Microsoft Azure Reviews

We use it for virtual machines, database services, load balancers, and firewall services.

The platform as a service for MySQL and PostgreSQL have significantly improved our operational efficiency. The performance is very good, and it has improved our business performance a lot.

Azure Security and Compliance features:

Azure offers built-in security called Microsoft Defender. This is a paid version that provides posture management for the servers. If there is any setting that needs to be changed or any problem with any network setting that could lead to a disaster, it shows us on the platform that the posture is not correct, and we fix it accordingly. It provides proactive overall management and monitors the entire infrastructure.

AI initiatives:

AI initiatives have been introduced, but we haven't tested it, so we cannot comment on that.

Everything is in the same control panel, and the management is very easy. If there's a new feature, it takes less time to understand the working procedure on the platform. So, it's user-friendly.

I would like to see improvement in the technical support. Sometimes it takes a long time. Only sometimes, not every time. It gets delayed. The response time should be faster.

I have been using it for six years. 

It is a very stable product. We haven't faced any issues with it, and it's been about five or six years.

I find it scalable. Whenever there is a large requirement to increase resources, we can increase them on the fly and decrease them when it's not necessary. It's very easy, and it takes very little time to scale up deployments.

Sometimes there are some problems that need to be taken care of by the Microsoft technical support team. We raise tickets for these cases, which are not solvable by email support. They call us back and resolve the problem.

Neutral

Previously, we used in-house servers. We moved to Azure. As for other solutions, no. There was no other solution. Everything was in-house. We had physical servers, and then we moved to cloud services.

I did not have any challenges or complexities with the initial setup process.

There's a vast knowledge base available. So, there were no challenges. If there's a new deployment, the tutorial is already there. You just have to follow it.

It took a couple of days to complete the migrations.

Maintenance happens at the machine level, not the platform level. There's no maintenance requirement at the platform level.

The initial deployment consisted of about twenty-five virtual machines and five to six services.

We did it in-house.

It has impacted cost savings or business productivity overall. We can easily scale up and scale down the services as per the requirement. 

During some months, the requirement is high. During that time, we scale up the service and scale it down when not necessary. So, it saves a lot of cost for us. The resource cost is not fixed here, and we can scale up and scale down as per the requirement. When we scale it down, the cost gets reduced by a lot.

The pricing is fine. Whenever you deploy a new service or virtual machine, they provide a calculator service that can upfront calculate the tentative cost for the service or resource, monthly or annually. On top of that, the third party through which we have taken the services adds some more discounts.

The recommendation would be to first go through the tutorials, or you have to know the requirement first. As for that, you need to go through the tutorials provided by Microsoft, and then you are good to go.

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten because there's always room for improvement.

Our use cases for Microsoft Azure are financial-related.

Microsoft Azure covers all aspects, and having a single pane of glass becomes easier.

Microsoft Azure's design language is a little too basic. I would prefer Jira over Azure Boards. While Azure Boards offer quite a lot of customization possibilities, they also have their own limitations.

I have been using Microsoft Azure for more than a year.

Microsoft Azure is a stable solution.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten for stability.

Microsoft Azure is quite a scalable solution. More than 5,000 users are using the solution in our organization.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight to nine out of ten.

I have previously worked with AWS and Jira.

We didn’t face any challenges with the solution’s initial setup.

The solution's deployment time takes less than hours. We continuously keep doing it. We have releases every week, and our pipeline keeps running. We update the product every week.

One or two engineers are involved in the solution's maintenance. Microsoft Azure has positively affected our operational expenses and revenue growth, which is why we switched from Amazon to Microsoft Azure.

I would recommend Microsoft Azure to other users. I can use Azure Boards to do brainstorming. Microsoft Azure covers all aspects, and having a single pane of glass becomes easier.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight to nine out of ten.

We use Microsoft Azure to host our applications. It is for the software development department. We also use it to host our internally developed application, ERP, and manufacturing execution applications for our clients. We use the data center in Singapore, as we are based in Malaysia, and our clients access it from the region encompassing Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

We create tenants for each of our clients where we deploy our applications. Clients or users access these applications from their respective tenants. We also train our clients to monitor the resources their tenants consume. This empowers them to adjust resources according to their needs, enabling them to manage these tasks independently.

