. I'm not a technical person, so I couldn't explain why, but we're not getting the performance we were expecting. I'm sure it's probably an us problem instead of a product problem, but that's where we are.

From about half a billion rows, we're returning maybe 20,000 in two or three minutes. We don't know why, but we are working with Microsoft and a third party to figure that out. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used it for about four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There are issues with latency between data arriving in Cosmos and showing up in a query. I'm told that's just the nature of the way Cosmos works. It can take up to five minutes to show up, but that's not a significant issue as we have workarounds in place.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I think the ability to scale workloads will depend on the outcome of tomorrow's meeting.

How are customer service and support?

The customer service is lacking. We have a premier support agreement, but support is hit and miss. There are good engineers and not so good engineers. Premier Support has deteriorated compared to what it used to be, especially for small to medium-sized customers like ours.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

We used SQL previously, but Microsoft told us to use Cosmos DB because SQL wasn't performing.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup wasn't a long process. It took a couple of weeks. The whole thing was a proof of concept that eventually migrated into live use.

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

The solution was a new product, so we didn't have a cost of ownership before. The cost has not surprised us. It's not been an issue. If we were doing multi-master replication globally, the cost would increase significantly, but since we're not, it's manageable.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB seven out of 10. If we can fix the problem we have, I could rate it a ten because there's nothing else I can point to for improvement if the performance meets our needs.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
October 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
873,085 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Pravin Kadam - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Technical Architect at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 20
It's faster than other comparable solutions for unstructured data
Pros and Cons
  • "Cosmos DB is a document database that stores data in JSON format for faster retrieval of unstructured data. I personally appreciate the speed, which is significantly better for unstructured data, especially since Cosmos DB had JSON as a data type early on."
  • "The UI needs enhancement. Unlike SQL, Cosmos DB's UI is not as straightforward, making it a bit challenging to use efficiently."

What is our primary use case?

We use it primarily to log all events for a particular user and product. A particular users are logged in to see if a product has been modified. If someone modifies the data, we log that information along with the email. This helps when we need to compare modifications to a product.

How has it helped my organization?

Our admin section benefits greatly as Cosmos DB makes it easier to track down the history of product modifications, including the initial price, the current price, who modified it, and how much it was modified.

The search is slower than SQL but faster than MongoDB and other document databases.

What is most valuable?

Cosmos DB is a document database that stores data in JSON format for faster retrieval of unstructured data. I personally appreciate the speed, which is significantly better for unstructured data, especially since Cosmos DB had JSON as a data type early on.

It's pretty easy to use and optimize since it's unstructured data. It sometimes takes time since it's in JSON format, but it's useful in the admin section. The learning curve isn't long if you have some SQL knowledge because the queries are similar. It's straightforward for anyone with database exposure. 

We don't use the vector database, but we're aware of it and we know that it will allow faster retrieval with Azure AI integrated.

What needs improvement?

The UI needs enhancement. Unlike SQL, Cosmos DB's UI is not as straightforward, making it a bit challenging to use efficiently.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cosmos DB for the last seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have not experienced any downtime. The retrieval is significantly faster compared to using SQL for storing JSON data.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have had no issues with scalability. It works well for us, fitting seamlessly into our workflows.

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

We evaluated DocumentDB and other document databases, but since Cosmos DB is a Microsoft product and integrates well with Azure, it was the preferred choice. 

How was the initial setup?

Like any technology, it took a little time to learn Cosmos DB. It was relatively straightforward. We had to watch a few videos on how to set up particular databases, indexes, and keys. 

What was our ROI?

Cosmos DB has definitely improved our organization's cost structure, but I would need to check the specifics to provide exact numbers.

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

The Cosmos DB pricing model is reasonable, especially since we use it for backup operations rather than front-end processes. We have been using it for several years and continue to do so.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We compared Cosmos DB with DocumentDB and other document databases.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Azure Cosmos DB an eight out of 10. There is potential for improvement, especially in the UI, which can be cumbersome to navigate.

