It is great for computer resource management at reduced cost. Also in a large environment, it gives you a lot of flexibility to provide different services, like disaster recovery and business continuity.
Solution Architect at KIAN company
Can be used for disaster recovery and business continuity
Pros and Cons
- "In terms of computer resource management and reduced cost, it is very, very effective. In large environments, it gives you a lot of flexibility to provide different services, like disaster recovery and business continuity with simple and great options because you don't have to spend a lot of time for maintenance, upgrades, and security."
- "I think Azure Active Directory and also the backup solutions provided in Azure need to be improved by Microsoft. The backup solution is not a very enterprise solution, and it is very simple. I think in comparison with other backup solutions like Nakivo and Veeam Backup, it can be improved to have a lot of options."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
In terms of computer resource management and reduced cost, it is very, very effective. In large environments, it gives you a lot of flexibility to provide different services, like disaster recovery and business continuity with simple and great options because you don't have to spend a lot of time for maintenance, upgrades, and security. Also, Microsoft Azure provides a lot of services that can be managed by Microsoft like NetApp and SQL Server on a database.
Microsoft Azure has services such as ACS, Azure Container Service. This is very useful for improvements in running applications in a scalable environment. You will not need to spend time building the cluster on-premises, and you can improve your clusters with a lot of administration options.
What needs improvement?
I think Azure Active Directory and also the backup solutions provided in Azure need to be improved by Microsoft. The backup solution is not a very enterprise solution, and it is very simple. I think in comparison with other backup solutions like Nakivo and Veeam Backup, it can be improved to have a lot of options.
Along with this, one of the lack of options in Azure is managing antiviruses in virtual machines in the Azure environment. For example, if we have a lot of virtual machines on-premises and have to migrate them in Azure, there is no handy tool for the central management of antivirus software in all virtual machines in Azure.
On-premises, we have a lot of options like Kaspersky, Norton, and a lot of others, but in the Azure environment, you are limited to Windows ATP.
Windows ATP solutions are limited and can be improved by Microsoft, specifically the central management of the GUI for configuring agents on virtual machines.
I think Microsoft Azure should provide more innovation and new services to get better performance in the market.
The documentation for how to connect to CLI could also be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Microsoft Azure for around three years.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable and can be distributed to different regions.
How are customer service and support?
I'm not involved in using technical support because I directly work with an Azure architect on my team who is responsible for providing support and leading the team as well as contacting the Microsoft support team. In general, however, I think, one of the best advantages of Microsoft services is the support team made up of technical engineers who help solve problems.
How was the initial setup?
As for the initial setup, the GUI in Microsoft is very simple and very handy, but in Azure Container Service, it is not very handy and is very complex. You would need to go forward with CLI.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft Azure at eight on a scale from one to 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.
System Administrator at a government with 201-500 employees
Reliable, has easy provisioning, and offers good integration capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The solution offers very good upgrades and updates regularly."
- "Technical support is lacking right now. It needs to be better."
What is our primary use case?
We're using the product as an infrastructure as a service. I'm basically using it to host services.
What is most valuable?
The product is very easy to provision. This is one of its most valuable aspects.
The solution offers pretty good integration capabilities at this time.
We've found the pricing to be pretty good so far. It's not too expensive.
The initial setup is very straightforward.
The stability is quite good. It's a reliable product.
We have found the scalability to be very good.
The solution offers very good upgrades and updates regularly.
What needs improvement?
The product can be a bit confusing at times. It's not well laid out. The interface, for example, can be a bit hard to figure out and they seem to be constantly changing things on us.
It's a rather new product and therefore lacks the maturity of other options. There is much they can do to add to it and to improve it. That may likely come with more time.
Up until two or so years ago, they weren't even accepting customer feedback on the solution. They've just started to do so, and they have given users a sense that improvements will be on the way sometime in the future.
Technical support is lacking right now. It needs to be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution for more than 12 months at this point. It's been a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. The performance, overall, has been rather reliable for our organization.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product has the capability to expand. If a company needs to scale it, it can do so. It's not a problem.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support needs to be better. We are not quite satisfied with their level of support. They need to be more responsive to use when we have queries.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We actually use Amazon as well. We did use it before, however, we are also still using it. We use both Azure and Amazon at this time.
How was the initial setup?
