Our primary use case for Azure is for workload, database, and service migrations. I use Azure to migrate services to serverless Azure services. Some of the services I utilize within Azure are Azure SQL database, managed database, Cosmos, virtual machines, service accounts, and infrastructure as a code for migration.
IT Solutions Architect at Canvia
The services are ready to use from the outset
Pros and Cons
- "Easy to deploy services"
- "Potential improvements to the price calculator tool"
What is our primary use case?
What needs improvement?
I'd like to see improvements with the price calculator tool. I would like to get a forward-looking view of the services I want to cost. For example, if I want a bigger machine with two CPU's and eight gigabytes of RAM, maybe the calculator can allow me to input my recipe, the tool can then give me a list of virtual machines that have that specification, and it will be easier for me to choose the virtual machine I want.
There are no additional features at this time I can suggest for future releases.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have worked with Microsoft Azure for 7 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Azure is very stable, it has a SLA of 99.9%.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The Azure services are very scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft have varying types of support levels. Depending on what level of support you have , this determines the response time from them.
What about the implementation team?
We implement in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
All services in the cloud are easy to set up, the services are ready to use from the outset. For example, it would take me 5 minutes to deploy one virtual machine in Azure, or a Sharepoint cluster may take me 4 hours. The cloud deployments are normally automatic once you start.
Regarding licensing, always look to optimize costs with the use of Azure Advisor.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We use Microsoft Azure and AWS, depending on what the client wants. Some clients like to compare prices between the two, it depends on the workload that my client would like to migrate also.
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
Manager- Projects at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Scalable, stable, and easy to install cloud computing platform
Pros and Cons
- "Installation is easy as it's cloud-based. Performance is good. It's stable and scalable."
- "Integration with more platforms needs improvement."
What is our primary use case?
Microsoft Azure is for customers who want to move to cloud-based solutions, take advantage of licensing e.g. hardware or software licensing benefits, and other cloud-related benefits, e.g. Azure container benefits, making their applications more scalable, etc.
What is most valuable?
This solution shows good performance. There were learning hiccups initially, but now it's okay.
What needs improvement?
More integration with other platforms is what I would like included in the next release for this solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been implementing Microsoft Azure for our customers for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Azure is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I found Microsoft Azure to be scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We don't directly interact with technical support because the licenses are bought by our customers, so it's our customers who interact with them, but we didn't see any major issues with Microsoft Azure, on the ground.
How was the initial setup?
As Microsoft Azure is a cloud-based solution, installation was easy.
What about the implementation team?
Our team implemented this solution. The technical team, particularly those with knowledge about Microsoft Azure should be able to implement it well. We used our engineers to implement it.
What other advice do I have?
We've been using different Microsoft solutions. Microsoft has solutions. It starts from Azure data sending, data storage, and other Azure related solutions. other Microsoft solutions that everybody uses include Office, Outlook, C#, .Net, etc., from the technical side.
It is our customers who use Microsoft Azure. They wanted to move to Microsoft Azure, so we moved them. We just maintain it for them, and also do the development and the support for their applications.
For people who want to start using this solution, if they are currently using the Microsoft Stack on-premises, moving to Microsoft Azure will be good.
'm giving Microsoft Azure a score of 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 has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Product Architect at Wolters Kluwer
Limited maintenance, good interface, helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "The valuable features of Microsoft Azure are that it is cloud-based and has good storage. The storage is completely managed by Azure. We do not need to do any patching of security because it is handled by Azure which is a benefit. The solution is fully compatible with the Microsoft technology stack and is very scalable."
- "The solution should improve the shared cache. For the shared cache, Microsoft uses RADIUS third-party services. We have a lot of trouble with RADIUS and I suppose that is due to the fact that is not owned completely by Microsoft."
What is our primary use case?
Our target markets are advisors and all the staff they need to manage for their customers, such as regulatory information, accounting tax, tax income, tax regulation, accounting, balance sheets. We have also targeted different niche countries. It's a very regulated market and these are our principal customer.
At the corporate level, we have another division. That does not produce or sell software, but content, normative content, educational content.
For the software division, we work with advisors and payroll consultants.
How has it helped my organization?
Microsoft Azure has helped organizations because they no longer need to do a lot of server maintenance.
What is most valuable?
The valuable features of Microsoft Azure are that it is cloud-based and has good storage. The storage is completely managed by Azure. We do not need to do any patching of security because it is handled by Azure which is a benefit. The solution is fully compatible with the Microsoft technology stack and is very scalable.
All the Microsoft Azure's interface for managing the portal is very good and responsive.