During the pandemic, some clients faced issues because they were hosting their applications on-premises. The transition to remote work took some time for them. There was no impact on their operations for clients already on Microsoft Azure Cloud.

Clients continued to support Azure because, before the pandemic, they were hesitant about moving entirely to the cloud. They wanted a hybrid of both cloud and on-premises solutions. However, after the pandemic, many eventually migrated fully to the cloud.

We focus on applications hosted on Azure and use the Power Platform. We leverage Azure to set up tenants and dynamics within the platform.

The solution should be more intuitive and provide better support. We often do not receive frequent updates or comprehensive support, even as partners. Additionally, we are exploring the AI functionality within Azure. We are looking to collaborate with Microsoft to activate AI features in Azure to fulfill AI-related tasks requested by our clients.

I have been using Microsoft Azure for more than five years.

The product is stable. We have not encountered any security threats or issues during our five years of using Azure.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

One advantage of using Azure is that clients can start with a low-cost entry in terms of hardware and scale as their business and user base grows. They don't need to allocate a large budget for infrastructure upfront. Additionally, it offers progressive scalability.

Around 200 users are using this solution.

I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten.

Customer support is very responsive. They are unable to resolve our issues. When we encounter technical problems and seek assistance, they can help us on a surface level. Many times, you may have to investigate and troubleshoot.

Neutral

I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap.

We've been leveraging Microsoft products on the Microsoft platform for the past 20 years. We are dedicated to Microsoft products and platforms.

We no longer need someone to take care of the physical servers on our end. Many server administrations have been drastically reduced.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I use Microsoft Azure to prepare a design document for the security implementation concerning Azure.

Compared to earlier technology, Microsoft Azure is very easy and robust and has features like scaling. Microsoft Azure provides good performance and support.

The solution’s stability could be improved.

I have been using Microsoft Azure for eight years.

Microsoft Azure is a very stable solution.

I rate Microsoft Azure a nine out of ten for stability.

Microsoft Azure is a scalable solution.

The solution's technical support is good. The technical support team dedicates time to us, and we don't face any challenges with them.

The solution’s initial setup is clear and easy.

Microsoft Azure is a cost-effective solution where you use it as per your requirement and pay for it.

Microsoft Azure is a cloud-based solution.

I would recommend Microsoft Azure to other users. The solution's availability is vast. Centers in India have regulatory requirements to keep the data within India, and Microsoft Azure helps us mitigate those regulatory requirements. The solution's support is very good, and it helps meet the business requirements.

Overall, I rate Microsoft Azure an eight out of ten.

I am using Microsoft Azure primarily for application development purposes. Additionally, I am utilizing it for machine learning and Internet of Things.

Microsoft Azure has made it easier for me to use and format my applications effectively.

The most valuable feature is the broad range of services offered by Microsoft Azure, such as computing, networking, and Azure Arc, along with security and compliance. 

Additionally, it has made my applications easier to use and has improved the development process.

There is room for improvement in the pricing structure, user interface design (UI/UX), clear navigation, and documentation support of Microsoft Azure.

I have been using Microsoft Azure for about three years.

I would rate the stability of Microsoft Azure at eight out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of Microsoft Azure at eight out of ten.

I am very satisfied with the technical support and would rate it ten out of ten.

Positive

I did not use a different solution before Microsoft Azure.

The initial setup was a bit complex yet became easier as I learned more about it.

I would rate the pricing of Microsoft Azure at eight out of ten, which makes it on the pricier side for me.

I have already recommended Microsoft Azure to my colleagues, and they are finding it useful. 

Overall, I would rate Microsoft Azure an eight out of ten.

We utilize various Azure services such as Azure SQL, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Data Factory, Azure Storage, and Azure Key Vault to build our data platform.

One of the features that I really like about Azure is its comprehensive environment for implementing a data platform. The solution provides multiple well integrated services which happen to work together seamlessly and provides flexibility and scale ability for use cases all around the industry.

There are some minor aspects which require improvement but they are very technical for an explanation. For example, the cost calculation for the services can be an unclear aspect which makes it difficult to estimate the expenses incurred accurately. Therefore, it will be beneficial to have it more transparent and apply your user-friendly cost estimation process to help users plan their budgets in a more efficient manner.

