We use Azure DevOps to place our corporate servers into the cloud. We perform evaluations in the cloud for clients. Occasionally, we provide a hybrid solution in a specific cloud. For corporate work, we usually use a different cloud. With Microsoft Azure DevOps, as with any DevOps, it is not always possible to identify specific use cases. How do you identify a specific feature from a hundred requirements into a specific use case? It is very easy to lose detail. Traditional teams and ways of working methodically for safety-critical systems are not always prepared to handle that. It is important to be able to handle hundreds of detail-oriented requirements.
Manager Systems Engineering at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Helps to improve productivity but specific disciplines need to be addressed
Pros and Cons
- "We can eliminate some of the middleman processes."
- "It should be able to handle the different types. There is ecosystems engineering, and there is software applications engineering. There is a need to bring these teams together, but the disciplines don't integrate very well, and so it won't work."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Azure DevOps is now used for safety-critical systems, whereas in the past the traditional approaches were used in requirements management. This is more like the traditional waterfall model. Improvement is always unique to productivity. That's why we switched to Microsoft Azure DevOps. The software teams prefer it to IBM.
What is most valuable?
We can eliminate some of the middleman processes. In the process, we are merging DevOps with development and operations. So developers act like our operation team as well. That concept is a great exchange. It brings a high level of visibility. It helps the team and department cohesion, which helps to improve productivity.
It also includes a high level of traceability and elimination of some of the unwanted silos in productivity. Testing and transparency need to be defined within the boundaries. If a backlog occurs, you should be able to group them as a whole. This means there is a backlogging to the team, as opposed to individual areas. Each area needs to be visible to other areas, at all times.
What needs improvement?
Microsoft needs to consider ruggedization and addressing specific disciplines. Fundamentally what I mean by that is you cannot merge everything. It should be able to handle the different types. There is ecosystems engineering, and there is software applications engineering. There is a need to bring these teams together, but the disciplines don't integrate very well, and so it won't work. For example, there is expertise in an area, and they tend to view the project from their own perspective.
For example, the software UI/ UX team needs to view it from the UX perspective. Application engineers need to view it from the application viewpoint and the engineering perspective is different again. Although we need to be cohesive in our approach, we need to keep some boundaries as well. The idea of containers arises, such as those provided by the open source software product Kubernetes. We need to containerize different disciplines and then merge them. As a manager, I should be able to ask the formative team to focus on their creative section, and that their task is completed. In the Application layer, you also focus on their requirements and you establish traceability. Other teams may also be involved in linking to the overall requirements.
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Microsoft Azure DevOps
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure DevOps for one year. It has been used in the company for about two years. It is used in the cloud and on-premises, as a hybrid cloud solution.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented on-premise as a hybrid solution, and on the cloud.
What other advice do I have?
I would give Microsoft Azure DevOps a six out of 10. Microsoft Azure DevOps is not perfected yet, as it needs to be more user friendly. If it can achieve that it will eventually reach a 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid 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.
Cloud Engineer at Hanu Software
Helps improve the productivity and efficiency of development teams
Pros and Cons
- "The product is easy to use...It is a stable solution."
- "The tutorials for building pipelines are an area that is a bit technical for a beginner."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company to mostly build CI/CD pipelines.
How has it helped my organization?
The benefits from the use of the product in our company stem from the ease that the tool provides when working with different teams. The product is also helpful in assigning tasks to team members easily. Following step-by-step processes, including testing and integration of the testing phase, all the other areas are easy with the use of the tool.
What is most valuable?
The product is easy to use. There are many options to choose from in the solution. Working with different teams in my company becomes easy when everything is integrated into Microsoft Azure DevOps.
What needs improvement?
The tutorials for building pipelines are an area that is a bit technical for a beginner. I would want the product to have some comments on the pipeline side to help beginners understand more about the solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for around 6 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. I did not face any issues with the tool.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product is scalable. That would already work with third-party platforms. In the future, I believe that the solution will be integrated with other platforms.
Around five to six people in my company use the product.
The product is deployed only at a single place in our company.
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial setup phase was not complex, especially since the work items are mostly descriptive, making it an area that everywhere can use easily. The CI/CD part is a bit technical. One can get a hold of the CI/CD part over a period of time, so I don't think it is a difficult task.
Our company's team handled the product's rollout phase. The rollout phase was divided into parts. A single person did not carry out the rollout phase. I only took care of some of its parts. I cannot tell the exact time taken by our company to deal with the product's rollout phase.
What other advice do I have?
My company utilizes Microsoft Azure DevOps for continuous integrations and deployments of CI/CD workflow since my company uses IaC. My company uses pipelines for continuous integrations. Moreover, one of the teams in my company uses the tools available in Microsoft Azure DevOps and various work items in it to integrate into the project.
