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reviewer1406421 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Architect, Technology Transformation Group at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Easy to use, flexible, and scales well
Pros and Cons
  • "We find that it is easy to integrate with other Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft Office."
  • "The solution could always work to reduce its costs."

What is our primary use case?

Microsoft Azure is mainly used for legacy system migration. We also use it for platform development and new custom development package solutions.

What is most valuable?

The solution is very easy to use.

The product has been stable and the performance is good.

It's very flexible. We find that it is easy to integrate with other Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft Office.

The solution scales quite well.

Technical support is very helpful.

What needs improvement?

There aren't limitations that come to mind. Whatever they have planned for the solution in the future, I will be happy with it.

The solution could always work to reduce its costs.

It would be ideal if the solution could offer more non-Microsoft-related integration capabilities.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for two years at this point. It hasn't been too long just yet.

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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.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have found the stability and performance to be quite good. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable. If a company would like to expand it, it can do so.

Currently, we have around 1,000 users.

How are customer service and support?

We've found Microsoft's technical support to be good. they are helpful and responsive and so far, we are satisfied with their level of assistance.

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

I also have experience working with AWS, Amazon Web Services.

How was the initial setup?

I was not a direct part of the installation, therefore, I can't really comment. I can't directly speak to if the process was easy or difficult.

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

The pricing could be a bit lower. It would make their customers happy if they decided to charge less.

We pay a yearly licensing fee.

What other advice do I have?

We are customers and end-users, however, we are also advisors. We give advice on products to our customers.

As the solution is cloud-based, it's consistently updated and we are always on whatever the latest version is. 

We've been quite happy with its capabilities. I'd rate it at an eight out of ten.

I would recommend the solution to other users or companies that want to start exploring it.

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?

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT strategist at Convergent Wireless Communications
Real User
A stable and scalable cloud computing solution with a useful set of functions
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the functionalities and the price. I'm very satisfied with Microsoft Azure."
  • "It could be cheaper."

What is our primary use case?

I'm using the entire Microsoft Azure suite for storage applications and database applications.

What is most valuable?

I like the functionalities and the price. I'm very satisfied with Microsoft Azure.

What needs improvement?

It could be cheaper.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Microsoft Azure for at least five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is scalable.

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

The price is good, but it can always be cheaper.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The fact is I, as a customer or anybody else for that matter, will value the choices in front of them before deciding. In this case, the functionality on offer and the price helped us choose Microsoft Azure. If I get something better in terms of these two variables tomorrow, I will certainly switch.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to potential users.

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

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
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.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1450398 - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reseller
Enables great scalability and lets us easily deploy applications to the cloud
Pros and Cons
  • "With Microsoft Azure, we have a platform that lets us easily deploy applications to the cloud."
  • "They should create integrations with more platforms."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to host virtual machines and migrate new web applications to the cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

With Microsoft Azure, we have a platform that lets us easily deploy applications to the cloud.

What needs improvement?

They should create integrations with more platforms.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for a couple of years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It enables great scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

We are satisfied with the support from Microsoft.

How was the initial setup?

It was quite easy to setup.

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

The current pricing is on a pay-as-you-go subscription.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
Project Specialist at integra software
Real User
An open and flexible cloud computing platform
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft Azure is flexible and the performance is great."
  • "From a security perspective, it could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution to host applications for our customers. We're implementers, we support our clients.

We have 32 customers using this solution. We have a technical team that handles all maintenance-related issues. We have multiple teams in place for each and everything. For each platform, we have an integrated team in place. 

What is most valuable?

Microsoft Azure is flexible and the performance is great.

What needs improvement?

From a security perspective, it could be improved. A little bit of automation would also be nice.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is both stable and scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support could be faster.

How was the initial setup?

Overall, the initial setup is quite straightforward. Installation takes roughly four to five days.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
PeerSpot user
reviewer1383426 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Enterprise Architect at a construction company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Easy to build connectors but they should offer more customization
Pros and Cons
  • "It comes with a lot of ready-made studies that we can connect with other existing Microsoft applications, for example, Office, Outlook, Chatline, and OneDrive. Everything is behind the scenes running with Azure. It's easy to build the connectors."
  • "They are a bit closed on the customization side. If they open the customization then it will be very good."

What is most valuable?

It comes with a lot of ready-made studies that we can connect with other existing Microsoft applications, for example, Office, Outlook, Chatline, and OneDrive. Everything is behind the scenes running with Azure. It's easy to build the connectors.

What needs improvement?

They are a bit closed on the customization side. If they open the customization then it will be very good.