I have been using Microsoft Azure for the past 5 to 6 years.

I would rate it 9 out of 10 since it is stable but can get better.

I would rate the scalability 8 out of 10. The number of users on a platform is high but we do not have active engagement from all the users all the time. We have over 100 users but not all of them interact with the platform regularly. Keeping it aside, our main focus still remains on building data platforms which cater to different needs.

I have mixed feelings about Microsoft's technical support. While they do try to assist most of the time, I believe there's room for improvement. 

Neutral

As a data engineer, I mainly use these services rather than being involved in their implementation.

I would recommend Azure since it offers a variety of features and services which work together. This is quite rare in other platforms because they are not scalable. These features have helped us to promote our growth without any major challenges. The wide range of services make it a valuable option for implementing a data platform. However it is really difficult to quantify its value numerically. Different companies can Paradise different factors such as scalability, cost, or support which makes it different for each company.

It is important to keep in mind that there are also challenges such as the complex nature of estimating costs and no realistic expectations of savings due to the presence of hidden costs. Azure is an efficient solution but it requires improvement in terms of stability, support and pricing.

We use the solution for hosting business applications and the test environment.

The compliance is really good. It provides visibility of our top risks and recommendations on how to close them. Sentinel is really good from a security standpoint. The product provides a host of security tools. We deploy and configure everything ourselves. So far, we have not had any issues related to Azure.

The solution must improve its pricing.

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

I rate the stability of the tool a nine and a half out of ten.

The tool is highly scalable, depending on the design. I've not had any issues. We have to factor in cost and design. About 2000 people use the solution in our organization. It is extensively used in our organization. Based on business growth, we might increase the number of users.

We had some technical issues. The support team was ready to support us once we raised a ticket. They responded in a reasonable time and escalated the issue when necessary.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. The information is readily available, and there are many local partners who are extremely supportive. Deployment is just a matter of getting the login set up. It was pretty fast.

Our in-house team had been trained to deploy the tool, so they knew what to do. We have a few trained cloud admins who can manage the product. There are a lot of automation options, so they don't need a big crowd to work with it.

The product has a good ROI. It depends on how we handle the cost based on resource creation and the data we build based on our setup.

We have a licensing option from our partner in which the solution is bundled up with a whole host of other services. There are no additional costs associated with the product.

It is one of the best tools in the market. It's a very good cloud service. It has a lot of good security options. The reporting options are also good. The on-premise AD is fantastic. The tool gives us flexibility in deployment. If we get the design wrong, that's not Azure’s problem. It's our problem. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

I am a technology consultant and pre-sales cloud solution architect.

These are the features I have found most valuable with Azure. For any particular cloud world, when we talk about the cloud computing model, it is all about agility, availability, how you are trying to scale up your environment, how you're providing high availability, your disaster recovery mechanism, and what is the service availability matrix that you're following? We then talk about the workloads which are being supported on the Microsoft platform. Then we come to the commercial side of those workloads. For example, if we are trying to migrate the Windows workload, then Microsoft Azure offers a lot of benefits for Windows and SQL licenses. We can include that in the picture while we are trying to draw a comparison between different providers. Because AWS does not provide that DAM facility, though there is something that they provide, but you need to put it on the installs, not on RDS. Make it easy to install.

The second thing about Azure is that if we talk about Gartner, IDC and Forrester, although AWS is leading the chart in the leader's quadrant, when we look at the recent growth and what companies are acquiring and how much business they are pulling in year to year, there is a greater spike in the Microsoft Azure growth as compared to AWS.

I have worked as a cloud solution architect in India and Microsoft Azure works on data centers. They have three different geographical locations where they put the data centers. So as per the ISO 27001 BSI compliance for DR, disaster recovery mechanism, you need to make sure that the primary and secondary data centers are separated by a geographical zone - which Microsoft Azure adheres to. That definitely makes it a good choice for the client who wants the data to be in India and to also follow the BSI compliance.