What needs improvement?
The solution should improve the shared cache. For the shared cache, Microsoft uses RADIUS third-party services. We have a lot of trouble with RADIUS and I suppose that is due to the fact that is not owned completely by Microsoft.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Azure is highly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft Azure is scalable in my experience.
We have approximately 400 customers with many terabytes of data. We have some customers that are using this solution that has 400,000 customers.
At the moment our product is intensively being used by the advisors that are onboarded because our software is the primary tool for the advisors.
How are customer service and support?
If we have a problem with Microsoft Azure we open a ticket with Microsoft and they respond very quickly and are very helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used other solutions but nothing comparable to the Microsoft Azure cloud solution.
We chose Microsoft Azure because it's tied to Microsoft technologies. We are already working with Visual Studio and other Microsoft technologies, such as .NET, and other on-premise products. The migration path is all shorter and our corporation suggested using Microsoft Azure.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is difficult because when you move into a fully managed cloud environment with a lot of services, you change your mind completely about how you operate and in the first month we had to learn a lot of tasks.
Looking back to the past the difficulty was not the interface of the solution, there was a lot of information to know and to have knowledge about concepts for cloud service that took time. There was a lot of documentation and finding the correct one can be difficult sometimes. When I used Google to find something, I can find a lot of information but the problem is to find the current information or the most effective information.
There is a lot of different elements you need to set up or configure, such as the environment, monitoring, deployment of applications, preparing the dashboard for monitoring, and the continuous development integration by clients.
We have two kinds of deployment, a continuous integration deployment when we don't change the database schema. This is fully unattended and can be done online with no problem for the users. It takes approximately 30 minutes but the time can vary.
Once a month, or less, there is a major release. In this case, often we modify the database schema. This requires stopping all the applications, no user can have access while the modification to the database is taking place. The operation takes from half an hour to an hour and a half depending on the database schema and the types of modification required. When we change the structure of tables we have hundreds of thousands of records that can take a lot of time.
We are moving to a more continuous development strategy. We are trying to have more applications because at the moment we have approximately seven web apps and a lot of services, but they are too tightly bound to the database. They're trying to divide them for more flexibility and to have continuous deployment. We had no continuous deployment. Normally we deployed some minor releases once or two a week, and there is a major release once a month. We are moving to have more continuous deployment.
We are working this year on test automation from unit test integration. They're investing a lot in this because we managed numbers for the tax declaration. Regulation can be problematic.
What about the implementation team?
We are producing, maintaining, and are selling solutions for our customers, such as Microsoft Azure. We do not use an integrator.
We have a two-person team that does the implementation and maintenance of the solution. Once you prepare the infrastructure, sometimes we have to improve by changing some things. Recently we had to prepare for the disaster recovery from Europe to Europe, and we had to invest time in the pipelines and deployment.
What was our ROI?
When you have on-premise solutions you have to manage lots of aspects, such as security, patching, large expense, and acquiring hardware and servers. With Microsoft Azure, you have the ability to activate a lot of processing power and then dismiss it when you do not need it. It saves you a lot of money not have to have the infrastructure or the maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost of Microsoft Azure depends on the services that are used and there can be a discount at a corporate level from Microsoft.
What other advice do I have?
In the next release of Microsoft Azure, they will be addressing the problem of the continuous ETL workload to continually extract the data and ingest it in a docker analysis database. This will be released in the next version released in 2022. Microsoft Azure is continuously improving the solution for the market.
It is important to know that cloud services work differently than on-premise solutions.
I was talking with our colleague in the internal department to let me test the scalability of his system because we have a process from our application to the online shop. They are having a problem with the scalability test because of their hardware. They have hardware that they can't scale the testing environment. Using Microsoft Azure we do not have these issues because it is on the cloud.
I rate Microsoft Azure a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Market Tech Partner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
An agile, scalable and stable solution with good tech support
Pros and Cons
- "The solution has given us more agility, scalability and opportunity to optimize the cost."
- "There should be be better support for microservices and containers."
What is our primary use case?
The solution does not have a specific version. We are talking more about a resource group. Whichever is the latest version is the one we use.
The solution is used across the industry. Currently, I am working on something involving the education industry. My previous assignment focused more on clinical trials or medical data. These are two of the most recent and largest projects I have undertaken.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution has given us more agility, scalability and opportunity to optimize the cost.
What needs improvement?
The solution should have better interface capabilities.
There should be be better support for microservices and containers.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure since 2010. I have used it within the past 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution gives our organization scalability.