My company utilizes Microsoft Azure DevOps for project management and collaboration across the software development lifecycle with the help of work items, like Azure Boards, which is a necessary part of team management. The task assigned to our company's team members is integrated into Azure Boards.
The feature of Azure Repos I find to be the most effective for source control management stems from the fact that it is integrated with third-party platforms, like Jenkins and GitHub, making it an option that is very usable in our company's environment.
I won't be able to comment on the product's reporting part. Our company's project manager takes care of the product's reporting part. To date, I have had no concerns with the project visibility area in the product. Working with Microsoft Azure DevOps is great because it provides top-notch integration capabilities.
Microsoft Azure DevOps has improved the productivity and efficiency of my company's development team. In the past, when my company wasn't using the portal in Microsoft Azure DevOps, there used to be no continuous integrations. After my company started to use Microsoft Azure DevOps, we got to know about the CI/CD pipelines. Now, it is easy for us to make changes in the code, and simultaneously, the code starts working at the production end. My company majorly uses the solution for CI/CD pipelines.
Speaking about the integration part, I would say that my company mostly works with Terraform as it is a scripting language. Along with Microsoft Azure DevOps, my company has only worked with Terraform for now. Though my company works with other platforms, like GitHub, we haven't done projects with GitHub. Working with TerraForm and Microsoft Azure DevOps has been great.
The tool's maintenance part is great. I did not face any issues during maintenance.
I recommend the product to those who plan to use it.
I suggest others watch some online tutorials before purchasing the product, as it can help them get the basic information related to the solution, making it easier for them to use it.
I rate the overall tool a nine to nine and a half out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Microsoft Azure DevOps
December 2024
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DevOps engineer at Q-pros
Significantly enhances our project management capabilities and simplifies package management
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature in automating our build and release processes with Azure DevOps is the scheduling capability."
- "Azure DevOps could be improved with more security plugins, especially for SaaS scanning and vulnerability scans."
What is our primary use case?
With Azure DevOps, I plan and track my project using Azure Boards, manage my code with Azure Repos, and automate build, test, and deployment processes using Azure Pipelines. This streamlines my development workflow and ensures efficient collaboration and project management.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature in automating our build and release processes with Azure DevOps is the scheduling capability. At the end of each sprint, we schedule automatic releases to QA and development environments, ensuring our latest code gets deployed without manual intervention. Additionally, triggering pipelines upon code upload to the main repository adds significant value to our development workflow.
What needs improvement?
Azure DevOps could be improved with more security plugins, especially for SaaS scanning and vulnerability scans.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Azure DevOps for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of Azure DevOps as a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability of Azure DevOps as a ten out of ten. At our company, it is used daily.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support from Microsoft is very helpful, especially when I need assistance with tasks like migrating work items between Azure DevOps and other platforms. I would rate the support as a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. Deployment typically takes around ten minutes at most. We have set up an automated process that recreates everything, so even if there is damage to the VM or target machine, we can quickly retrieve and redeploy everything ourselves.
We require about two DevOps engineers to maintain Azure DevOps for our company, which has around 400 users in total.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate the costliness of Azure DevOps at a seven out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
We ensure the security of our company's source code uploaded to Azure Repos by using a SonarQube Plugin and then automate its deployment to various environments like development and QA. Once approved by QA, we deploy to the production environment, passing through our firewall for protection. This streamlined process ensures efficient and secure CI/CD pipelines with Azure DevOps.
Azure Boards has significantly improved our project tracking and adjustability. It is a powerful tool where we can easily trace work items and monitor the progress of our projects.
Azure Boards is a powerful tool for tracing work items and project progress. It simplifies uploading and versioning of project assets and tools, enabling easy refreshes or benchmarks.
Overall, I would rate Azure DevOps as a nine out of ten. I would recommend it to others.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Associate Software Development Engineer at Publicis Sapient
Good for collaboration and has useful application insights
Pros and Cons
- "Some of the most valuable features are the ease of use and the ability to monitor a lot of things. It has a lot of applications and facilities that meet all the developers' requirements. For example, we can use application insights to get an idea of our application's performance. Since it's cloud-based, it's really good for collaboration and working as a team."
- "I can't think of anything I would like to improve, since I don't have complete knowledge of the platform yet. I'm sure that as I gain more experience, I will understand it better. The price could maybe be cheaper, but I'm sure I'll have more ideas as to improvements and additional features once I've used it more."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case of Azure is to host our web application. We used Azure SQL databases for our project and found it useful to host our web application and make use of all Azure's facilities, such as function apps, API management services, etc. This solution is cloud deployed.
What is most valuable?
