Microsoft Azure DevOps Reviews

We adopted the SAFe Framework, and more than 10 teams are using the process or workflow template from Azure DevOps for SAFe. Also, we're currently using DevOps for future planning and backlog management following the scrum approach on the team and coordination level. The company plans to extend this with Lean Portfolio Management. 

Time to Market: Teams deliver more in less time.

Azure Pipeline is the most valuable feature.

The portfolio is one area where DevOps has room for improvement. Built-in reporting and visualization also could be better. We're using Power BI and Tableau to compile more complex reports and dashboards. Azure DevOps has some out-of-the-box reporting capabilities, but they're very simple. It's usually okay on the team level, but if you have to run a complex report, it's difficult and insufficient, so we use Power BI as an extension.

I've been using DevOps for about three years.

DevOps is very stable.

DevOps is scalable. We have about 65 users working with it, including the product manager, product owner, scrum master developer, tester, line managers, and architects. 

We haven't experienced any significant issues so far, but any issues we've had were fixed fast, so I would say I'm very satisfied with the support.

We were using Jira, but we switched to DevOps. It was a strategic decision to reduce the complexity of the toolchains. We wanted a Microsoft solution, so we chose Azure DevOps.

Setting up Azure DevOps was straightforward. It's easy to use the default templates. Everything is under our control, so it's simple to implement new requirements. We did it ourselves in three days. Since we used the default templates,  we didn't have to change the standard Azure DevOps services. Two people are responsible for deployment and maintenance: DevOps engineer and Release Train Engineer

I rate Azure DevOps seven out of 10. DevOps isn't so easy. In general, the solution is straightforward and suits our purposes, but it's a little bit tricky to customize the workflow. It's simple to implement the SAFe Framework, but it's not easy to customize compared to Digital.ai Agility. There's a huge gap.

As for room for improvement, more features need to be added to the classic pipeline. The build and release pipelines are present, but there has not been much improvement there.

Apart from that, the reporting structure could be provided as well. Depending on how the company is using the technology, there may be other Microsoft tools that are better so that the integration and reporting will be easier.

I've been using Microsoft Azure DevOps for almost five or six years.

It is stable, and we have had no issues with it.

It is scalable.

I would rate this solution at eight on a scale from one to ten.

There are two versions of Azure DevOps: the cloud version and the on-premises version. We use the cloud version in very few situations, but most of our software is based on Azure DevOps on-premises.

We are a software house, and we develop software. We use it to store our source code; that is, it is the repository for our source code.

We have different teams working on different products, and each one uses a different methodology and a different process. Azure DevOps helps with that. For instance, one group may be using Scrum as a methodology to develop their software. The other group could also be using Scrum but with CDCI (continuous development, continuous integration), which helps a lot when you have to develop, test, and deploy the solution.

I think the most usable thing is that you can follow the whole progress of the development process. This makes it very useful for us.

As for improvement, the first one is pricing. For us, luckily because we are partners, it's free. Microsoft gold partners do not have to pay, but if you're not a partner, the product is very expensive.

The second would be that the tool should integrate with some of the competitors. It doesn't matter if it's a big market; it's difficult when you have to integrate with other competitor's tools, like JIRA, for instance.

If you look at the competitor's tools, they integrate easily with Microsoft, but on Microsoft's side, it's not as easy. They have been changing, but still, there are a number of gaps there.

I've got teams that want to use Microsoft Project, not only to control the whole process of the development but also to control the whole project and software. I think Project should be integrated with DevOps.

We have been using this solution for 10 years.

It is very stable. I think the system is down only a couple of hours per year, so it's very stable.

It's very scalable. We started using this solution 10 years ago, and it has evolved, We also have grown our software production, and so far, we have scope with all these situations.

We haven't had any problems with the product, but every time we had some questions, technical support staff answered pretty fast, in less than 24 hours.

The initial setup is pretty easy.

For the deployment, I think we had two people: one person from infrastructure and one who was a specialist in Azure DevOps. For maintenance, because we have about 80 people using this software, we only have one and a half people taking care of the software. That is, the infrastructure person does this part-time. He doesn't spend the whole day taking care of DevOps.