We did not find the initial setup to be too complex. It's pretty straightforward. A company should be able to handle the deployment without too many issues.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is decent. We don't find that they are charging too much. It's pretty fair.
What other advice do I have?
As a cloud deployment, the solution is constantly updating itself, therefore we always have access to the latest release.
We have about 300 to 400 users on it currently. It's a business unit with various users of different job descriptions.
We are planning to increase the usage in the future.
I'm not sure if the company will use this solution for the long term or if they are considering trying something new. That is yet to be determined.
Overall, I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We're mostly quite happy with it in general.
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.
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December 2024

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Diretor de Sistemas de Informação at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Mobility of cloud-based directory reduced reporting and sped implementing new solutions
What is most valuable?
- Virtual Networking
- Security
- Feature packing
- Virtual Machines
- Ease of implementation
- Azure AD
- Azure AD Directory Domain Services
- Database as a Service
- Operations Management Suite
- RBAC
How has it helped my organization?
Mobility, no more "metal" on-premise, cloud-based directory with SSO features, sped implementing new solutions, reduced skillset for management and reporting.
We have a full Azure plus Office 365 implementation for servers and desktops, authenticating users on Azure AD over 802.1X switching and wireless. No on-premise servers, DC's, file-servers, etc.
What needs improvement?
Stability. Microsoft is implementing changes too fast and sometimes things break.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three years, but the full stack only since January 2017.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
None.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Yes. Beware of August. Microsoft makes some big changes during this month and they have an impact on customers.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
None.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
10 out of 10.
Technical Support:10 out of 10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
On-premise traditional solutions.
How was the initial setup?
Complex in the beginning, because the company I was migrating had some peculiarities.
The latter move was totally stable as we did a cutoff migration and no garbage was imported. Some downtime was expected, but this was minimal.
What about the implementation team?
In-house, with support from a vendor team. Excellent support: 10 out of 10.
What was our ROI?
Not yet calculated since it was a major digital transformation and an ongoing project.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Setup cost is low and Microsoft may help your project financially with services from a partner.
Be sure to know your licensing or ask for advice. It's worth it. You may be led into something you don't need, if following Microsoft or a vendor.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No.
What other advice do I have?
Evaluate extensibly (the actual scenario), have a definitive vision of where you want to be in a near future, align the strategy with your management and expect that it may not be cheaper. A correct vision of a project of this kind cannot be focused on lowering costs but vision alignment, future scalability, speed on delivering services, and maintaining smaller IT crews focused on business needs.
Please do some previous math regarding actual licensing versus a costs model. Extrapolate this to a five year plan to match current hardware lifespans.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Cloud/System Administrator at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Saves a lot of time for our developers as it enables moving from the virtual machines to the Web Application-side
What is most valuable?
Virtual machines, Azure Web Applications, MS SQL DB, DNS, Azure Active Directory, etc. are some of the most valuable features.
It is quite easy to learn to start working with them and they are composite enough to use them in many different scenarios.
For example, you can create a web app with a few clicks from Visual Studio and publish it to Azure Web Apps. You also can integrate that Web App to CI/CD pipeline (https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/build/get-started/aspnet-4-ci-cd-azure-automatic), assign custom SSL certificates to it (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service-web/app-service-web-tutorial-custom-SSL), configure auto-scale (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-environment-auto-scale), implement Azure AD authentication (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service-mobile/app-service-mobile-how-to-configure-active-directory-authentication?toc=%2fazure%2fapp-service%2ftoc.json), etc.
How has it helped my organization?
It enabled moving from the virtual machines to the Web Application-side, which in turn saved a lot of time for our developers.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this solution for about two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were some stability issues. Some of them were user-specific (some applications were buggy), while some were global https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/status/history/.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were no scalability issues. My work duties are not connected to this feature.
How is customer service and technical support?
On a scale from 1-10 (1=worst, 10=best). I would rate the technical support a seven out of 10. First level support is awful (it works only if you have a generic issue). But if you are lucky enough, you could get a real technical person, who could help you.
How was the initial setup?
The setup/installation depends from which service you start (for example, start to use DNS which is much easier vs the web applications).
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If your company is big enough and oriented to the cloud, then go for the Enterprise Agreement. If you want just to try it first, then use the trial version.
What other advice do I have?
Learn the fundamentals using the official documentation; for example, you have the Developer Guide and courses.