Some of the most valuable features are the ease of use and the ability to monitor a lot of things. It has a lot of applications and facilities that meet all the developers' requirements. For example, we can use application insights to get an idea of our application's performance. Since it's cloud-based, it's really good for collaboration and working as a team.
What needs improvement?
I can't think of anything I would like to improve, since I don't have complete knowledge of the platform yet. I'm sure that as I gain more experience, I will understand it better. The price could maybe be cheaper, but I'm sure I'll have more ideas as to improvements and additional features once I've used it more.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about two months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable. From what I have used it for, it has been pretty efficient.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable. Most of my team uses Azure DevOps and other Azure facilities, so there are quite a lot of users.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't felt the need to contact support. I'm not sure if any of my friends or colleagues have, but one thing about Microsoft is the documentation is extremely good. So we barely falter anywhere because if we thoroughly follow the documentation, it's pretty easy to follow the process through.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is straightforward since it's cloud-based. You can do it yourself. For deployment, we were a team of about 20 people.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented through an in-house team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product could maybe be cheaper. My organization handled licensing, so I'm not aware of which subscription they have.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this product an eight-and-a-half or nine out of ten. I have partial knowledge about it, since I haven't really explored everything in proper elaborate detail, but I would definitely recommend Microsoft Azure DevOps to others considering implementation.
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.
Project Manager at Shell Exploration & Production Co.
Good organization and structure, and the scheduling works well
Pros and Cons
- "What I like the most is the DevOps Boards. It's easy to create a hierarchical project structure, assign tasks to people, and to track their tasks."
- "I would like to automate notifications on sprint planning. When we are getting to the end of sprint planning, we would be automatically notified."
What is most valuable?
What I like the most is the DevOps Boards. It's easy to create a hierarchical project structure, assign tasks to people, and then track their tasks.
I also like the scheduling functionality.
What needs improvement?
I would like to automate notifications on sprint planning. When we are getting to the end of sprint planning, we would be automatically notified.
Also, it would be nice to have a percentage complete. For example, if a task is in progress, how much of it is complete, how much is left outstanding. I'd like that to be something that the assignee fills in and that automatically reports back to me.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft Azure DevOps is scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not contacted technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used Microsoft Project. We chose to use Microsoft Azure DevOps because I needed something that my stakeholders could access.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very straightforward.
The time it takes to deploy is dependent on the type of deployment. Deployment of software, or deployment of the project into the software?
It took me a week to deploy the project into the software. It's approximately 800 PBIs.
What other advice do I have?
Before implementing Microsoft Azure DevOps, I would suggest doing your research on how to configure it. It is a product that I recommend
I would rate this solution an eight 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.
Delivery Service Engineer at Hanu Software
Centralized code repository facilitates collaboration and visibility and scalability allows for handling large code volumes and deployment needs
Pros and Cons
- "Azure DevOps is effective for repository management and code collaboration. We can create branches, differentiate between code versions, save and review code later, get PR approvals, and more. All these features are valuable."
- "Another area is the Azure monitoring agent for Citrix machines. There's room for improvement there too."
What is our primary use case?
We use Azure Repos for most things. It integrates with Azure Boards.
It's good for the ticketing part and for saving the Azure Repos. We use Terraform.
How has it helped my organization?
Azure DevOps integrations with other tools have streamlined our workflows.
The centralized code repository is a major part. We store code and collaborate, and everyone can see what others are doing and what code they're adding. We can review the code and make changes if needed.
The same code used for implementation is visible to other team members, allowing them to contribute. Additionally, the Azure board interface helps create tickets and assign workloads, keeping everyone informed about progress.
What is most valuable?
Azure DevOps is effective for repository management and code collaboration. We can create branches, differentiate between code versions, save and review code later, get PR approvals, and more. All these features are valuable.
What needs improvement?
There is room for improvement in customer service and support. Sometimes, I create a ticket for a specific issue, and they tell me it's not relevant to that ticket.
They ask me to create a different one, basically saying they can't help with the current one. It's a communication gap. We're troubleshooting, so we don't always know the exact issue. They should let us stick with the same ticket and maybe assign a different engineer if needed. These areas definitely need improvement.
Another area is the Azure monitoring agent for Citrix machines. There's room for improvement there too.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for four months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a very refined tool from Microsoft, so there haven't been any problems with stability for us.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is great. We can add as much code as we need, and the deployed code volume can also be scaled.
The scalability comes in the sense of creating virtual machines using IaaS, which works really well within the suite.
I'm on the DevOps team, and around 25 to 30 of us in the team itself use Azure DevOps. So, overall, there are a lot of end users in my company.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and support are good, but there are some issues when we're doing a deployment and need clarification. They're not very helpful there. Maybe there's a separate team for that.
