Microsoft Azure DevOps Reviews

We adopted the SAFe Framework, and more than 10 teams are using the process or workflow template from Azure DevOps for SAFe. Also, we're currently using DevOps for future planning and backlog management following the scrum approach on the team and coordination level. The company plans to extend this with Lean Portfolio Management. 

Time to Market: Teams deliver more in less time.

Azure Pipeline is the most valuable feature.

The portfolio is one area where DevOps has room for improvement. Built-in reporting and visualization also could be better. We're using Power BI and Tableau to compile more complex reports and dashboards. Azure DevOps has some out-of-the-box reporting capabilities, but they're very simple. It's usually okay on the team level, but if you have to run a complex report, it's difficult and insufficient, so we use Power BI as an extension.

I've been using DevOps for about three years.

DevOps is very stable.

DevOps is scalable. We have about 65 users working with it, including the product manager, product owner, scrum master developer, tester, line managers, and architects. 

We haven't experienced any significant issues so far, but any issues we've had were fixed fast, so I would say I'm very satisfied with the support.

We were using Jira, but we switched to DevOps. It was a strategic decision to reduce the complexity of the toolchains. We wanted a Microsoft solution, so we chose Azure DevOps.

Setting up Azure DevOps was straightforward. It's easy to use the default templates. Everything is under our control, so it's simple to implement new requirements. We did it ourselves in three days. Since we used the default templates,  we didn't have to change the standard Azure DevOps services. Two people are responsible for deployment and maintenance: DevOps engineer and Release Train Engineer

I rate Azure DevOps seven out of 10. DevOps isn't so easy. In general, the solution is straightforward and suits our purposes, but it's a little bit tricky to customize the workflow. It's simple to implement the SAFe Framework, but it's not easy to customize compared to Digital.ai Agility. There's a huge gap.

The main use of this solution are to combine software development and IT operations. Also, we use it for automation with version control and microservices. Automation is a core principle for achieving DevOps success and CI/CD is a critical component. 

The application of continuous delivery and DevOps to data analytics has been termed DataOps. DevOps focuses on the deployment of developed software, whether it is developed via Agile or other methodologies. ArchOps presents an extension for DevOps practice, starting from artifacts, instead of source code, for operational deployment.

This solution has offered lots of improvements. The most important improvement was to provide continuous delivery with high-quality software. It helps with version control with automation using CI/CD components. It also helps to develop software using the agile methodology. 

The ability of different disciplines (development, operations, and infosec) to achieve outcomes has been great. Increased focus on test automation and continuous integration methods are helpful. It helps release new features continuously into large-scale high-availability systems while maintaining a high-quality end-user experience.

The most valuable feature is automation with version control. 

DevOps initiatives can create cultural changes in companies by transforming the way operations, developers, and testers collaborate during the development and delivery processes. We can release new features continuously into large-scale high-availability systems while maintaining a high-quality end-user experience. 

Adopting DevOps will also help eliminate the old and monotonous way of agile activity among big IT teams like network, Storage Team, Linux/Unix, Windows, etc.

It’s commonly observed that you cannot just change a company’s culture on command. You can influence the culture, shift it, and while it can evolve over time, it’s nearly impossible to just instruct all employees to simply change the way they think and act about specific things. 

The culture of any organization starts at the top of the leadership hierarchy and trickles down throughout, filling every empty space. It is essential that you get buy-in from the top management down to everyone in the pipeline. 

In order to do this, all involved need to understand the advantages the shift is going to have on the organization and on the team members.

I've been using the solution for the last two years.

The scalability is very good.

We didn't use any solution before.

We also looked at AWS.

As for room for improvement, more features need to be added to the classic pipeline. The build and release pipelines are present, but there has not been much improvement there.

Apart from that, the reporting structure could be provided as well. Depending on how the company is using the technology, there may be other Microsoft tools that are better so that the integration and reporting will be easier.

I've been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for almost five or six years.

It is stable, and we have had no issues with it.

It is scalable.

I would rate this solution at eight on a scale from one to ten.

It is good for monitoring purposes. We are using the build pipelines of Microsoft Azure. They are also valuable. 