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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Karlo Zatylny - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer at Portnox
Real User
Top 10
Satisfies our needs for global availability, flexibility, and scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "We chose Azure Cosmos DB initially because of the type of data that we needed to store. We have a schema that is very nondeterministic and flexible. It is always changing based on whatever data we need to acquire from different devices, so we needed a document store with a flexible schema."
  • "The one thing that I have been working on with Microsoft with regard to this is the ability to easily split partitions and have it do high-performance cross-partition queries. That is the only place where either our data size or our throughput has grown beyond one partition, so being able to do cross-partition queries efficiently would be my number one request."

What is our primary use case?

We use it as our main database for our network access control software, and we use it to store all of the information we need to authenticate different devices and users to the networks of our customers. It maintains all of the necessary data for our SaaS product.

How has it helped my organization?

It is pretty easy to maintain and to optimize. The main thing that we have to deal with is the RUs. Probably the number one topic of Azure Cosmos DB in the world is how to make sure you have the right RUs set in place for each of your different collections, but the tools that are available in the Azure portal make it very easy for us to check how the performance is going. We can check if we need to adjust anything within the system to ensure that we have the right scale and the right split of our different indexes so that we are getting the most throughput for the data we need. In general, it is very easy for us to maintain. We just need to use the Azure tools to let us know when we need to pay attention to the different throughput variables that are important in the general maintenance of the product.

We use Azure AI Search for all of our search needs. The integration that Azure AI Search has with Azure Cosmos DB is very good. We heavily utilize the integration with Azure AI Search for a lot of the features on our website. The search works very well. I do not know if we have what one would consider large amounts of data because each one of our customers is searching through just their own set of data. On average, each customer has data in the range of only gigabytes, so the search does very well, but I do not know if you would consider what we have as very large amounts of datasets. We are dealing in the few gigabytes range rather than anything huge like terabytes.

The benefits of its global availability and the response time were noticed right away because we immediately had customers who were globally distributed, so the latency was noticed right away. We got a good performance that way. We did not notice any of the other benefits until we got a lot more customers and had a lot bigger scale. As our scale has increased dramatically over the past couple of years, we have noticed that we have not had to do much with Azure Cosmos DB. It just takes all of our additional data and additional queries and all of the additional throughput that we are throwing at it. It does not need very much in terms of maintenance and performance tuning because it handles everything we need pretty much out of the box, so it is a low-maintenance solution for us where we just check on things every once in a while as a best practice. In terms of scalability, we have doubled, tripled, and quadrupled our customer size or number of customers, and we have not had to do very much with it architecturally just because it has been able to handle that scale.

For onboarding, the documentation is very good. As soon as I joined the company, I read a lot of the Azure Cosmos DB documentation so that I understood it. It is well documented, and there are support forums and Microsoft experts. We have a Microsoft Solution Architect dedicated to us, and we have been able to ask him questions. The community surrounding it and Microsoft's ability to answer all of our questions, my questions specifically, have been really good. The documentation is great. I have been able to find all of my answers during my tenure. Everything is generally answered in the documentation, and for what is not, Microsoft has been very quickly able to get to us through our Solution Architect.

Within the first week, I was already executing queries against the database and monitoring its performance. Within a week, I had a basic understanding of how to interact with the database and understand different performance metrics and structures within the database. It is pretty easy to learn if you are familiar with other databases. Because I was familiar with other document stores and SQL-based databases, there was not a lot to understand. There are some differences in the SQL language that you are allowed to use with Azure Cosmos DB, so there was a little bit of a learning curve there, but the documentation was really specific. It is not a sharp learning curve if you are familiar with any other database systems. If you are familiar with SQL Server, MongoDB, MySQL, or Postgres, a lot of the concepts are exactly the same.

What is most valuable?

We chose Azure Cosmos DB initially because of the type of data that we needed to store. We have a schema that is very nondeterministic and flexible. It is always changing based on whatever data we need to acquire from different devices, so we needed a document store with a flexible schema. 

In addition to that, our customers are globally located, so we needed a database store that could be globally accessed and had minimal latency, good throughput performance, good query performance, as well as scalability. All of the things that you look for in a good piece of software about performance, scalability, high availability, and disaster recovery are available in Azure Cosmos DB. Because of that and because it is a flexible document storage, we went with Azure Cosmos DB.

What needs improvement?

The one thing that I have been working on with Microsoft about this is the ability to easily split partitions and have it do high-performance cross-partition queries. That is the only place where either our data size or our throughput has grown beyond one partition, so being able to do cross-partition queries efficiently would be my number one request.

