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President at Team Parsec
Real User
Easy to launch projects, reliable, and good support
Pros and Cons
  • "The advantage of Microsoft Azure is its simplicity. It's easy to launch a project. However, the problem with this kind of solution is the reliability for the customers. You have to be sure to stay with Microsoft."
  • "Microsoft Azure is not always a user-friendly solution. There are too many people who develop this solution. For the end-users, sometimes it's not really fun to use or simple to use. It could be improved."

What is most valuable?

The advantage of Microsoft Azure is its simplicity. It's easy to launch a project. However, the problem with this kind of solution is the reliability for the customers. You have to be sure to stay with Microsoft.

What needs improvement?

It's not always simple to manage the team who use it. Sometimes customers abuse the capacity and it's not always easy to bill the department for the usage.

Microsoft Azure is not always a user-friendly solution. There are too many people who develop this solution. For the end-users, sometimes it's not really fun to use or simple to use. It could be improved.

It's difficult to stop the solution when you have started, you need to use it for the long term. You have to make a good choice when you start the project with Microsoft or with Amazon too. You will have the same problem, once you choose one you have to commit.

When a feature doesn't exist in Microsoft Azure, generally we can use other software that does the job very well, such as backups or supervision. Any products to help the customers and engineers to do a good job, such as managing large infrastructure. There is a lot of solution to make it work well.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for approximately three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution was good we have not had a problem.

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December 2024
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good, there are nearly no limits, and simple to do. However, it is difficult to see the limit.

How are customer service and support?

My engineers sometimes have used the support, I don't have any feedback about troubles with the support. I think the support is good. I don't have bad feedback.

How was the initial setup?

The deployment of the solution is quick and easy.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others is to be sure if they choose the cloud it is the right choice for them. A customer can be in a hybrid solution, or cloud, or on-premise solution. I prefer the hybrid solution, in the same project. It's a choice they need to make for the long term.

I rate Microsoft Azure an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Vishal Khare - PeerSpot reviewer
IT manager at Electrolux Home Products
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Maintains the infrastructure so we don't have to
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure is very flexible."
  • "Any time you use a cloud service, there are increased security risks. If you want more security, you have to have private hosting."

What is our primary use case?

The use case for Azure is maintenance. Azure maintains the infrastructure so we don't have to, and that's the best use case for any cloud-based application.

What is most valuable?

Azure is very flexible.

What needs improvement?

Any time you use a cloud service, there are increased security risks. If you want more security, you have to have private hosting.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Azure for about five or six years.

How are customer service and support?

In general, I think Microsoft support is strong.

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

Azure could be cheaper. Of course, if you ask anyone, they'll always say it could be cheaper. We are paying monthly.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Azure nine out of 10. I would recommend it to others.

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.
PeerSpot user
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.
reviewer1521363 - PeerSpot reviewer
Digital Strategy Manager at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Has a single sign-on functionality and a user friendly interface
Pros and Cons
  • "I think the single sign-on functionality and the ease with which you can deposit things on the cloud have been valuable. Azure has very robust security functionalities and authentication features, which come with mobility, along with backup and credential checks."
  • "Integration with other services could be much better."

What is our primary use case?

We have a complete Microsoft ecosystem. Azure comes with a variety of parts such as infrastructure as a service and platform as a service or SaaS. We are using it for infrastructure as a service and software as a service as well, so both SaaS and IaaS are being used.

All of our solutions are being deployed on the Azure server. We use the Azure authentication functionality across our organization, which is a single sign-on functionality, so it is Azure-based. We also are incorporating the DevOps framework, which, again, is being integrated to Azure. Our complete backbone is being moved to Azure, and most of our systems are moving to the cloud version.

What is most valuable?

I think the single sign-on functionality and the ease with which you can deposit things on the cloud have been valuable.

Azure has very robust security functionalities and authentication features, which come with mobility, along with backup and credential checks.

Scalability is also very robust because you can deploy the solutions on the go, and along with that, it provides you an ecosystem to integrate with the existing Microsoft products. For example, we have Power BI, and it's very nicely integrated with the Azure cloud version.

The interface is quite user friendly and intuitive. The reporting is perfect as well.

What needs improvement?

Integration with other services could be much better.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Microsoft Azure for over two years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is very good. As it is a Microsoft product, the reliability is very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Because it's a cloud-based solution, scalability is not an issue at all. We currently have over 200 development team members using Microsoft Azure.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support staff have been responsive, and the support was good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was a bit complex. It was getting ruled out sometimes, but it was at a Pan-India level. So, it was expected to take some time; it took about 8 to 12 months. Overall, it was good.

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

I believe that we have a three-year license, and I'm happy with the pricing.

What other advice do I have?

I think Azure works best when you have the complete Microsoft ecosystem. Then, you get the real value out of it. In my firm, we have the complete enterprise licensing model. So, we have an integrated ecosystem, which provides a very collaborative way of working, along with the ease of creating.