We are facing some problems because the capacity can only be measured within a project. It cannot be measured across multiple projects. So, the reporting needs to be enhanced, and there should be more graphs to be able to easily give the upper management insights about all the employees from different departments. It will be helpful for employee management. Currently, the managers over here are using Power BI for insights because the functionality of Azure DevOps Boards is not enough. So, we have to export the data into another visualization tool and get the results.

We would like to have templates for work items. They are available in the Azure DevOps services on the server, but they are not available in the on-prem solution. We are using an on-prem server, and we are using version 2020.1119.

I have been using this solution for almost four to five years.

It works well. There are no issues.

It is easy to scale. In our organization, some teams are using it, and some teams are not using it. We probably have 80 to 100 people.

Their technical support is good. We haven't faced many issues. As far as I remember, we have had only one issue. We raised a ticket for that, and they resolved the issue.

I have also used Jira. We have more control over Jira than Azure DevOps, but we are using Azure DevOps for our technical side because our VMs and build pipelines are on Azure. So, it is better for us to use one solution rather than using multiple solutions.

It is straightforward. It is not that complex.

In terms of maintenance, we only do maintenance when we have new upgrades. Other than that, we don't need to maintain it much. We have optimized the TFS and Azure DevOps database, and we have done indexing and optimized it. It is pretty good.

I would rate Microsoft Azure DevOps an eight out of ten.

We use all the DevOps features and services, like reports, Boards, Pipelines, Artifactory, etc. The interface is interactive and intuitive. The platform visuals and workflow are straightforward in Azure DevOps.

We've been using Azure DevOps for three years.

DevOps' stability is great. No problems.

The infrastructure is good so far, and expanding our user base isn't a problem. Microsoft takes care of the infrastructure.

We are billed for a single license, no matter how many users. 

I rate Azure DevOps eight out of 10. 

There are two versions of Azure DevOps: the cloud version and the on-premises version. We use the cloud version in very few situations, but most of our software is based on Azure DevOps on-premises.

We are a software house, and we develop software. We use it to store our source code; that is, it is the repository for our source code.

We have different teams working on different products, and each one uses a different methodology and a different process. Azure DevOps helps with that. For instance, one group may be using Scrum as a methodology to develop their software. The other group could also be using Scrum but with CDCI (continuous development, continuous integration), which helps a lot when you have to develop, test, and deploy the solution.

I think the most usable thing is that you can follow the whole progress of the development process. This makes it very useful for us.

As for improvement, the first one is pricing. For us, luckily because we are partners, it's free. Microsoft gold partners do not have to pay, but if you're not a partner, the product is very expensive.

The second would be that the tool should integrate with some of the competitors. It doesn't matter if it's a big market; it's difficult when you have to integrate with other competitor's tools, like JIRA, for instance.

If you look at the competitor's tools, they integrate easily with Microsoft, but on Microsoft's side, it's not as easy. They have been changing, but still, there are a number of gaps there.

I've got teams that want to use Microsoft Project, not only to control the whole process of the development but also to control the whole project and software. I think Project should be integrated with DevOps.

We have been using this solution for 10 years.

It is very stable. I think the system is down only a couple of hours per year, so it's very stable.

It's very scalable. We started using this solution 10 years ago, and it has evolved, We also have grown our software production, and so far, we have scope with all these situations.

We haven't had any problems with the product, but every time we had some questions, technical support staff answered pretty fast, in less than 24 hours.

The initial setup is pretty easy.

For the deployment, I think we had two people: one person from infrastructure and one who was a specialist in Azure DevOps. For maintenance, because we have about 80 people using this software, we only have one and a half people taking care of the software. That is, the infrastructure person does this part-time. He doesn't spend the whole day taking care of DevOps.

The ROI is very positive for us, but it's difficult to say how it would be if we had to pay for the solution. It's a very worthwhile product, but again, we don't have any comparisons because we don't pay anything for it.

Microsoft Azure DevOps is an expensive solution.

Get to know the product because it is complex and has many different possibilities.

It is worth having it, but you have to have an in-depth understanding and know what it is capable of doing. Otherwise, you're going to install it, and then it will be like having a very nice car in your garage that you don't know how to drive.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Microsoft Azure DevOps at eight.

I use it to, for example, build applications. Not just Subnet - also Java or in OGS. I deploy Windows applications and also mobile applications with Visual Studio App Center and Azure DevOps.