The request unit architecture that they have in place is understandable but could be better. What you get out of some solutions like SQL Server or MySQL is a lot more understandable. The request unit architecture of Azure Cosmos DB is not as easy as pure SQL solutions. They could do better in making the RUs more understandable and more flexible because changing your partition keys and your indexes is a larger batch of work than it necessarily needs to be.

For how long have I used the solution?

The company I have been working for has been using it for more than five years, but I have been with the company for just over two years. I have been working with Azure Cosmos DB during my entire two-plus years at the company.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have had only one incident where Azure Cosmos DB went down. It was about two years ago in the East US. They had an incident where the update they made caused some downtime for us. I forgot what the duration was, but luckily, we had global replication for our main Azure Cosmos DB setup, so while the East US was down, the West EU region picked up. The majority of our operations continued without issue because of our use of the global replication option available within Azure Cosmos DB.

Latency and availability are great. You can, of course, write code that does bad things for it, and we have had to fix our own code sometimes. Whenever we have written our code properly, latency and availability have been great.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scale has been wonderful. Our ability to add request units as we have needed them has been easy. We do not have to do much other than tell the system we want more, and then it automatically scales for us, so we do well there. 

The only limitation is around the partitions. Each physical partition maxes out at 10,000 request units as they have documented. We have had to deal with that while designing our data structures to make sure that we take into account that physical partition limitation.

How are customer service and support?

The quality is top-notch. We have been able to talk directly to some of the Azure Cosmos DB experts at Microsoft. We have been able to get extremely detailed answers with very specific recommendations for all of our different questions.

Their speed has been definitely acceptable. Within a day or two, I get at least an acknowledgment of my question. We have not had any high-severity questions to be answered right away. Most of our questions are during the design phase where we just need to know specific recommendations based on our needs, so there has been no real-time pressure. Answering or acknowledging our question within a day or two has been an acceptable time frame. We generally get our answers within a week, which has also been acceptable for us. We have never needed a super fast answer, but I am also clear about that in my communication with them. I tell them that it is not an emergency, and we are just in the design phase and need these questions answered.

I would rate their support a ten out of ten. There is nothing that I would ask for more from the support. They are responsive. They give accurate answers, and they are easy to deal with. That is all that you want from a support experience.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

Historically, in my career, I have used SQL Server, ClickHouse, Postgres, and MySQL. ClickHouse is probably the closest equivalent, but we had to maintain everything in-house, so it was a lot more intensive to maintain. SQL Server was nice, but it does not have the document flexibility, or it did not have that at the point in time we were thinking of using Azure Cosmos DB. So, I am very familiar with all the SQL-based servers historically. They just did not have the necessary document flexibility that we were looking for when we selected Azure Cosmos DB.

How was the initial setup?

It was already in place when I joined.

It does require some maintenance as we grow. Each one of the collections scales up by request units. We use the autoscale feature, but it has a bounded range, so as we grow, we watch the RU maximum, and we adjust the RU maximum of our different containers as we scale up. The maintenance is minimal. We change the RU scale maybe once per quarter. Otherwise, everything goes fairly without maintenance.

What was our ROI?

I do not know if it has helped us decrease the total cost of ownership, but certainly, it has helped in our DevOps maintenance. Our DevOps people spend a lot less time worrying about or dealing with Azure Cosmos DB. Because of that, we do not spend a lot of person-hours on Azure Cosmos DB. However, Azure Cosmos DB does come at a premium price in terms of being able to do all of its features. It has an appropriately associated cost with it. Because of that, we have not done any formal calculations to see if it saves us more than some of the other solutions such as SQL Server or Postgres. We have not done a cost comparison. What we do know is that it satisfies all of our needs. We do not spend a lot of time thinking about it. As we add features and datasets to it, we do not have to do a lot of performance testing, so we are just able to add things to it. It just works, and we do not have to spend a lot of development time, QA time, or DevOps time worrying about whether it is going to be able to satisfy what we need it to do.

As opposed to running our own VMs or our own databases, it would have reduced our overhead costs. All we have to do is go into the Azure portal, click a couple of buttons, and type a couple of numbers, and then it just happens without any other effort. It takes us seconds to minutes to change things, whereas other solutions might take days or hours to process. From that perspective, there is certainly a reduction because it only takes us a few seconds to scale our Azure Cosmos DB without any other effort. However, you pay for that with the actual price of Azure Cosmos DB itself. That is somewhat built into the price where Microsoft takes on that maintenance cost, but you pay for it.