Start using new services based on the scenarios described in the official documentation.
Use communities for consulting, such as Stack Overflow, Reddit, and Slack. However, personally, I prefer the channel azured.slack.com.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CTO at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Early Thoughts on the Windows Azure Announcements
Today’s release marks a significant milestone for Windows Azure. To date, Windows Azure has been a platform that allows developers to build and run applications across Microsoft’s global datacenters – the key emphasis has been on “applications”. Windows Azure has not been a platform for providing the underlying infrastructure for running your own virtual machine – this has been a key pain point for many customers looking to move to the cloud that Microsoft has heard loud and clear. Today’s announcement makes it clear that Windows Azure is more than just a Platform-as-a-Service provider.
In my opinion, there are three significant components of today’s announcements worth delving into deeper:
- New Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) capabilities.
- Free (or low-cost) hosting with Windows Azure Websites.
- Enhanced cloud networking capabilities that support VPN connections between an on-premises corporate network and Windows Azure.
Until now, Microsoft has never competed directly with Amazon EC2 with respects to IaaS nor with cloud platforms like Heroku. The new IaaS and Websites capabilities, combined with the ability to extend on-premises networks to the cloud, provides a number of ways that Windows Azure can now distinguish itself from other platforms and—in my opinion—will drive many new enterprises and a large number of developers to adopt Windows Azure.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service
Windows Azure has long had the concept of a “Virtual Machine role” but the fundamental problem has been the inability to persist changes made to the virtual machine image provided by the customer (i.e. the guest VM) during reboots or recycling. Supporting VM persistence in Windows Azure means that the guest VM will not lose these updates. This unlocks many workloads that previously did not work in Windows Azure – certainly products like SharePoint and SQL Server but also custom line-of business applications that previously were difficult to move to Windows Azure.
In addition to VM persistence, Windows Azure will also give customers the ability to run Linux VMs. There’s been a lot of interest and speculation regarding Microsoft’s strategy moving forward with Linux and open source. I think Microsoft recognizes that their customers run more than just Windows in their enterprise, and this is an opportunity for Windows Azure to run as many workloads as possible. We’ve seen this shift in Microsoft in a number of different ways – support for Node.js and Java in Windows and Windows Azure, the creation of a new interoperability subsidiary, and many more. The cloud provides a way to make it easier to connect all of these different platforms and technologies, and my take is that Microsoft is trying to make Windows Azure the best and simplest place to run your applications regardless of the platform or technology.
Windows Azure Websites
It’s exciting to see Microsoft continue to evolve its strategy with Windows Azure to make it increasingly accessible to the breadth of developers out there.
Windows Azure Websites is a hosting platform for web applications. It provides a number of different deployment and runtime options beyond the existing Web Role, including:
- Target both Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies already running in the environment, including SQL Azure, MySQL, PHP, Node.js, and (of course) .NET.
- Deploy via Git, Web Deploy, FTP, or TFS.
- Run in a high-density / multitenant VM for little-to-no cost or choose a dedicated deployment path.
In addition to providing simpler and more consistent ways to deploy applications across different hosting platforms (e.g. Windows Azure, Windows Server, and hosting providers), Windows Azure Websites provides a way for Microsoft to bring thousands—perhaps even hundreds of thousands—of new developers to the platform with the offer of little-to-no cost hosting.
Cloud Networking
Windows Azure Virtual Networks allows a company to connect their cloud applications and solutions to their local network. This occurs at the networking layer through standard VPN devices. Coupled with IaaS support, this provides a ton of flexibility with respects to the kinds of workloads a customer moves to Windows Azure. Don’t want to move your sensitive SQL Server database? You don’t need to. Setup a VPN to your applications in Windows Azure and let them communicate directly back to your applications that live on-premises.
There’s certainly a lot more to talk about – new services, portal, SDK, tools, and so much more! These thoughts are pretty early—in fact, I write this before today’s MEET Windows Azure event—and there’s so much more to talk about!
Disclosure: The company I work for is partners with several vendors
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Technical support engineer at 64 Network security pvt ltd
An exceptionally stable and easy-to-access solution for file storage and file backup
Pros and Cons
- "Feature-wise, I like its stability. Also, it is easy to access the solution and its options."
