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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. 

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Microsoft Azure
December 2024
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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
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.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.
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
reviewer1624224 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT Infrastructure at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Platform as a service is a strong feature; very easy to develop and hold space
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution does a lot of coding and customization, and can go live quickly."
  • "Difficult to understand how it works and it's an expensive solution."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case of Azure is for customer facing systems, it's hosted over mobile apps and is used for scaling up and down. We partner with Microsoft and I'm the head of IT infrastructure. 

What is most valuable?

The platform as a service is a strong feature. The solution also does quite a lot of coding and customization, you can launch it quickly and go live quickly. It's easy to develop, easy to hold space and to maintain.

What needs improvement?

If you're not aware of how things work with Azure, it's not easy to understand. It's not clear for customers and sometimes even for Microsoft people themselves. The high cost of the solution is linked to that issue.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for three 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?

The solution is scalable. 

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support could definitely be improved. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward, we use a third party for that. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution eight out of 10. 

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
PeerSpot user
reviewer1544235 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Administrator at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Easy to use, scales well, and the technical support is good
Pros and Cons
  • "This product is quite easy to use and is available on-demand."
  • "There are so many services available that the interface is a little bit messy, and when you're looking for a specific service, you have to know exactly where to search."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Active Directory in Azure, so it's for all of the Office 365 services.

What is most valuable?

This product is quite easy to use and is available on-demand.

What needs improvement?

There are so many services available that the interface is a little bit messy, and when you're looking for a specific service, you have to know exactly where to search. Having better visibility in the interface would be an improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable product and we plan to continue using it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure is a scalable solution. We have approximately 150 users.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have used technical support and it is very good.

How was the initial setup?

As a cloud-based product, there is no installation.

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

This is an expensive product.

What other advice do I have?

In summary, this is a good solution, and other than some improvements to the user interface, I cannot think of any features that are missing.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1381527 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Science Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Good stability with good Databricks integration and comparable in price to AWS
Pros and Cons
  • "The integration with Databricks is the most valuable aspect of the solution."
  • "The design of the platform is not so easy to navigate. It's not very user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft Azure for blob storage and for a lot of the components that they have inside the cloud.

What is most valuable?

The integration with Databricks is the most valuable aspect of the solution. It's easy to use and to put on the pipeline. Data Factory and Databricks together build a pipeline. They really integrate very well.

The stability is very good.

The solution is comparable to AWS in terms of pricing.

What needs improvement?

The design of the platform is not so easy to navigate. It's not very user-friendly.

Some services are more difficult to use in AWS and GCP. I have projects on the three clouds, and some things are easier to do on AWS. On the other hand, using Databricks on Azure is easy, as they are integrated well. However, some products are more difficult to use than other products. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability has been good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable in terms of performance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have about 30 people using the solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

I don't really deal with technical support. I'm the data scientist manager. The engineering team would be the ones that would reach out for help if they needed support.

How was the initial setup?

In terms of deployment, each product requires a number of staff to deploy the model of machine learning or to build the stature to consume the data. It really depends.

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

I don't handle the licensing or payments aspect of the solution. I can't speak to the costs involved or what the license looks like. 

In AWS, our monthly cost was something around $10,000 or something close to that. We had to pay around $120,000 a year. It's most likely something close to that.

What other advice do I have?

We are a customer and end-user. We don't have a business relationship with Microsoft.

We deployed the solution in multiple ways. We've used the solution both on-premises and on the cloud.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Dele Nedd - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder and CEO at Descasio
Real User
Top 20
Easy to use, stable, and affordable
Pros and Cons
  • "It is easy to use. It is also stable."
  • "Its subscription price could be cheaper."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for disaster recovery and application hosting. We always have its latest version because it is cloud-based.

What is most valuable?

It is easy to use. It is also stable.

What needs improvement?

Its subscription price could be cheaper.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for a couple of years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have about 40 users of this solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support is fine.

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

We used Google Cloud. We switched because we're a Microsoft Partner.

How was the initial setup?

I didn't do the installation, but its installation is easy. For its deployment and maintenance, we have two engineers.

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

It is affordable, but its subscription price could be cheaper.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others. I would rate Microsoft Azure an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Asst. Manager, Cloud Solutions at Corporate Projukti Limited
Real User
Easy to maintain with a simple initial setup but the pricing is a bit high
Pros and Cons
  • "The focus on security is excellent. We really appreciate that about the solution."
  • "The pricing in our region can be a bit high."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily have the solution working as an infrastructure as a service.

What is most valuable?

The focus on security is excellent. We really appreciate that about the solution.

The maintenance of the solution is very good.

The migration capabilities are great. 

The implementation is easy.

What needs improvement?

The solution could be a bit more intuitive and easier to use.

The documentation could be a bit better. It could be more clear and accessible. It would be good to know if the person answering the questions was a Microsoft employee or just another user.

The pricing in our region can be a bit high.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for as long as three years at this point.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. There's never any downtime. We don't deal with crashes or freezing. There aren't bugs or glitches. It works well.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable. If a company needs to expand, it can do so easily.

Currently, we have 20 people that use the solution within our organization. We also have three or four admins.

How are customer service and technical support?

Basically, the solution offers regional support and I'm okay with that. I don't need to worry about not getting the services I need. I've called and got support right away.  I'm quite satisfied with the level of service that is being provided to us.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not complex at all. It's straightforward as the product is basically focusing on a pay as you go model.

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

For our region, Bangladesh, the pricing of the product is too much.

What other advice do I have?

We're a gold partner with Microsoft in Bangladesh.

We're always using the latest version of the solution as Azure constantly updates itself.

I'd recommend the product to other organizations.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten. Mostly we've been happy with it, however, we do find the pricing  to be a bit high.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
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.