Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
Team Lead, Enterprise Computing Platforms at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Mar 2, 2021
A reliable solution for migration and disaster recovery strategy
Pros and Cons
  • "It's been pretty useful in terms of migration and disaster recovery strategy."
  • "Microsoft's technical support could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Within my company, there are roughly 150 employees using this solution. We need about 30-35 people for maintenance.

What is most valuable?

It's been pretty useful in terms of migration and disaster recovery strategy.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Microsoft Azure for roughly four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is quite stable. We haven't had any issues stability-wise.

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure
March 2026
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is good. I would rate it high, scalability-wise.

How are customer service and support?

Microsoft's technical support could be improved.

There are certain areas on the Level 1 to Level 2 support-side that are not exactly great. We have issues with our Linux operating system. I don't think we've had delays as such but I would say that's one area there might be some scope for improvement.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I personally used to work with AWS, but that was at another company.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was fairly easy. Pretty much all the services are easy to deploy — not very complicated as such. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost could definitely be lower.

What other advice do I have?

You have to look out for the external storage costs — it can be a bit of a surprise. You have to do your budgeting. We didn't really anticipate that the storage expenses would be so much higher than anything else. That's something people have to budget and account for before they migrate to the cloud.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this soluting a rating of eight.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1501542 - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect/ Project Manager at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Mar 1, 2021
Provides very good security, scalability, and elasticity
Pros and Cons
  • "Good security, scalability, and elasticity."
  • "Technical support could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case of this solution is generally for infrastructure service, and also for VC-migrations and district modernization using the platform service. We're a consulting firm so we use this solution and also deploy it for our customers. I'm an architect/project manager and we are partners of Microsoft.

What is most valuable?

The main beneficial features the product provides are security, scalability, and elasticity.

What needs improvement?

The technical support could be improved. When we leave tickets, it can take some days before the issue is dealt with. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for four years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We haven't had any issues with stability in the last 12 months, prior to that there were some small problems. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good, most of our clients are enterprise size organizations. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward, the environment is mature with a lot of documentation. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of the solution is okay although it depends on the region of the deployment.

What other advice do I have?

A company should look at the suitability for their use case before choosing a solution. 

I rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

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
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure
March 2026
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1453347 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Architect at a legal firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feb 26, 2021
A classic solution in jeopardy of losing its flexibility due to becoming SaaS
Pros and Cons
  • "If you're interested in going with Microsoft, my advice would be to do it. Everybody's using Microsoft."
  • "The support, the cost, the way they have the tiers, this could all be improved."

What is our primary use case?

I work for a Naval Shipyard. We build fighter ships for fighter aircraft. The Navy is our sponsor. Everything that we do is Navy or Navy-related. A lot of what we do is classified; however, I can say that we do some robotic AI work. 

Microsoft is our corporate authentication piece, so everything has to authenticate to Microsoft Azure. Everything in the whole entire company has to authenticate there. Even if you're building something, you have to be leading up to the point where it's going to authenticate to Microsoft. They are the vendor of choice, as far as authentication, but they're not the vendor of choice as far as all things at the shipyard. 

Our entire organization uses this solution. Size-wise, we're similar to a small city.

What is most valuable?

No features really stand out in particular. The reason that we use Microsoft Azure is that Microsoft has left us no choice — that's what I would say. If you use Microsoft, you've been curtailed in your on-prem data center. There are certain things we can do with Azure on-prem that we can't do on the cloud. We're now fully in the cloud. But even most of the Office products, which are in Office 365, are still on-prem. I came to this company to do cloud, but the company isn't ready to go to the cloud. It sounds like upper management is going to be changing some of the business structures. The better information I can give upper management, as far as our features and capabilities, will help them to make better business decisions. That's kind of where I am currently.

What needs improvement?