The ROI is very positive for us, but it's difficult to say how it would be if we had to pay for the solution. It's a very worthwhile product, but again, we don't have any comparisons because we don't pay anything for it.

Microsoft Azure DevOps is an expensive solution.

Get to know the product because it is complex and has many different possibilities.

It is worth having it, but you have to have an in-depth understanding and know what it is capable of doing. Otherwise, you're going to install it, and then it will be like having a very nice car in your garage that you don't know how to drive.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Microsoft Azure DevOps at eight.

I use it to, for example, build applications. Not just Subnet - also Java or in OGS. I deploy Windows applications and also mobile applications with Visual Studio App Center and Azure DevOps.

Azure services like serverless technology make it quicker and faster to deploy .NET applications, for example. Similarly, the Azure Portal is faster to put in services, for example, with specific functionality. These kinds of features are faster to deploy and to put in functionalities that are specific, which is great.

I like the Azure keyboard. Keyboard permits use, for example, connection streams in secret, in a safe manner. 

Sometimes I use also Azure SQL Database cloud, the serverless functionality. It's also very attractive because you can use something like a GP, like the protection of the data on the cloud. You can put a lot of information there, maybe not with banks, however, with other kinds of clients. 

The ability to have cognitive services is good. For example, I use a lot of Azure DevOps, for example, Cloud, Azure DevOps Cloud, and analytics views with, for example, Power BI on-premise if you have Power BI as a service. There is a lot of pipeline potential with Azure DevOps deploying, for example, Containers, to Kubernetes, Azure Kubernetes Service, and also a lot of Azure Container repositories and Azure Container instances. This is great for quickly deploying SonarQube in a container. These kinds of things are very attractive.

It's a pretty problem-free solution.

When we don't have some permissions, we have to research how to get them. It's not obvious. For example, deploying in order to do the connections, we need permissions for quotes or quotas. A specific quota might depend on an account. Sometimes we don't have the kind of support we need to work things out easily.

When you deploy in Yaml Pilot, for example, you need to note in Yaml how to associate the piling, the release with the word items. We need more information about how this is possible and more flexibility to make it happen. 

My organization is a Microsoft partner.

I have Microsoft certifications. I always develop in Visual Studio, .NET, or Core, and now I work with Azure DevOps and also in Azure Portal.

I deployed in a hybrid environment as the clients have a lot of things on-premises. For example, the databases I use, for example, Redgate, plus Azure DevOps, or Apex with Azure DevOps, to deploy databases. In some cases, a lot of banks prefer their data on-premise. In other cases, I deploy to Azure App Services, for example, in the cloud. Also, I see things with Amazon Web Services and telephone, like multi-cloud.

I would rate the solution at a ten out of ten as it never gives me any problems. 

We are an application development company, so DevOps helps us manage the work our developers and software engineers do on-site. It's convenient for customers because everybody works from home due to COVID.

DevOps is used within our organization and we also encourage some of our clients who are interested in a development platform to use Azure DevOps, but we have other clients that actually prefer Red Hat or other platforms. We like Azure DevOps, but our cloud environment is AWS. We've done three implementations on AWS without any problem.

Our technical sales staff and business development people need to know how far the developers are on any product that we're developing. DevOps makes it easier for you to see how far along they are with the work because they have a repository where they store everything. There is a portal where you can see what has been done, what has been tested, what is working, and what isn't. I have a huge dashboard with an overview of what the development team is doing from an executive point of view.

I know exactly what they're working on. If the team is falling behind on a project, there's a project management module where I can see exactly what was supposed to be delivered and what hasn't been. 

I can't think of any specific things at the moment, but I've run into things that I didn't like. I came across something that I wanted to be changed in DevOps, but I can't remember what it was. It was a particular feature I was looking for that I couldn't find.

I'm happy with DevOps' stability. I've had problems with the Red Hat environment, but I think it also boils down still to implementation skills. We're a big Microsoft implementer, so we find Azure DevOps to be highly stable.