Other factors include the Azure Site Recovery. The ASR one-stop DR solution provides RPO and RTO. It also gives you failover and failback scenarios. AWS did not have that kind of platform earlier. They had DM, DMS and SMS for small scale and medium scale app and database migration, but they didn't have a one-stop DR solution. They recently acquired cloud in their platform. Microsoft Azure also recently acquired cloud. They have built that particular platform into their Azure Migrate, which is their cloud feasibilities function provider. If we need to do a feasibility assessment or dependency mapping, we can use that particular tool or the Azure Migrate. It's a very good tool. I use that tool for multiple things.

I am trying to draw a comparison between the two leading cloud providers.

When we try to do backup scenarios, Azure Site Recovery is supported with all kinds of platforms. But it is not capable when you are trying to do recovery of a database or a recovery of an application server which are already on HA, high availability. HA would mean that you have only done the clustering. If there was clustering there, then definitely the ASR does not support it. But if you don't have HA, if you don't have the clustering done, then definitely ASR would be supported in that particular scenario. You can also do big database migrations with the Azure Site Recovery if there is a single database. Otherwise, you can use native database solutions to migrate them to cloud. For example, SQL Enterprises uses the Always On, where you introduce a new machine into the clustering. Then you try to put that as a secondary, and then you migrate.

Otherwise, if you have SQL Standard, then you can use a log sheet mechanism, which can be used to migrate the data. For SAP HANA, you can use HSR, HANA Service Replication, and for Oracle you can use the Data Guard, the negative solutions supported, but definitely Azure is doing that, as well. When we talk about a typical DR scenario, the cost that you are giving within Microsoft Azure would be storage, then the Azure Site Recovery cost, and then the network readiness. Microsoft Azure is an optimized solution when we compare it to any other particular cloud solution.

In terms of what could be improved with Azure, I would like to see something like what Google has created with their cross-platform solution, Anthos. I would like to see some features like Anthos has. Secondly, there are multiple DevOps solutions and tools available in Microsoft Azure, but most of the time they are either in the build mode, meaning you don't get complete support for them because they are either making changes, or changing the names of the particular services. Sometimes, services vanish from the portal. We are not able to see that. I think they actually change the names of the services.

For example, they had advanced data analytics in Office 365. They actually removed it and they now include all those features in Windows Defender. 

One more thing that I would like to say is that AWS works on availability zones. You have multiple availability zones in a particular region, which means that in that particular region you have more than one data center. If any of their single data centers fail, they can do a failover to the next immediate data center, which is in the same region. But in the case of Azure, if the data center fails for one particular region, they need to do a failover to different region altogether, which is separated by a geographical distance. That will be a kind of DR scenario.

Microsoft should focus on the higher availability of data centers where they can have more than one data center in a single region. I think they have implemented that kind of solution in the USA. They are going to do it soon in Europe and other countries as well, but it still is an upcoming feature. It's not completely built. They need to build that. 

The second thing which I feel regarding Microsoft Azure in India, is that they have less case studies when we talk about SAP on Azure as compared to SAP on AWS. There are fewer numbers of case studies on the portal. You can't find any. Whereas when you go into the India section for AWS, you will find plenty in terms of SAP and cloud.

Case studies are not there. If you have case studies, good case studies of large banks or any kind of government sectors, those case studies would definitely help to build customer trust on that particular platform.

There is one more thing which I would like to talk about in terms of costing. When you talk about AWS, they have three different types of costing models - partial upfront, no upfront, and all upfront. Azure has two models, all up front and no upfront. But also in these costing models, AWS has multiple other payment modes in terms of one-year or three-year. Azure does not have that. It lacks that particular costing mechanism, which it needs so there are more costing models. There is a lack of pricing flexibility, and I would like to see more costing models and licensing.

The third thing I would like to say, is that Azure was pretty bad in terms of the recent service off-time for Microsoft Azure and AWS. They didn't complete 99.99% of service they provide to the customers as compared to AWS. AWS data centers have also gone out recently, I think, four or five service interruptions, but definitely Azure should be keeping that in mind. I think with the help of clustering data centers in a single region, they can achieve that.

I do not want to take any credit away from Azure or AWS, but definitely Anthos is a big plus point for DCP. Azure should also build that kind of platform. Secondly, they can work on creating more data centers to build the regional availability,  which AWS already has across geography. The third thing they can work on is their costing models and the RI models - make them a bit more flexible for the client.

I have been working on Azure for the past seven years.

