The monitoring features are very good.
Senior Architect at a construction company with 10,001+ employees
Good monitoring features and technical support, but the dashboards need to be improved
Pros and Cons
- "The monitoring features are very good."
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
Some of the dashboard features can be improved.
Some of the backup solutions for SAP are not compatible. For example, we have a Sybase database running, and Azure does not have an agent tool for connecting with it. This means that we have to use a third-party tool to properly backup our SAP Sybase system.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Microsoft Azure for between two and three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Azure is a stable product.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable solution and we have been 200 and 300 people who use it.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is really good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have not used another public cloud.
What about the implementation team?
We have an in-house team, and between 10 and 20 people maintain it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing model can be improved because we find that Azure pricing is a bit high.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are planning to migrate our SAP system to the cloud, so we have been looking at and comparing different cloud solutions. We are analyzing and comparing Google Cloud Platform, Amazon, and the IBM Cloud. After we compare them all we will make a decision.
What other advice do I have?
The suitability of this product depends on the customer's requirements and needs. AWS is stable and nice, the Google Cloud Platform is really improving a lot, and IBM Cloud is also available. The decision for which to use will be based on what kind of solutions you are deploying and how you want to integrate them. Ultimately, it is best to choose the provider that is most suitable for your existing workload.
Overall, this is a good solution but there are certainly features that need to be improved, as well as the pricing.
I would rate this solution a seven 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.
A cloud solution to host applications and ERP
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "The solution should be more intuitive and provide better support. We often do not receive frequent updates or comprehensive support, even as partners."
What is our primary use case?
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.
How has it helped my organization?
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.
What is most valuable?
We focus on applications hosted on Azure and use the Power Platform. We leverage Azure to set up tenants and dynamics within the platform.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
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.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
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.
How are customer service and support?
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.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap.
What other advice do I have?
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.
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:
Buyer's Guide
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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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Operational Technical Security at Metro Bank
A scalable and easy-to-deploy solution that gives a good return on investment
Pros and Cons
- "The tool’s stability is good."
- "The product is not user-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use email accounts and SharePoint. We want to use AI and OCR services, but we don’t have many use cases.
What is most valuable?
It is a good solution. I can get all the tools under one roof.
What needs improvement?
There's a complexity involved in getting the subscriptions provisioned. There are too many complications. Without IT knowledge, we cannot subscribe and work. The product is not user-friendly. All the services must be available in one place so that I can get the services that I need at the right time.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for 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 product is scalable. Around 30 people use the solution in our organization. We are trying to get projects from Europe and North America. Once it is done, we'll be scaling up.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is straightforward and easy. Since I know about infrastructure and IT, it took me around one week to set it up. Non-IT people might struggle with the setup.
What was our ROI?
The return on investment is good. Since everything is in the cloud, we save a lot on infrastructure and server costs. It is very helpful to the client, and it is very useful for us.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I pay for a yearly subscription. Compared to other service providers, the product’s pricing is normal.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated other options, but I chose Microsoft because it is a little bit easier. We can get it right away.
What other advice do I have?
We are into data management. We deal with data consumption and data validation. So, we must use many virtual and storage solutions to process the data. We use the clients’ solution. I am into IT. I have a bit of knowledge of the infrastructure. If we need to scale up, we might need some training. I would recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
System Administrator at Sensorise Digital Services Private Limited
Easy management, same control panel and user-friendly
Pros and Cons
- "The platform as a service for MySQL and PostgreSQL have significantly improved our operational efficiency."
- "I would like to see improvement in the technical support. Sometimes it takes a long time."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for virtual machines, database services, load balancers, and firewall services.
How has it helped my organization?
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a very stable product. We haven't faced any issues with it, and it's been about five or six years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
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.
How are customer service and support?
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.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
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.
How was the initial setup?
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.
What about the implementation team?
We did it in-house.
What was our ROI?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Jul 24, 2024
Flag as inappropriateSenior Manager Presales at NEC
Offers a single dashboard to users, making areas like management and monitoring easy
Pros and Cons
- "It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
- "I would want Microsoft Azure to provide some credits that can be used to test and validate Microsoft’s different solutions since it is an area where the product lacks."
What is our primary use case?
My company is a platinum partner of Microsoft, owing to which we resell the platform and licenses to our customers. My company also uses the product within the organization.
What needs improvement?
From the perspective of a user who has a partnership relationship with Microsoft, I would want Microsoft Azure to provide some credits that can be used to test and validate Microsoft’s different solutions since it is an area where the product lacks.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure for four to five years. My company has a partnership with Microsoft.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
My company caters to the needs of enterprise-sized companies who need Microsoft Azure.
How was the initial setup?
I rate the product's initial setup phase an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.
The solution is deployed on the cloud.
The time required for the product's deployment depends on the complexity and size of the infrastructure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the product price a seven or eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price.
The pricing of the licenses attached to the solution depends on the requirements of the users.
What other advice do I have?
The projects or workload that have been migrated to Microsoft Azure in my company is an area that is managed by a different team since I work as an accounts manager. My job role is just to get the business for our company. Once I get the business for my company, I submit the details to the technical or delivery team, which takes care of the business part.