It covers pretty much the similar problems that we face in many areas of Azure. If we are planning to use some of the Azure applications within our organization, there are some places that we need to complain about a complaint. Because of the design of Microsoft, we were not able to make this complaint. So, we are not able to use that interface.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure for two years.

How was the initial setup?

The Azure setup itself is a big procedure, but once that setup is done, the adoption is basic, allowing developers to use the Azure platform for their resource site. Then we slowly open the Azure for the website and we slowly allow Azure to impact our office. 

What other advice do I have?

We don't have customer reviews of some of those applications. They should provide a lot of understanding. If reviewing and rating also becomes one of the alternatives, I think that will be a big win for them.

They are loaded with functionalities. I would rate Azure a seven out of ten.

They are very open with the options, but customers are not there with the road map. There are too many options. That confusion is a con of the solution.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user8577 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Infrastructure at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
When to use different Azure IaaS storage types…

I’m been using Azure IaaS in a lot of enterprise deployments lately and I’ve noticed that there is some confusion regarding the different storage types available and provisioned for the virtual machines.  In many ways the capabilities associated with Azure storage is its greatest strength, but unless you configure it properly, you might be in for a surprise regarding your results.    The key message to understand is the difference between the operating system disk, the temporary disk, and data disks as they have different performance characteristics and will impact your systems in different ways when used correctly or incorrectly.

The operating system disk:

This disk is used for the operating system install and it will exhibit great read performance.   It is not however scalable for write performance, so you shouldn’t use it for any write-centric or data-centric use.   It would NOT be the place where you would put your Microsoft SQL data, or your file server.

The cache / temporary disk

The cache disk is used for temporary data that you don’t want to keep.  It might seem like it is retained, but eventually you will find this disk refreshed when the system is booted back up, or undergoes a “repair”.  The cache disk is really only appropriate for storage of data you don’t want to keep.

The data disk

The data disk is where you should put any of your important information, especially databases and file stores.  The data here can be effectively scaled out through striping several data disks together.  A rule of thumb to use is that each data disk is worth approximately 500 IOPS.  If you stripe several together you’ll see that number increase.  At this point you might find it helpful to run some tests against the disks you’ve allocated to ensure you’ve added the appropriate IOPS for your capacity requirement.  I’ll note that the disk IOPS will increase as it is used, which is a component of the caching engine of the data disk type.  The cool thing about the data disk is that they are easy to provision and you can create stripes of a lot of disks (16) which will provide excellent scalability to your application.

The key point?  Use the right disks for the right things.  If you don’t, then you’ll get a different performance experience than you’re expecting.  Now move some workloads to Azure and take advantage of the scalability!

Want to learn more?  Check out the Azure internals session from TechEd!

Azure Internals

Also, check out Azure Storage Testing, which checked a standard Azure hard disk against a local SSD and a small server.  This performance can be improved by striping multiple Azure disks together.

Disclosure: The company I work for is a Microsoft Partner

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1257582 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Software Engineering at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
User-friendly tool with many integrations
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure virtual machines are stand-out."
  • "Their backup strategy is a little complex which racks up the VM to other sole storage areas. This should be improved."

What is most valuable?

Azure virtual machines are stand-out.

What needs improvement?

Their backup strategy is a little complex which racks up the VM to other sole storage areas. This should be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for close to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

Customer service was very good.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was straightforward and flawless.

What about the implementation team?

This was implemented via in-house team.

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

The pricing is fair and it was actually just reduced. My organization is paying approximately $100,000 annually with close to one thousand users. There are no additional fees.

What other advice do I have?

Azure is user-friendly which is great for those with no code experience, though this limits flexibility.

This is a very simple solution. Their integration with Office 365 is very easy. And for those who are enterprise customers already using Office 365, their role-based access control communicating with Azure is much simpler and easier which allows for full control.

I would rate this 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.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1632060 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information System Auditor (IT Audit) at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Feature rich, scalable, and good technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "There are a lot of valuable features in Microsoft Azure, such as Kubernetes, pipelines, and development environments."
  • "The solution could improve by having more security features around my data and the platform."

What is our primary use case?

We subscribed to Microsoft Azure, which is a platform as a service where we have our applications in the cloud. We use applications, such as Office 365, on the Azure platform and we are diversifying our infrastructure in the Azure environment from our on-premise solutions.

What is most valuable?

There are a lot of valuable features in Microsoft Azure, such as Kubernetes, pipelines, and development environments. Additionally, the Security Center is very useful, I always go in to look at the security features and how those assets in the cloud are being protected.

What needs improvement?

The solution could improve by having more security features around my data and the platform.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Microsoft Azure for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

We have a lot of teams using this solution in my organization, approximately 20.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support from Microsoft is good.

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

We have an annual license subscription to use the solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

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.
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.