But in general, for project creation and work, after everything is deployed, Microsoft can help with a general support ticket. But they won't help with the planning phase. They're more like big management. So, there's a gap in the assistance we need for new project deployments.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
For ticketing, we use ServiceNow. Both solve the same problem in that regard. And for code repositories, we use GitHub. So, it's not an all-in-one solution like Azure DevOps, which has a lot of features bundled together.
Since Azure DevOps offers everything in one place, it feels more convenient. It does a bit of everything. So it's a good option because it replaces various individual tools and provides all their services in one package.
How was the initial setup?
It is very straightforward. It was easy for me to deploy.
The deployment depends on the workloads we have. For example, deployment for setting up Azure DevOps or the application itself isn't the same.
It takes a lot of time to get the setup ready.
Regarding setup, connecting it to Visual Studio was smooth on both Mac and Windows. Integrations are quite good.
Deployments depend on the workload. We create virtual machines using Terraform, so it's usually fast, especially when downloading repos from Azure Repos.
What about the implementation team?
Smaller tasks like deploying a prepared code for a single service wouldn't require additional engineers. Many workflows can be handled by one person.
Architecture is different, as the architect designs the infrastructure, which needs to be followed.
What was our ROI?
ROI depends on the cost optimization we can achieve. Sometimes, clients use heavier resources than they actually need. So it depends.
If the environment is fully optimized, there can be significant savings, leading to a good return on investment. But they would also be paying for partner management.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
For Microsoft, it can get expensive when you need heavy-duty machines. But compared to on-premises solutions or the hardware we used before, it's still much more convenient for us. So even though it can be pricey, the benefits outweigh the cost in our case.
Maybe some more flexible payment options could improve the pricing.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CT DDS ENC at SGRE
Has many valuable features including dashboards, sprints, queries, pipelines, artifacts, and the cover repository
Pros and Cons
- "If someone is considering developing and deploying the infrastructure in this solution, then using this tool is perfect because it's fully integrated with the pipelines and with a server core repository."
- "I would like to see improvement in the metrics and the dependencies."
What is most valuable?
There are many valuable features including dashboards, sprints, queries, pipelines, artifacts, and the cover repository.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see improvement in the metrics and the dependencies. I would also like to see the option to define the dependencies within all teams in the same project. We have a team level, a program level, and a portfolio level. For the metrics portion, I would like to see some drag-and-drop features for the dashboards that would make it possible to aggregate data from the different teams.
The plugin for the iteration walls can also use improvement as it does not work well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. Whenever there has been an issue the solution slowed down but there was never any data loss.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution appears to be scalable.
How was the initial setup?
I am not familiar with the initial setup.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was done in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost is reasonable. For the basic license, it is around five euros per month.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the solution nine out of ten.
If someone is considering developing and deploying the infrastructure in this solution, then using this tool is perfect because it's fully integrated with the pipelines and with a server core repository. When you are building infrastructure, then you are able to use the same tool to deploy the server, deploy infrastructure, and all within a few minutes. This gives you access to the same tool, task management, dashboards, pipelines, and the server core repository. So everything you need to develop a server is integrated into the same tool.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid 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.
Engagement Manager at Capgemini
Efficient operations, highly secure, and responsive support
Pros and Cons
- "Microsoft Azure DevOps has helped the developers a lot and we are deploying process changes very frequently and simultaneously. A lot of my team members that are developers are updating the code in parallel using Git. Additionally, Microsoft Azure DevOps is providing a very good approval mechanism. Overall it is benefiting by creating efficiency in production deployment and applications, our new releases are running well. The security of secured is good."
- "We are facing a lot of issues in the development of containerized solutions. We are facing a lot of challenges in this area. They could make the process simpler."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Azure DevOps for continuous integration and continuous deployment.
What is most valuable?
Microsoft Azure DevOps has helped the developers a lot and we are deploying process changes very frequently and simultaneously. A lot of my team members that are developers are updating the code in parallel using Git. Additionally, Microsoft Azure DevOps is providing a very good approval mechanism. Overall it is benefiting by creating efficiency in production deployment and applications, our new releases are running well. The security of secured is good.
What needs improvement?
We are facing a lot of issues in the development of containerized solutions. We are facing a lot of challenges in this area. They could make the process simpler.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for approximately four years.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support from Microsoft Azure DevOps is good. Whenever we have raised a ticket with priority, we had a very good response from the technical team. My experience with Microsoft support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The integrations of Microsoft Azure DevOps are good and the implementation is not difficult. The testing of the solution went well.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment from using Microsoft Azure DevOps.
What other advice do I have?
We have spread the knowledge about Microsoft Azure DevOps to a lot of our customers. We have organized a lot of training sessions because we are Microsoft's gold partner. That is why we promote all the tools and technologies which are part of Microsoft and we're also using them.
I rate Microsoft Azure DevOps a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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