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

The pricing and licensing model was initially difficult to understand, but as soon as I learned what was going on and how it was priced, it was pretty easy. What is more difficult is to understand how your system is going to behave specifically with the specific partitioning and querying that you are doing. Some of it is reactive because you cannot always predict what your customers are going to use in your product and in what specific way. So, while we have understood the pricing model, what we have not understood is which parts of our system would end up being the most expensive, costing us the most, or needing to scale the most. It is not necessarily an issue with Azure Cosmos DB itself. It is about understanding your individual software or our individual software when it is running on top of Azure Cosmos DB. It is about understanding what the behavior is going to be.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise taking advantage of all of the features that are available. Especially if you are a globally distributed business, make sure that you have all of the high availability and backup options enabled so that you are not surprised in case of a problem.

Like almost all of the recommendations that you see in different Microsoft videos, make sure that your partition keys are set up properly from a RU perspective so that you know that you will be able to scale your individual containers effectively without running into the limitation of 20-gigabyte physical partition size or 10,000 RU physical partition throughput. Be aware that those exist and design your partition keys for the future so that you will not be limited when your system starts to get heavily utilized in the future.

I would rate Azure Cosmos DB an eight out of ten. There are some improvements that I would like to see around the physical partitions.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Hashir Ali Shuja - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Software Architect at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 20
Offers efficient data management with room for simplified migration
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB simplifies the process of saving and retrieving data."
  • "Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB simplifies the process of saving and retrieving data."
  • "There should be a simpler way for data migration."

What is our primary use case?

I was using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB to store unstructured data.

How has it helped my organization?

It is easy to learn how to use Azure Cosmos DB.

Azure Cosmos DB enhances search result quality by enabling rapid data retrieval within its collections. It can handle large amounts of data efficiently.

Azure Cosmos DB offers numerous advantages, including flexibility, cost-effectiveness relative to performance, and a pre-existing infrastructure on Azure. Its support for multiple data models, extensive document database capabilities, and fully managed maintenance provided by Azure make it a compelling choice with immediately apparent benefits.

What is most valuable?

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB simplifies the process of saving and retrieving data. The only requirement is to create the collection and streamline data management.

What needs improvement?

There should be a simpler way for data migration. Currently, we need to write scripts to update data in bulk and ensure proper connectivity for migration with .NET, which seems hectic and risky.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Cosmos DB in my previous project for around one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure Cosmos DB offers high availability, at approximately 99.9 percent, with good latency.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Cosmos DB handles scalability well. It is easy to scale up the workloads.

Dynamic scaling enhances cost-efficiency and usability by automatically adjusting resources to meet demand. This means the system scales up capacity when needed and scales down when not in use, preventing unnecessary expenses.

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

I have used MongoDB, but not extensively. If working with Node, I would recommend Mongo, but in a Microsoft environment, I recommend Cosmos.

How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment was manageable. It took around five to seven hours to deploy Cosmos to a working condition fully.

What about the implementation team?

At that time, we had a team of four people managing the infrastructure and deployments.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a seven out of ten.

New users should be familiar with DocumentDB since most people are only aware of relational databases, but Cosmos is different.

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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Software Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Offers partitioning, performance, and optimization capabilities we need
Pros and Cons
  • "One valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is partitioning. Its performance is very nice."
  • "For example, we have people spread across multiple locations; if they update data in Australia, we can access it in another location within a fraction of a second."
  • "The query searching functionality has some complexities and could be more user-friendly. Improvements in this area would be very helpful."
  • "The query searching functionality has some complexities and could be more user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

I have been using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for the last five years for IoT-based data saving and other purposes. We use non-structural data for various reasons. For instance, we are using artificial intelligence to save multiple data sets coming from different sources.

How has it helped my organization?

It is a managed service, so we do not want to worry about other aspects.

What is most valuable?

One valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is partitioning. Its performance is very nice. I use it mostly on the Microsoft backend, particularly .NET and .NET Core technology. From deployment and accessibility aspects, there is significant performance improvement.

