Microsoft Software and Solutions

We use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB mostly for maintaining our user databases in the document databases. Our firm has an app where each individual user's home screen is personalized according to their preferences, web searches, and metadata. For this, we maintain tags, and those tags, associated with each individual customer's mobile number, are stored in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB to drive personalization and hyper-personalization on the app's home screen.

In terms of how Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB has improved my organization, the latency for API calls is pretty good.

The best features of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB are the way it maintains the data in partitions and its retention policies. 

Their new feature, dynamic data masking, is very cool and useful for us. 

Since we are one of the largest NBFCs in India, maintaining customer data in a DB, we have to take care of their personal information related to their identity. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB rolled out this feature about six months ago. Though it's not GA yet, we are running our POC on that feature where you can hit a particular API which Microsoft has provided. Whatever fields you define in JSON, when hitting the API, it will automatically mask all personally identifiable information for each customer in the database. If you have 100 million data points for customers, according to that JSON set of rules, it will automatically mask everything. This is really helpful in our business.

Regarding search capabilities through large amounts of data, Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB performs well when using combinations of primary keys. If we want to search through one of the instances or databases, it works efficiently. The performance largely depends on how optimized your SQL query is and how effectively you use the primary keys.

In Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, I would suggest improvements in security. If anyone who has the endpoint and has access to infrastructure can potentially affect your DB. Instead of relying on a single endpoint for authentication, having multiple authentication factors would be beneficial. 

I have limited recent information about the use cases as I am about to leave my organization to pursue Masters in the US.

I have been using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for the past three years since I joined my organization. This is my first organization, and I have been using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB throughout this period.

In terms of stability for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, we sometimes face problems, and I would rate it a seven out of ten. 

There were instances where the DB was not responding, and we lost some part of our business due to that. My impressions of the latency and availability are that most of the time it's up and running. 

Issues typically occur at month-end when the load is measured due to the nature of our business, as we have to process huge chunks of data during that time.

I would rate scalability for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB as eight out of ten. It's straightforward to scale Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. You just have to go over the portal and set your configurations for DB or different subscriptions. While scaling is easy, we were facing some stability issues.

Technical support for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is great. Recently for the dynamic data masking feature, Microsoft provided us with an entire support team of three or four people who were present in our office. For any doubts or issues, we could approach them directly, and they would raise tickets accordingly. I would rate the support as eight point five to nine out of ten.

Positive

Previously, we were using Postgres for a document DB before switching to Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, which is also a document DB.

The deployment was good. I was responsible for a few parts of the installation. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB requires maintenance. The infrastructure team sometimes switches the data center and geolocation. I cannot provide much information about this since I'm not on the infrastructure team. The DB maintenance is handled by their team.

The solution has reduced costs, although not dramatically. The cost reduction is between 6% to 10%. The actual figures in my organization don't flow to my level, but according to my seniors, they were able to save between 6% to 10% after two years of optimization, not year-on-year.

I would recommend Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB to other users due to the latest dynamic data masking feature. If a company's infrastructure primarily uses Azure products, it makes sense to use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for better integration. However, if your business requires a very stable DB, you should explore other options as we faced some stability issues.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a seven overall.

We are in retail and marketing, and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB gives us the opportunity as a retail industry to store catalog data. This is essentially used for event sourcing. In my department, it is particularly useful for our catalog data storage and marketing operations.

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB has improved our overall search result quality. It is very easy to use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB to search through large amounts of data. This is one of the advantages that I can mention with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, which is not available or accessible with other solutions. Searching and working with large amounts of data while using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is one of the biggest advantages it provides for enhanced business operations.

The aspect I appreciate most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is the scalability. Horizontally, we can add as many servers as possible, which is very key for us as a company. Another important feature is that it is a globally distributed product that comes with numerous benefits. The real-time analytic features it offers, as opposed to structured query language features, provide real-time analysis for our retail and marketing operations. The integrated features, such as Azure Snipes link, enable easier running analytics for our operations. Additionally, we have noticed that it positively impacts our transactional performances as a company.

In terms of improvement for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, while it eliminates the burden of managing database infrastructure, we realized it might not be possible to use various models simultaneously as it only accepts a single model at any given point in time. This is an area that could be improved upon.

The operational complexity of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB can be challenging for individuals who are not tech-savvy. Making it simpler for companies to navigate through various features would be beneficial for future development in terms of reducing its complexity. However, it remains a good product that eliminates many bottlenecks we experienced before in terms of database management, storage, transmission, and retrieval for our business.