- "The security feature in the solution is an area that needs to be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We were using Microsoft Azure for file storage and file backup. So, it was one of our backup resources. Internally, NAS is there in our company. So, we go from NAS to Veeam and Veeam to Azure.
What is most valuable?
Feature-wise, I like its stability. Also, it is easy to access the solution and its options. Also, the backup solutions can take anything, so we can easily find out any option.
What needs improvement?
The security feature in the solution is an area that needs to be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have experience with Microsoft Azure until six months ago. Also, I was using the solution's latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable product. There are more than 100 users using the solution. I am just involved in the maintenance of the servers and infrastructures.
How are customer service and support?
We need to purchase Microsoft Azure for our clients, including cloud backup and any Azure solutions. So, So that time, we need to contact technical support. I expect more technical support from Azure.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup is straightforward. When you need to create multiple tasks, the solution can get complex. I am not involved in the deployment process.
What other advice do I have?
I can recommend it to other people who want to start using it. So, our company provides a lot of solutions to our clients, including backup solutions like NAS storage, cloud storage, and servers. Parallely, we provide support to users.
I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Head of Department at Combis d.o.o.
Highly scalable, good support, and plenty of services available
Pros and Cons
- "Microsoft Azure has thousands of services and products."
- "Microsoft Azure could improve by having the availability be 100%. Which is difficult, but not impossible."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Microsoft Azure for various databases, file storing, backup, disaster recovery. It's a very useful service.
What is most valuable?
Microsoft Azure has thousands of services and products.
What needs improvement?
Microsoft Azure could improve by having the availability be 100%. Which is difficult, but not impossible.
In the future, there should be more automation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure for approximately four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft Azure is highly scalable.
Our customers that are using the solutions can have from 100 to several thousand that are using the solution.
We have plans to extend the usage of this solution.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
My projects are normally complex. However, the implementation of Microsoft Azure is very simple.
The length of time the full deployment can take depends on the complexity of the project. It can vary from one month to half a year. It depends on the goal of the project.
I would rate the initial setup of Microsoft Azure a four out of five.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others is you need to be technically aware of Azure services, which are always in some kind of improvement. It is helpful to be aware of the possibility and functionality of your projects and the financial cost for Azure services in the project plan.
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.
GM COE at Anuntatech Management Services Ltd
Easy to set up, quick to deploy, and simple to expand
Pros and Cons
- "The stability has been excellent."
- "Technical support needs to be better."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for our infrastructure. It's specific to server regulation and desktop regulation.
We used it for our customers in the pandemic. In terms of expansion on-premise, they were not able to do so due to the chip shortage. Therefore, we are moving everything to cloud and we are capacity-building - a temporary requirement. We are shifting them to the cloud.
What is most valuable?
As a partner, I like that they have a good benefit on margin.
The stability has been excellent. Multi-regions can leverage their capabilities easily.
The product is scalable.
We find the initial setup to be very simple.
What needs improvement?
There are worldwide issues on Microsoft Azure, however, it is happening to Google also and as well as AWS. The problems we have are nothing new.
Technical support needs to be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been dealing with the solution for three years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the product has been great. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product is scalable. If a company wants to expand it, it can do so.
We have 30 customers on the solution right now.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support isn't so good. We'd like them to be more helpful and responsive. We'd like them to be faster.
The communication and those aspects are pretty good, however, the resolution could be faster and better.
How was the initial setup?
As a cloud-based solution, the initial setup is very simple, very straightforward.
We were able to deploy the solution in one day for a few clients.
We have 20 team members that are technical (Azure system admins) and can handle the deployment and maintenance. We offer 24/7 coverage.
What about the implementation team?
We offer this solution to our clients and can implement it for them.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing is based on usage. Typically, it's a monthly fee that is paid to Microsoft.
What other advice do I have?
We are a Microsoft Gold partner where we provide that, also we are users.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.
Customers who are on more Office 360 should leverage Azure. From a compliance perspective, these things are much more user-friendly compared to other clouds. Otherwise, there are a lot of compliance issues if we go with the other clouds where the mobility license is required. On Azure, for Microsoft users, those things are straightforward.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner

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I totally agree with your review. My opinion is that Windows Azure is only a part of the future. The future is the concept of pushing all applications into the cloud and utilizing world wide hosting providers. The upfront costs of pushing products out the door is heavily reduced this way.