If I were to rate Microsoft Azure on a scale from one to ten, I would rate it at nine.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
NitinKumar - PeerSpot reviewer
NitinKumarDirector of Enginnering at Sigmoid
Real User

Have you used Azure Data Governance tool Purview ? If yes, what's your view and is it mature enough?

reviewer1540920 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Architect at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
A scalable cloud computing service with valuable automation features
Pros and Cons
  • "I think Azure's level of automation to achieve efficiency or agility is valuable. I also like the change capability cadence, the showback capabilities, and understanding what our costs are."
  • "We like that they have the new capabilities, but sometimes they're deprecating capabilities faster than we can handle. If we had to improve it, we would want to stay on some of these older capabilities a bit longer."

What is our primary use case?

Our use cases are basically cost agility and efficiency.

How has it helped my organization?

Microsoft Azure really enforces the automation capabilities of our workforce. It drives us towards a new operating model in terms of delivering services more quickly and more automatically.

What is most valuable?

I think Azure's level of automation to achieve efficiency or agility is valuable. I also like the change capability cadence, the showback capabilities, and understanding what our costs are. We don't have that in our on-premise environment. That whole showback capability is very interesting for us. It helps to hold the stakeholders accountable for our spending. 

What needs improvement?

Talking about improvement is like a double-edged sword. We like that they have the new capabilities, but sometimes they're deprecating capabilities faster than we can handle. If we had to improve it, we would want to stay on some of these older capabilities a bit longer. It's a brilliant platform for our staff to be more agile and more efficient but probably doesn't match with us in terms of maturity.

For example, they offer this tagging capability, but they keep introducing new platforms without it. We've become heavily reliant on tagging, but in the case of NetApp, they introduced it into the environment, and now we're not able to get the showback off of that. 

If they introduce new capabilities, they have to have all the features and functions on that new capability. They're not very good at that. If they introduce new capabilities, all the feature sets on these new capabilities should be available immediately. From my perspective, that's where they need to improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Microsoft Azure for about a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability is very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is very scalable. Our data center staff are using the solution, and then the application teams are engaging the data center staff to use that solution. We've just had a few use cases in there, and now we're just gaining experience.

Like with any new technology, we're currently re-skilling staff. It's the way we're approaching it on a six to 12-month journey before we start to get to the product and the benefits.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is average.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup isn't straightforward. You need to bring in an experienced system integrator to help you with the knowledge transfer. That's the approach we took.

What about the implementation team?

We brought in an experienced system integrator that helped us build the environment and did the knowledge transfer into our workforce. I think that's a requirement. We had a very positive experience with our system integrator. The setup, we call it the Azure landing zone, and it's the data center. To set up the foundational build was a three-month engagement.

The system integrator is the intermediary between Microsoft and us. That's the value proposition of a system integrator. The system integrator helps cut through some of that. Microsoft is a big organization, and it's sometimes very hard to get to the right resources with the right knowledge. The challenge with Microsoft is that they have multiple solutions, and it's up to you to pick the right solution path. That's very hard for most organizations to do.

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

It's a metered environment, and it's pay-as-you-go. That's the big challenge with a metered environment. The challenge is optimizing how you use that to reduce your meter costs. It's like your children have to be good at not leaving the lights on in their bedroom to save on the power bill. That's a cultural change. 

You have to change your consumption patterns, and that's hard to do. You can get a very big bill because your consumption patterns aren't very good. We're no different than any other organization that's gone to a public cloud. You get these surprise bills, and then you've got to figure out how to manage them down appropriately.

For us, the additional cost is connectivity to the Azure data center. They said that we had to set up an Equinix data center to get from our location here in Regina, Saskatchewan, to Toronto down East. Those are some big new communication charges that we didn't have before.

That adds a significant cost to that. Private internet connectivity to a cloud is a big expense. That can be a very big cost, especially for remote businesses that are co-located to cloud data centers.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Microsoft Azure was a strategic choice. We wanted to go with a multi-cloud model, but we felt like we didn't know enough about clouds. We just kind of thought Microsoft was one of our strategic partners and decided to go with them and learn before we took the multi-cloud approach.

What other advice do I have?

The advice I would give potential users would be to focus on their cost management skills and metering skills. It's all about managing your consumption. You've got to understand your consumption patterns and then learn how to manage consumption patterns going forward.

It's a really good product. In terms of leading hyperscalers, they offer very competitive features, functions, and rates compared to AWS and Google. They continue to advance their technical capabilities as rapidly or more rapidly than the other two hyperscalers. So, I would rate Microsoft Azure very high.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Microsoft Azure a nine.

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.
PeerSpot user

great, an amazing organization to work with. You did a great job!

PeerSpot user
Software Architect at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Real User
Much easier than AWS to set up, change, and configure VMs.
Pros and Cons
  • "Much more intuitive and more visual than AWS. More obvious where things are and how to change their configurations, etc."
  • "Being able to set up, change and configure VMs is easy - a lot easier than in AWS."
  • "Feedback and error messages make much more sense in Azure than in AWS."
  • "There are a number of services offered by AWS that are not yet available on Azure."

What is our primary use case?