Azure services like serverless technology make it quicker and faster to deploy .NET applications, for example. Similarly, the Azure Portal is faster to put in services, for example, with specific functionality. These kinds of features are faster to deploy and to put in functionalities that are specific, which is great.

I like the Azure keyboard. Keyboard permits use, for example, connection streams in secret, in a safe manner. 

Sometimes I use also Azure SQL Database cloud, the serverless functionality. It's also very attractive because you can use something like a GP, like the protection of the data on the cloud. You can put a lot of information there, maybe not with banks, however, with other kinds of clients. 

The ability to have cognitive services is good. For example, I use a lot of Azure DevOps, for example, Cloud, Azure DevOps Cloud, and analytics views with, for example, Power BI on-premise if you have Power BI as a service. There is a lot of pipeline potential with Azure DevOps deploying, for example, Containers, to Kubernetes, Azure Kubernetes Service, and also a lot of Azure Container repositories and Azure Container instances. This is great for quickly deploying SonarQube in a container. These kinds of things are very attractive.

It's a pretty problem-free solution.

When we don't have some permissions, we have to research how to get them. It's not obvious. For example, deploying in order to do the connections, we need permissions for quotes or quotas. A specific quota might depend on an account. Sometimes we don't have the kind of support we need to work things out easily.

When you deploy in Yaml Pilot, for example, you need to note in Yaml how to associate the piling, the release with the word items. We need more information about how this is possible and more flexibility to make it happen. 

My organization is a Microsoft partner.

I have Microsoft certifications. I always develop in Visual Studio, .NET, or Core, and now I work with Azure DevOps and also in Azure Portal.

I deployed in a hybrid environment as the clients have a lot of things on-premises. For example, the databases I use, for example, Redgate, plus Azure DevOps, or Apex with Azure DevOps, to deploy databases. In some cases, a lot of banks prefer their data on-premise. In other cases, I deploy to Azure App Services, for example, in the cloud. Also, I see things with Amazon Web Services and telephone, like multi-cloud.

I would rate the solution at a ten out of ten as it never gives me any problems. 

We use DevOps for backlogs and work items. We divide our releases into many sprints to keep our development on time, and we use DevOps to manage tasks for development or business teams.

DevOps is easy to use because we can arrange each task in a project and follow up with the testing, development, and business teams. We manage everything through this.

I want DevOps to have more automated reminders about tasks that don't need management. We don't have reminders, so a project manager must track the tasks. It's not automatic.

We've been using Azure DevOps for three years. 

DevOps is stable. 

DevOps is scalable. About 70 people use the solution on average. 

Another team handles the implementation, so I wasn't involved. I'm on the business team. Two engineers are responsible for deploying and managing DevOps. 

We pay for a yearly license. 

I rate Azure DevOps eight out of 10. I prefer Jira, but both solutions are very nice. 

Our only use case with DevOps was for integration with ReadyAPI.

The most valuable feature is that we can run integrations with DevOps. From a QA perspective and a testing perspective, we can run those tests and integrate automation tools. Then we can run those tests as part of the deployment process. Every time we are deploying something, it automatically runs all the tests.

Something that could be improved is the initial setup with the integration of ReadyAPI.

I used this solution for six months.

Stability is fine. I was getting some errors, but that was due to my side of things.

Scalability is fine.

I would rate this solution 6 out of 10.

I did have some issues due to our organization, but it would be different for everyone. My advice is to reach out to support if you have any problems.

We provide this solution to our clients. The company we're currently assisting has had a lot of issues using Jenkins and decided to move the CI/CD pipelines to Azure DevOps. I'm a solution architect and we are partners with Microsoft. 

The solution offers great features including the project management feature and the Git-based repository. There is also the Azure pipelines and release artifact so you have all the functionality in one tool. It's also a relatively cheap solution.  

The only area that requires improvement is the interface. 

Stability is good. 

Scalability is good. 

The technical support is good.

The initial setup is easy. We had a team of three engineers dealing with implementation. 

Licensing costs are very reasonable compared to other solutions. It's a good price.

My only advice would be to go for the cloud version of DevOps, it's a better product. 

I rate the solution eight out of 10.