There are a variety of use cases for Microsoft Azure Data Box. If you are a Microsoft shop, you do not want to work with glue, so that is why you would go with Microsoft Azure Data Box. If you are in a non-Microsoft environment, you don't want to work with a Microsoft product. But, it does provide a solution that integrates non-Microsoft products, both in AWS and Azure. At the end of the day, you do not want to pay for extra data storage. You do not want to pay both for AWS and Azure because you are going to need to replicate data across two cloud bases. It is all cost-based.
Microsoft tools are always better than those of other vendors. That is a fact. Microsoft Azure Data Box has much more usability than other tools like it. It is very intuitive. In AWS, everything is very techy, but they're very stable. At the end of the day, you have to pick your poison.
For me it doesn't work well, so I work in Microsoft and non-Microsoft shops. If you're a Microsoft shop, I would – undoubtedly, blindfolded – say go with Microsoft Azure Data Box. But, if you are a non-Microsoft shop, to use Microsoft Azure Data Box, you would need to integrate it with your other vendors, and whether or not that will be possible will depend on the platform or platforms that host them. If a specific vendor is hosted on AWS and you are on Azure, you have to pay for the data and there is no way around that.
I have been using Microsoft Azure Data Box for four years.
The solution is scalable. I have not witnessed any problems with scalability.
Sometimes I love the tech support and sometimes I hate them. This is the case with both AWS and Microsoft. From the perspective of an IT person, a lot can go wrong. There can be a problem with the solution you write, a piece of code not running well on their platform, or the platform not adapting to your solution. There is always that discussion and compromise.
Everything is a little bit difficult in the beginning. But, once you get used to it and how it works, it is just like any other solution. Once you get it going, there is no difference.
The return on investment you get from Microsoft Azure Data Box is subjective. Service providers and end users will have different ROIs.
It all depends on the business and the use case in terms of how the organization is using the resources put towards the data. If you put enough resources into Microsoft Azure Data Box and evaluate your product on a continual basis, you can optimize it. If you take it at face value and start implementing it, you will not have a return on investment. However, if you go full support with all the services, then you can have a good investment.
One note: If you use Microsoft Azure Data Box both on premise and the cloud, you will have twice the cost. You will have no return on investment there.
My advice is to deploy Microsoft Azure Data Box only if it makes sense to do so with the project. What are you looking for in the solution? Which product are you moving to the cloud? Who is the customer base? You have to take all of these factors into consideration before going one way or another.