DevOps is highly scalable. Before one of our clients decided to move to the cloud version of DevOps, they decided to try it in a small environment to see if they liked it. Previously, they had Team Foundation Server running on-premises, and we encouraged them to switch to DevOps. We set up a minimal environment and used it as a typical development environment. It wasn't for testing or anything. It was just a mini development environment that replicated their internal chassis.

Before we started using DevOps, we were using Microsoft Team Foundation Server, which allowed the whole team to share work and collaborate. DevOps does that and a little more.

Most of the time we just leave it on the cloud instead of deploying it on-prem, unless a client requests on-prem. In that case, we just replicate the cloud environment in the on-prem environment. There's no real difference, and we've had some clients who change and say they now prefer to have it on the cloud. 

After the subscription, which took about a day, we had our B environment up and running, and everything was transferred from on-prem to the cloud. In the older days, it would take you about a month. But now, to move, it actually took us, I think, almost a week, because the biggest challenge was moving the data more than the environment. Moving the environment, it took about, I think, a day or two. But the data was a bit of a problem.

The cost of Azure DevOps is manageable. You have the option to purchase a license that is per user. You can choose based on the size of your team. For example, you can opt for a volume enterprise license or go for user-based licensing if you don't have a huge number of users. 

You can start with a smaller package and then scale up as needed. Let's say, for instance, you are a smaller company with about only 10 users of the environment. Then, two months later, you win the Powerball, and you get a billion dollars and bring in a thousand developers.

You have the flexibility to move from a small-team subscription to a big subscription easily. So you don't necessarily have to take the volume. The licensing model covers all three tiers, whereby you can have a volume license, individual users, or groups. 

We are using groups, and we've found it affordable because you cancel their license if someone leaves. When we get a new person, we repurchase the license. We pay a monthly subscription, but the annual licenses are cheaper because of the commitment. 

I rate Azure DevOps seven out of 10. I would give it a higher rating, but there are a couple of things that tick me off.

I have been working with it for different projects and purposes. I'm basically the main architect for such solutions.

It is stable. I like Azure a lot. All our guys are Microsoft certified. 

It is fairly new, so there are a lot of changes, and because it keeps on changing, you need to adapt to those changes.

Its setup is quite complex.

It is stable.

We never used Microsoft's technical support. We always get it right.

Its initial setup is quite complex. There are a lot of caveats. Even if I can call a setup out of the box, it is not really out of the box.

We managed everything on our own. It involved fitting other products with the existing product. If you don't encounter problems, you're not going to learn.

We are 100% satisfied with it. I would rate it a nine out of 10.

We use DevOps for backlogs and work items. We divide our releases into many sprints to keep our development on time, and we use DevOps to manage tasks for development or business teams.

DevOps is easy to use because we can arrange each task in a project and follow up with the testing, development, and business teams. We manage everything through this.

I want DevOps to have more automated reminders about tasks that don't need management. We don't have reminders, so a project manager must track the tasks. It's not automatic.

We've been using Azure DevOps for three years. 

DevOps is stable. 

DevOps is scalable. About 70 people use the solution on average. 

Another team handles the implementation, so I wasn't involved. I'm on the business team. Two engineers are responsible for deploying and managing DevOps. 

We pay for a yearly license. 

I rate Azure DevOps eight out of 10. I prefer Jira, but both solutions are very nice. 

Our only use case with DevOps was for integration with ReadyAPI.

The most valuable feature is that we can run integrations with DevOps. From a QA perspective and a testing perspective, we can run those tests and integrate automation tools. Then we can run those tests as part of the deployment process. Every time we are deploying something, it automatically runs all the tests.

Something that could be improved is the initial setup with the integration of ReadyAPI.

I used this solution for six months.

Stability is fine. I was getting some errors, but that was due to my side of things.

Scalability is fine.

I would rate this solution 6 out of 10.

I did have some issues due to our organization, but it would be different for everyone. My advice is to reach out to support if you have any problems.