Additionally, consistency is noteworthy. For example, we have people spread across multiple locations. If they update data in Australia, we can access it in another location within a fraction of a second. That is an impressive feature of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB.

It is very good from the optimization and usage point of view. It is very user-friendly. Microsoft also provides support from the performance aspect. They support us from the optimization and scalability aspects.

What needs improvement?

The query searching functionality has some complexities and could be more user-friendly. Improvements in this area would be very helpful.

We have multiple applications. Our applications are running in different environments such as AWS and Azure. We are able to give flexibility to AWS to access this data from Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. We have created an interface between them through APIs. Through the APIs, the AWS applications can consume the data from Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, but we have seen some slowness or latency, whereas with Azure, we see better performance. Our AWS is in the Eastern zone, and people in the Western zone have some latency.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used the solution for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We are seeing some latency issues with AWS. It offers good availability. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Being serverless, the scalability is very good.

How are customer service and support?

We pay for the support. We are happy with their support. If we face any challenges initially, they provide us with a resource to answer all our questions.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

Previously, we used MongoDB and DynamoDB, though not extensively. Because of client preferences and their use of Azure, we chose Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. DynamoDB uses clusters, which affect costs.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup can be somewhat tedious. We have to set up things, run them, see the results, and fine-tune them.

The initial setup took more than one month. After that, everything became automated. Now, if we want to deploy it in another location, the operational team typically takes one week. They verify whether everything is working properly or not. By using the automated scripts, we can deploy it at other locations.

What about the implementation team?

We have a separate team for configuration. We also get support from Microsoft.

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

Its price is in the middle, neither too low nor too high.

What other advice do I have?

We are happy with the usage of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for our use case. In terms of learning, it is of medium complexity. It is neither very tough nor very easy.

Overall, I would rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB an eight out of ten.

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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Full Stack Developer at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Consultant
Enables efficient global data management with impressive low latency
Pros and Cons
  • "It handles large-scale operations efficiently, such as tracking views, logs, or events."
  • "I definitely recommend Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB."
  • "There are some disadvantages as it is costly compared to other NoSQL databases."
  • "There are some disadvantages as it is costly compared to other NoSQL databases. It has a complex pricing model and has a strict partitioning strategy."

What is our primary use case?

I find SQL API suitable. I used it in my last project. Previously, I worked for a client called EPS, which has a product called BOS (brokerage operation support system). There I have used the SQL API.

I have used it in a product called BOS, and we achieved many things with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, which helped improve our products efficiently.

How has it helped my organization?

It helps in many ways in my current projects such as brokerage operation, which shifts multiple data in different regions. It helps significantly in storing and retrieving data from different countries for shipping details, shipping ID, and all data records in different countries.

What is most valuable?

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a fully managed globally distributed NoSQL database. It is highly available with low latency and scalability. It supports multiple data models and APIs, making it flexible for different applications. Its features include multi-model support, global distribution, automatic scaling, and support for multiple APIs such as SQL API, MongoDB API, Gremlin, and Cassandra.

We can use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for storing and managing all types of data manipulations including inserting, fetching, and updating records. These operations can be performed efficiently.

The storage in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is globally distributed and highly efficient. Storing and retrieving data is much faster and more efficient.

It is cloud-friendly and easy to use. We can easily insert data and retrieve information from this cloud platform. The UI is better, faster, and efficient.

It supports various types of APIs and is a fully managed, globally distributed database that helps in different regions. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a distributed and multi-model NoSQL database that supports SQL, MongoDB, and other platforms. Its scaling is managed using the request per unit, and it has auto-scaling based on business requirements.

The features include support for multiple NoSQL data models such as documents in JSON format, key-value store, graph database, wide column store, and MongoDB compatibility. In the document model, we can use the SQL API, while in the key-value store, we can use the table API. The Graph database is used for Gremlin.

It has a large capacity of up to 12 GB per physical partition per container. I have used up to three to four GB.

Its latency is high and impressive. The support is very high, with read-write latency at 10 ms per second.

It handles large-scale operations efficiently, such as tracking views, logs, or events. It has high write throughput and handles partition issues and storage growth effectively.

What needs improvement?

There are some disadvantages as it is costly compared to other NoSQL databases. It has a complex pricing model and has a strict partitioning strategy. There are limited SQL query capabilities in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB.