While there is complexity in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, we have found that software experts and IT professionals who are passionate about the product can overcome these challenges. We have not yet achieved fifty percent in terms of training our staff due to its complexity. However, the benefits significantly outweigh the complexity, particularly in terms of database storage, management, retrieval, and transmission in milliseconds. The global access, real-time capabilities, and low latency in terms of turnaround time make it an excellent solution once fully embraced and deployed.

We have been using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for one year.

The initial deployment of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB was challenging at the beginning, but we overcame these challenges and ultimately achieved positive results.

The performance and stability of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB maintains low response times in milliseconds. It is fast, effective, and reliable.

In terms of scalability for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, the servers can be horizontally scaled, and we can add as many servers as needed. This capability is possible with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, which is not common in other solutions. This is a significant advantage of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB.

It took us approximately three to four weeks to fully set up Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and get it operational. Our company utilizes multiple software solutions, so integration was a key consideration. With a team of six to seven software developers, along with additional IT experts, we completed the setup within this timeframe, which we considered reasonable for this type of product.

Our company has multiple software solutions, and integration is a crucial aspect. We have a team of six to seven software developers, along with additional IT experts, who assist in working with these software solutions.

I have used SQL as an alternative to compare with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. Having Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB come with additional features beyond SQL capabilities was advantageous for our company's deployment.

I rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a 9 out of 10 because there is always room for improvement in any software.

The benefits of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB were immediate for us. It was within our budget, and we cannot say it constrained our finances because it was approved. The cost-benefit analysis shows that the benefits outweigh the costs. The maintenance costs are also within our estimated budgeted projections as a company.

I am willing to provide references for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and can be a reference for anyone interested in purchasing the same product. I am available to be contacted by Microsoft regarding this review should they have any questions.

My main use case for Microsoft Configuration Manager is patching and application deployment. We are mainly using patching, application deployment, device configuration, and device compliance. Remediation is also part of our use cases.

The features I find most valuable in Microsoft Configuration Manager are replication and scripting. If I want to get a fetch report for anything, such as hardware-related issues or group policy-related issues, I need to fetch the report by using SCCM's scripting language and remediation part.

The inventory collection features of Microsoft Configuration Manager are good because we always prefer the inventory. We do it by using the script language.

We use remote management capabilities in Microsoft Configuration Manager. Remote management capabilities are useful if the user is not providing access; we can use the backend users to update the group policy and sync the devices. These are the main features we require.

I can suggest that Microsoft Configuration Manager should get the Autopilot feature because Autopilot is the main part of Intune, and nowadays everybody is using Autopilot. It is now more valuable for Autopilot. I would prefer to have Autopilot in Microsoft Configuration Manager. Then most users will get the OS deployment instead of using Intune.

Other than that, improvements are needed for servers. Servers are still not getting it properly, so we could add the servers in Microsoft Configuration Manager for things such as OS deployment and Autopilot as well.

I have been working with Microsoft Configuration Manager for the last eight years.

Automated patch management is useful, but because of my company's organization security, they are not authorized to go with auto-patch. They first have me go ahead with it manually because they want to test further from the pilot as well as from any testing device. Due to vulnerability concerns, they want to check before production and proceed as per the change request and the entire process. That's why we have to do it manually.

Microsoft Configuration Manager is mostly deployed on the Azure cloud.

For scalability, the ability to scale and expand, I will definitely provide a rating of 10.

For technical support from Microsoft, I would rate them a nine. This is because there was one point where I did not get proper support from the engineer at that time, and there was a delay from the engineer. Because of the delay, we got an SLA. I would give them an eight to nine.

Positive

Microsoft is definitely better than AirWatch. However, since most users are using and upgrading with Apple devices, I would prefer AirWatch for the Apple devices.

The initial setup for Microsoft Configuration Manager is simple, not a big deal because we can use the CD or backup file. We can just run the setup and restore the backup, and we can run and finish.

The pricing for Microsoft Configuration Manager is okay for me, so I can give it a middle rating of four or five.

In my opinion, the main competitor for Microsoft Configuration Manager on the market is AirWatch. I can compare it to that because the Apple product is already out there.

Integrating Microsoft Configuration Manager with other Microsoft products is good. Since nowadays all companies are moving to Intune, most things are moving to Intune itself. Microsoft Intune is already on top now, so integration is also moving towards Intune.

I would definitely recommend Microsoft Configuration Manager for enterprise-level companies.

Overall, I believe Microsoft Configuration Manager is definitely a good product. Because it's Microsoft, I rate it 10 out of 10.