The feature of the product that has been most impactful for our company's operations stems from the fact that everything is on a single dashboard. In general, everything is on a single dashboard or a single page where users can monitor and manage everything related to the product.
The product's scalability benefited our company's business needs since we can upgrade it or scale up to meet our needs.
The knowledge related to the integration capabilities of Microsoft Azure with the existing products in my company's infrastructure lies with the technical team in my organization.
I rate the overall tool an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Group Data Architect at Arrow Global Ltd
Makes it easy to spin up new environments and develop new technologies
Pros and Cons
- "The product makes it easy to spin up new environments and develop new technologies."
What is our primary use case?
My organization's entire infrastructure is cloud-based, so everything we have happens in Azure.
How has it helped my organization?
The product makes it easy to spin up new environments and develop new technologies.
What is most valuable?
The product’s flexibility is its best feature. We are not tied to particular machines. We can upgrade servers, downgrade servers, add storage, and take storage away with a flick of a switch. Microsoft constantly adds new features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for five years. I am using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the product’s stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the product’s scalability a ten out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using a private cloud before.
How was the initial setup?
I rate the ease of setup an eight or nine out of ten. The deployment took about three months.
What about the implementation team?
We used a service provider for the deployment of the solution. They handled most of it. Four in-house people were involved in the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the pricing a five or six out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I really like the solution. Overall, I rate the tool a ten 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.
Personal Banker at HDFC Bank
An easy and robust solution that provides good performance and support
Pros and Cons
- "Microsoft Azure provides good performance and support."
- "The solution’s stability could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
I use Microsoft Azure to prepare a design document for the security implementation concerning Azure.
What is most valuable?
Compared to earlier technology, Microsoft Azure is very easy and robust and has features like scaling. Microsoft Azure provides good performance and support.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s stability could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Azure for eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Azure is a very stable solution.
I rate Microsoft Azure a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft Azure is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support is good. The technical support team dedicates time to us, and we don't face any challenges with them.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is clear and easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Microsoft Azure is a cost-effective solution where you use it as per your requirement and pay for it.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Director Technology at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
It gives us the speed and predictability to build something in a short time.
Pros and Cons
- "Azure's Data Lake services are decent. I like AKS, and API Management is relatively straightforward to use. The security and SIEM options Azure offers are good. All the infrastructure services are easy to use and set up."
- "Pricing is one area where Azure has room for improvement. There should be some due consideration. Azure has solved some issues with pricing from the development team's standpoint, but it is still quite costly. They should also offer a trial period for the individual platform solutions. I think that would be pretty handy for the developers."
What is our primary use case?
In general, we use Azure for financial services.
How has it helped my organization?
Azure helps us take a few things to the market predictably and robustly. It gives us the speed and predictability to build something in a short time. The cost can sometimes be clumsier, but I believe it is similar to other cloud providers. These are the main advantages, but the price is one factor that has really bothered our clients.
What is most valuable?
Azure's Data Lake services are decent. I like AKS, and API Management is relatively straightforward to use. The security and SIEM options Azure offers are good. All the infrastructure services are easy to use and set up.
What needs improvement?
In terms of adoption, one issue we face is providing training for users who are new to Azure and want to try some features out. There are some methods by which the organization has to allot some budget to them, but it has to be apart from the developer endpoints. It's difficult for them to try out something new. It would be nice if Azure had an evaluation period of 30, 60, or 90 days, so people could try out a few things and learn.
That is one challenging area, but this is a problem with all cloud providers, not just Azure. Some free subscriptions are available, but they are for the cloud platform as a whole rather than just a single service. For example, say I don't have a trial subscription, but I want to try something new like Azure AKS for 30 days to learn and to try out.
It's hard to say what Azure could add. There are a few specific requirements that clients raise based on business needs. In general, I don't think there is any particular feature I can recommend.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Azure for about four or five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Azure has had some issues on and off, but that was a couple of years back, and now it seems okay. Sometimes the performance of the cloud degrades, but there are workarounds.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We mainly use AKS, which is pretty scalable, so I don't see any issue there. Azure's scalability is relative, so it depends on the client and the solution. Most of our clients are B2B, so they don't have many users. However, we provide a retail banking solution that involves hundreds of transactions per hour. Azure can handle up to a hundred transactions per second can be supported, so I think it's okay.
How are customer service and support?
We talk to Microsoft support often.
How was the initial setup?
Azure setup is pretty straightforward and we mostly handle it in-house. However, it depends upon the complexity of the use case, how we are deploying, and the kind of application we are building. The build and deployment times depend on how we structure our packaging.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Azure is expensive, but that depends upon who you ask. It probably wouldn't be considered a significant expense for a large corporation, but it's costly for smaller enterprises or startups.
Pricing is one area where Azure has room for improvement. There should be some due consideration. Azure has solved some issues with pricing from the development team's standpoint, but it is still quite costly. They should also offer a trial period for the individual platform solutions. I think that would be pretty handy for the developers.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Azure eight out of 10. I would recommend it. I don't see any challenges from a technology standpoint.
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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