  • IoT with C# and .NET Core 2.1. 
  • Raspberry Pi with Raspbian OS.
  • Docker containers
  • For use in security applications in the retail sector
  • Using RabbitMQ for message queueing between the internet of things and the cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

I compare it to AWS that I used prior to this. I find it much more intuitive, more visual, more obvious where things are and how to change their configurations, etc.  

What is most valuable?

  • Being able to set up, change and configure VMs is easy - a lot easier than in AWS
  • Feedback and error messages make much more sense in Azure than in AWS.

What needs improvement?

I get the impression there are a number of services offered by AWS that are not yet available on Azure, but it seems to be catching up pretty fast.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It seems to me that Azure is a little less stable than AWS but not so that it makes a difference, given how much time you save doing other stuff like configuring, etc.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Very easy to scale in and out but has unpredictable costing as a result. However, AWS is the same.

How are customer service and technical support?

I do not use tech support. I use online forums, etc.

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

AWS. I started a new job.

How was the initial setup?

No, it is simpler in Azure than in AWS.

What about the implementation team?

In-house.

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

Pricing is the worst aspect of both AWS and Azure. It is very difficult to predict costs in my experience. There is often a base price (for running a VM for example), but then you have to pay for data storage costs plus data transmission costs, etc. I would prefer to have a predictable monthly cost for unlimited storage within a bandwidth for example, but there isn't an easy way to predict costs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I evaluated Google Cloud too and compared AWS with Azure. Azure is definitely the best for me; I am more productive because I understand the tech architecture better.

What other advice do I have?

If you are a C#, .NET or SQL server person, do not even think about using AWS, use Azure instead. If you are more of a Linux/PHP/Java type of person, you may consider AWS as it works much better from the command line and much more like a Linux or Java environment.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2349756 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior DevSecOps Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 5
Comes with account management feature but interface needs to be made similar to AWS
Pros and Cons
  • "The tool's most valuable aspect is the account management side. This involves tasks such as assigning credentials to different individuals, managing user accounts, and implementing Privileged Access Management."
  • "The tool should add an interface that is similar to AWS."

What is our primary use case?

In my department, we primarily use AWS. However, for single sign-on, we use Azure Directory. It helps with integration when logging into various systems. The IT operations team utilizes Microsoft Defender for tasks such as tracking various endpoints and conducting business reviews.

What is most valuable?

The tool's most valuable aspect is the account management side. This involves tasks such as assigning credentials to different individuals, managing user accounts, and implementing Privileged Access Management. 

What needs improvement?

The tool should add an interface that is similar to AWS. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

My company has around five to ten users for Microsoft Azure. It is scalable. 

How was the initial setup?

The tool's deployment is easy. 

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

Microsoft Azure is expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

The tool is a great product to use, and very intuitive. It is beneficial for users and enterprises. I rate it an eight out of ten. The product is easy to learn, but it may become difficult depending on your technical ability.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
It at Forvent
Real User
Useful for PaaS, web services, databases, and AD
Pros and Cons
  • "The tool's most valuable features are SQL servers and Managed Instance databases."
  • "Microsoft Azure needs to be simplified to make it better understood for users."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for PaaS, web services, databases, and AD. 

What is most valuable?

The tool's most valuable features are SQL servers and Managed Instance databases. 

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Azure needs to be simplified to make it better understood for users. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for five years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate Microsoft Azure's stability a nine out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the tool's scalability an eight out of ten. My company has ten users. 

How are customer service and support?

I haven't contacted the tool's technical support. My Microsoft partner takes care of it. 

How was the initial setup?

I rate Microsoft Azure's deployment a seven out of ten. It takes around half an hour to complete. You need two resources to handle the deployment. I am involved in its maintenance. 

What about the implementation team?

A Microsoft partner helped us with the deployment. 

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

I rate the tool's pricing a six out of ten. 

What other advice do I have?

Our workflow has been good since using Azure Data Factory. There are previews of new features available, which I am happy about. I rate the product an eight out of ten. 

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.
PeerSpot user
Managing director at antarymain solutions
Real User
Top 5
A scalable and stable tool that provides various valuable features under one roof
Pros and Cons
  • "I get all the features under one roof."
  • "The subscriptions are complicated."

What is our primary use case?

We use the email accounts and SharePoint. We want to use the AI and OCR services, but we do not have many use cases.

What is most valuable?

I get all the features under one roof.

What needs improvement?

The subscriptions are complicated. The process is not user-friendly.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for almost one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The tool’s stability is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool is scalable. Around 30 people use the solution in our organization. We are trying to get projects from Europe and North America. Once we get more projects, we will be scaling up.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It took me around one week to set up the product. I did the deployment myself since I am into IT.

What was our ROI?

The return on investment is good because everything is in the cloud. We save a lot on infrastructure costs and server costs.

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

I pay a yearly subscription fee for the solution. The pricing is normal compared to other service providers. I can increase or decrease my subscription based on my organization's needs.

What other advice do I have?

We are into data management. We do a lot of data consumption and data validation. We need a lot of virtual solutions and storage solutions to process data. I would recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.