Regarding stability, Azure is doing well in terms of IES portfolio. They need to progress on the implementation of more data centers in a single region, which would increase their service level agreement by a little. They definitely need to work on their DevOps services. AWS' DevOps services are pretty good. If you go into ratings, the leading raters or the leading magazines, Forrester or Gartner or IDC, rate AWS services much higher compared to Azure. So, they need to increase on their service.

The third thing on the stability factor is that they publish more cases on the core infrastructure migration, the mission critical applications like SAP migration or Apple migrations. Putting the case studies on the portal would alleviate the doubt that Azure is stable. Azure is stable, but the case studies have to be there to support that.

When we talk about scale and scale out mechanisms, this works pretty seamlessly in Azure. For example, if I need to use the spot instances that AWS has (spot instances are those instances which are actually created at times when you need a high memory or a high CPU for some time) you can configure a spot instance and the spot instance occurs, and it does the load checkpoint. Azure does the same thing with scaling out. However, one thing regarding RI is that AWS does not support that, but when I am in a particular RI, for example my family is the DS series, I am in DS3 or DS4, if I want to scale up, I can scale up with the same RI, but if I need to scale down, I cannot scale down unless I remove that RI and create a new one. I cannot scale into a different family altogether.

Cross-family scaling is not there. Cross-family scaling would help because sometimes being on cloud machines which are in RI, those machines have been used for one year and are currently a very small application host or they are hosting applications or IA services, etc... Now, that particular application has been, or is getting decommissioned, and the company wants to leave the same RI machines for a different application altogether for which they want that particular application to perform on a higher computer issue. For that particular thing I need to cancel that RI and with the remaining my budget, and with the call deduction that Microsoft does, I need to purchase a new RI. If the cross-family RI is there, then it is definitely smoother, and the priority won't be there. So, it will not be an economic blow for the company.

When you open a normal case, Azure has a response matrix. They don't have a resolution matrix - at what particular time that will be resolved. The maximum resolution matrix is not there. But when we talk about the premium support, then Azure has a response matrix and a resolution matrix, and they also have the escalation matrix.

When I was working in Progressive Infotech, we had the advanced support subscription with Microsoft Azure Support. We were given multiple hours of advanced support. We were also provided with other things. I felt then that when you're opening a support ticket, and the support ticket priority is less or if the ticket that you opened is not in the premium bracket, the resolution will be late and the support matrix won't follow the time. They have a response. I think the response matrix is there for basic support and for advanced support. Premium support has the resolution matrix, as well. But the support center needs to have a service level agreement, which has the response matrix, the resolution matrix, and escalation matrix. That will build more trust from the partners in the OEM. AWS actually does not have that, but their response and resolution are pretty good because all the cases that you open in AWS are paid.

Azure materials are pretty good compared to AWS, or any other platform materials. Azure has multiple platforms, and MS Learn is where you can learn about the platforms and the services. Then you have Docs.Microsoft.com, which you can use as a troubleshoot document or understanding of how to implement that solution. With the help of Microsoft Azure, the Microsoft platform, you have multiple types of cases which you can open in the Microsoft Portal. The premium cases are there. Then you have support cases, as well. Azure is pretty good there. Their support matrix is pretty good. The materials are there, the support matrix is there. So, that is pretty good.

Microsoft Azure has multiple levels that an organization can take. Once they had the silver, bronze and the gold partnerships, and in terms of the productivity there is the Office 365 suite or the Azure suite, and they have specialty certifications, as well. You have the premium certifications. If you are also providing support to the client, then as a manager you can join Microsoft as an expert MSP. I think there are 50 or 55 in the country. It started at 15, and it grew to 55. Because many companies who are putting out tenders or an RFP or RFQ, mention in the PQ criteria that the partner should be MSP certified.

It would definitely help. It would act as a USP for you because there are multiple companies in India, more than hundreds and hundreds of companies in India and outside India. The customer would know the first company which is an expert MSP and the Microsoft partners would also give the lead to those export MSPs. Currently, you can also elevate the level by being on a fast track team, which is a one-stop team for Microsoft implementation and support for the Office 365 platform. The fast track team can be a very good asset because you can get a faster certification and then you сan be on the fast track board. You can actually make money when you do a successful implementation or support for a particular client. So the value is there.

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