We have plans to increase its usage.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft Azure's technical support is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use another solution prior to Microsoft Azure.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
The deployment does not take long. In fact, the deployment time is not really applicable. When it comes to Azure, we are talking more about a platform than a proper product. I'm more into migration.
What about the implementation team?
In our case, it is we who are the consultants. As such, we are mostly into deployment at the moment and not maintenance. There are other providers who handle the latter.
What was our ROI?
I am not in a position to comment on whether we have seen a return on our investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing is pay per usage, so it can be both monthly and yearly. It supports all.
There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees. There are various licensing programs, so the customer may choose the one which aligns with his needs.
What other advice do I have?
The solution provides platform as a service and infrastructure service, both of which are good.
Since Microsoft Azure supports close to 200 or 300 products, we are not talking about a single product or solution and this makes it difficult for me to provide advice. Being a platform, there may be thousands of users who are making use of it. However, in my organization, we are talking about nearly 200.
I don't have specific advice to give. This product lends good support when it comes to Microsoft tech. If the organization is a part of the overall Microsoft ecosystem, employing things such as O365 or M365, then Microsoft Azure does a better job than the competition.
I rate Microsoft Azure as a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Software Architect at AIOPS group
Powerful and easy to integrate
Pros and Cons
- "One of the most valuable features of Azure is that it's a very integrated solution. You have to learn how to use it properly, but it's not that hard, and you can define your whole scrum process and deploy it from one place. It was a really nice surprise to see how easily integrated this tool is."
- "I would say an improvement could be allowing for more external, third-party tools. However, I think that's their vision, how they develop the product."
What is our primary use case?
We have many use cases of Azure. For example, in this project, we usually use Jira for tracking the tasks, stories, etc., but in this case we used Azure. We used it for the whole scrum process. We also used it as our deployment environment for testing the software and production. The production was also deployed on the Azure cloud.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable features of Azure is that it's a very integrated solution. You have to learn how to use it properly, but it's not that hard, and you can define your whole scrum process and deploy it from one place. It was a really nice surprise to see how easily integrated this tool is.
What needs improvement?
I would say an improvement could be allowing for more external, third-party tools. However, I think that's their vision, how they develop the product.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure for about a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable. We were quite happy with Azure's performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Azure is scalable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have also used AWS. To put it this way, I don't think Azure is worse than AWS—certainly it's not the same, so if you're used to using one, it may initially be different, but it's not hard to learn. Maybe if I use it more, I can give some specifics, but I think Azure is a very good solution.
How was the initial setup?
Azure is a cloud tool, so the installation is a very easy process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Their licensing costs might be a little bit lower, compared to AWS, but I'm not sure. I think we get licenses, especially on long-term projects, on a yearly basis. It could be cheaper.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Microsoft Azure an eight out of ten. There is some hype in the industry around AWS, but I think Azure is quite powerful and could be a really nice alternative to AWS.
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.
SOA & BP Technical Manager at EJADA
Easy to install, stable, easy to use, and they have good technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of this solution is the ease of use."
- "I would like to see this solution support integration."
What is our primary use case?
We are vendors. We are neutral from the technologies. We provide solutions to our clients as well as implement the customer needs with the different technologies.
We have a multi-channel mobile app solution that we implement, and we have an API deployed on Azure cloud. We use API management in the Azure cloud.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this solution is the ease of use.
The Azure APIs is monetization. Its support, monetization for prepaid and postpaid are good features that we look for.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see this solution support integration.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been selling Microsoft Azure for a couple of years.
We are implementing the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Azure is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable solution. We have approximately 1,000 users who are using this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is awesome! It's very good.
How was the initial setup?
We have installed many competitive products, such as Appigee and IBM, but Microsoft Azure is the easiest one to install.
While I was not a part of the deployment, I know it took them less than a week.
We have a team of 10 to 15 for the deployment, customization, and implementation of this solution.
What other advice do I have?
For anyone who is interested in using this solution, I would recommend it.
I would rate Microsoft Azure a nine 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?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
IT Unit Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Kubernetes service and API management are the most valuable, and it has very good stability and scalability
Pros and Cons
- "Kubernetes service and API management are the most valuable."
- "It should have a better hybrid-cloud central analysis. Their support service also needs to be improved. Our main concern is support calls. Our issue is basically related to the technical functionality of the services that we use. It doesn't behave as expected, and support often fails to solve the problem."
What is our primary use case?
We use it to extend our own data centers and banking scenarios for banking solutions.
How has it helped my organization?
It provides us with access to technology that's not available in any other form. It only exists in the cloud. In order to keep our solutions modern, we have to do it through the public cloud.