It is more expensive than other server cloud service providers with its request units pricing model.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have one year of working experience with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB in my current organization.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution scales very well.

How are customer service and support?

I'm not sure about technical support. I haven't worked with them. 

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

Before Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, I used SSMS and MySQL server management. For cloud solutions, I have only used Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB.

How was the initial setup?

Initially, we logged into the Azure portal and create a new Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB account. Then we chose an API such as SQL API or MongoDB. We set up account details, subscription, region, and enable geographical replication and multi-write regions. After that, we created a database and specify the name and provisional throughput. Then we created a container inside, providing the container ID, partition key, and index policy.

It took around 15 to 20 days for full-fledged training.

Initially, it took approximately three months to get comfortable for learning purposes. I encountered some difficulties while learning, however, through the project, I learned many things.

It's fully cloud-based, so there is no maintenance.

What about the implementation team?

We have six developers for deployment and related tasks in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

AWS is another choice available. I find Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB better suited for my needs.

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and AWS DynamoDB are basically the same, however, Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB supports multi-region support and can replicate and auto-replicate the data. It is highly manageable, which is why I chose Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB.

What other advice do I have?

I definitely recommend Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. It handles large amounts of data, is highly reliable, and operates in a very fast and efficient way. Users can deploy their applications in the cloud, and it supports various APIs. On a scale of one to ten, I rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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PeerSpot user
Gabriel Mendonça - PeerSpot reviewer
Java Software Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 10
Excellent availability, latency, and capability to handle large data insertions
Pros and Cons
  • "The availability and latency of Azure Cosmos DB are excellent."
  • "Azure Cosmos DB helped improve the quality of our search results."
  • "The size of the continuation token in Azure Cosmos DB should be static rather than increasing with more data, as it can lead to application crashes. They should use a static key size."
  • "The size of the continuation token in Azure Cosmos DB should be static rather than increasing with more data, as it can lead to application crashes."

What is our primary use case?

I develop applications. I developed an application where I had to search the Azure Cosmos DB database for values related to suspicious entities. It involved retrieving, sorting, and manually searching data through queries.

How has it helped my organization?

Azure Cosmos DB helped improve the quality of our search results. We could see its benefits immediately after the deployment.

What is most valuable?

The availability and latency of Azure Cosmos DB are excellent. It handles large data insertions efficiently without any problems related to scalability. It scales workloads very well.

What needs improvement?

The library of Azure Cosmos DB is like JPA, but it is not exactly JPA. We could not integrate that.

The size of the continuation token in Azure Cosmos DB should be static rather than increasing with more data, as it can lead to application crashes. They should use a static key size.

If we want to update some data, we cannot use the SQL command line. It is not like SQL Server or any other relational database. We have to send the JSON file or send the text to the Azure portal.  These are the only two options. We cannot use the normal SQL statement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it since December 2021.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is very good. We performed performance tests, inserting objects with more than 10,000 records without any issues, although, on the application side, we started to see high memory consumption. That is because, with larger JSON files, you will have more objects in the Java application. These things consume memory, but there are no issues regarding scalability.

How are customer service and support?

I have not contacted their support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

I have experience with MongoDB but only for personal studies. I only learned the basic things.

How was the initial setup?

It was easy because we have Terraform embedded in the Jenkins pipeline. Once I deploy the application, it connects with Azure Cosmos DB. It is already configured, so I do not have to worry about this part.

It took us about one month to get onboarded and understand the basic functionalities. 

It does not require any maintenance at our end.

What about the implementation team?

We usually have a team of three to four people.

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

I am not aware of the price, but a challenge that I have faced occasionally is that running longer queries requires more RUs, so I have to ask someone with permissions to execute the queries.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise learning more about queries and select statements. You can use that on the Java side and Cosmos SDK.

It is easier to learn if you already know relational databases. You can use some of that knowledge to work with Azure Cosmos DB. Also, if you know JPA, it would not be so difficult to work with the Cosmos SDK for Java application development. Inserting data is also simple.

It is at a medium level in terms of ease of use. There is documentation for gathering the information. Azure Cosmos DB does not have any constraints for the column names. If you want to create a specific query, you can find information related to that in Microsoft documentation. You can find queries to solve specific problems.

I would rate Azure Cosmos DB 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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.