What is most valuable?
Kubernetes service and API management are the most valuable.
What needs improvement?
It should have a better hybrid-cloud central analysis. Their support service also needs to be improved. Our main concern is support calls. Our issue is basically related to the technical functionality of the services that we use. It doesn't behave as expected, and support often fails to solve the problem.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is pretty stable. It has very good stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. There are no issues with scalability.
We have a maximum of 200 users. They include internal developers and other types of profiles.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their support service needs to be improved.
How was the initial setup?
It is complex because the solutions are complex. It depends on how you want to do the setup. For our business scenario, it is complex because there are a lot of security rules that are involved in it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is competitive with other public cloud providers, and its price is very close to different cloud providers. There is not a noticeable difference between different cloud providers. Otherwise, it would be a risk for them to have services that were much more expensive than their competition. They're pretty much neck to neck on pricing.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others to go for the closest possible platform as a service. Do not go for infrastructure as a service; go for platform as a service.
I would rate Microsoft Azure a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Manager / Senior Network Engineer at Warnock, Tanner & Associates
Azure has become a one stop shop for cloud computing and continuing to grow.
Pros and Cons
- "Storage has made remote access to files much more painless and easy."
What is our primary use case?
Currently we are hosting custom web applications, boxed applications, Azure VMs, Azure files for shared company files, Azure blob storage, Azure Active Directory with Active Directory sync, Single Sign On, and development and testing purposes.
How has it helped my organization?
Creating VMs for development has been huge since we ran out of resources locally. Creating Hybrid solutions provides us with greater confidence in higher availability. Storage has made remote access to files much more painless and easy. Using SSO has also been great reducing the number of passwords and locations required to use them.
What is most valuable?
Customized Dashboard, Site-to-site and point-to-Site VPN, Virtual Machines, Web Apps, SQL, SharePoint, Storage, Test/Dev environments.
What needs improvement?
Pricing is very difficult to guesstimate. With so many a la carte options and individual pricing it can be a hassle to understand. I constantly need to go over the report to find out where I can save money and what is eating up the monthly costs.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues with stability. Has been rock solid.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is Microsofts big advantage. At anytime you can scale up or down your servers or services growing them or shrinking them to your needs. You can even automate this process. I personally do not get into Enterprise solutions but they continue to add larger solutions frequently.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
First response is 2-4 hours. Staff is knowledgeable but can often be difficult to understand and slow. Although I do not call about routine issues and bring very complex problems there way. With that said I will say every issue does get resolved.
Technical Support:
I rate technical support 7/10. First response is 2-4 hours. Staff is knowledgeable but can often be difficult to understand. I have also found that a few of them try to e-mail you despite your request for a call. This causes much miscommunication and additional time your problem is not getting resolved.
I only give them an 7 because I have struggled a time or two with understanding their English or getting the ball rolling resolving my issue. This all really depends on the department you need.
I will say that they always get the issue resolved regardless of the complexity of the problem.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No I have not, but we chose Azure simply simply because we are Microsoft partners and get free Azure credits to work with. Microsoft is also a power player in cloud solution and a trusted name.
How was the initial setup?
Huge learning curve for me. I found just diving in was incredibly difficult. Much lab time required to understand how things work together. Once you get going however it all makes sense.
I also find the GUI to be more intuitive then AWS and feels better.
They are constantly changing the GUI while they continue migrating the ASM model to the ARM model. Since this is a living platform it can change from one day to the next adding features.
What about the implementation team?
I implemented all the solutions myself with a little research.
What was our ROI?
Microsoft does have special pricing for Development purposes. This does help reduce the monthly costs for our team.
As our local resources reach their end of life, we have moved servers and services to Azure. It becomes more of an operation expense as apposed to a capitol expense.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are MS partners. Depending on your partnership you may or may not get Visual Studio Enterprises licenses. Each license allows you to get a $150 Azure credit per month.
This has been great for our developers and I to put in to practice some Azure solutions.
There are many other free credits available as well. Do some searching.
If you need to purchase Azure they do have a pricing calculator that may help you determine costs. https://azure.microsoft.com/en...
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I know AWS is another great solution, but have not tackled it yet. I do have plans to experiment with Amazons solution to determine for my own the differences.
What other advice do I have?
The biggest advantage to using Azure over any other cloud solution is the ability to move your domain into the cloud and be completely server free and still have domain services.
I have also found that site-to-site vpn with domain services rack up a good percentage of our monthly costs. These are the fundamentals to move your network into Azure.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partners
MS Azure is a comprehensive SaaS-based solution provides one powerful interface for web and native mobile applications.
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