The support, the cost, the way they have the tiers, this could all be improved. For example, our company has been purchasing Microsoft Office 365 cloud licensing for approximately five years, and we do not have any production. We have five divisions and these divisions have different classification and levels of data. This company has changed hands over the years. We now lead the was as far as IT, but the corporate office didn't do a top-down infrastructure. It's a long story, but the way that we do things is not the way that everybody else does things. Just because others are moving to XYZ doesn't mean we're going to go there today. We might look and see how everybody else is doing everything, and once we decide we're ready to go, then we'll go. It might be 10 years later. It might be next week, but we don't follow the crowd. We follow the Navy.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Microsoft since the very beginning.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Although I am not the administrator, there are some things that are kind of quirky. The biggest problem is that we're a really, really, really big SharePoint user. Everything that's 100% SharePoint online, is not a one-for-one into the SharePoint that we have on-prem. 

Security is a problem, that's why we only allow web products for Office 365. SharePoint doesn't give us everything that we need. These are a few of the drawbacks for us.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is complex, but only because our company is complex.

How are customer service and technical support?

Support depends. For the professional services, they're usually pretty good.

For other divisions, the support hasn't been that good. Anytime we have problems and we try to ask for support, what we paid for is one thing and what we're getting is another thing. Because of this, we often have to renegotiations with Microsoft. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very complex because we're a complex corporation.

The review board has actually approved all of the Microsoft Office 2016 products and applications. We have the licenses, however, we're not using them.

Teams is the one collaborative product that everybody wants to use. We've approved Microsoft Teams on the web only. Because of our security constraint, we don't want our users to use every feature that's actually on Teams. We don't want to allow third-party vendors to use that application in order to get into our environment. 

For example, you can share your screen, but I can't share my screen. I can share an application if it's been approved, but I can't share my screen. The only way I can actually talk to you is if we talk about topical issues that you would read about in the newspaper or something like that. I can't tell you anything that's company proprietary.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Right now we're looking at Microsoft TFS, Azure on DevOps. However, all of the features have to be configured by someone. It's not that ADO can't do it, it's just that it would take a lot of time — we'd have to have someone physically come in and do it. That would require Microsoft Professional Services which costs a lot of money. Often, people can just buy stuff off the shelf when they want to use another product. For example, all the ALM tools actually integrate with TFS. So, if we have a product that already has that capability, why are we purchasing those new products? Why are we doing a POC for that? So that's what kind of hat I wear here.

What other advice do I have?

If you're interested in going with Microsoft, my advice would be to do it. Everybody's using Microsoft.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of seven.

The problem is that I'm an old Microsoft engineer. I like to build it the way I want to build it.  I don't want it to be SaaS. I liked the fact that you could build your servers in the AWS environment and build out the servers the way you want. They're actually taking away a lot of the applications. More and more companies are switching to SaaS or IAS, etc.

Now, the structure is going towards SaaS. I think I have a three-year lifecycle on my licenses and then I will have to drop or either migrate my data to SaaS. It's probably cheaper for people to go that way, but it gives you less flexibility. There's probably more security, but you're depending on the vendor's security or however they have that set up. You lose a lot of your flexibility when you go into SaaS.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user

great, an amazing organization to work with. You did a great job!

reviewer1496493 - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Director at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feb 22, 2021
Great for configuring on a variety of machines; very stable and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a reasonably priced solution."
  • "The product is valuable if you don't want to spend a lot of money configuring your own devices on different machines, and I like that if I only want to use limited features, I don't have to pay for it."
  • "Could be more user friendly; security features should be improved."
  • "The solution is not particularly user friendly so that could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

In our company, this solution is mainly used for configuring devices and enabling them to be used by multiple users. I'm a developer. 

What is most valuable?

The product is valuable if you don't want to spend a lot of money configuring your own devices on different machines. I like that if I only want to use limited features, I don't have to pay for it. 

What needs improvement?

The solution is not particularly user friendly so that could be improved. With Microsoft Azure it's quite difficult to do anything freely or try my hand at something new. I think the solution is also lacking in security. I'd like to see the option of a free account for carrying out a POC and the ability to play around with the solution without any restrictions. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using this solution for a year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have the server on cloud so it's scalable according to demand. All of our staff use it, and we have 15,000 users.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used AWS. In comparison, Azure is a little restricted because of the security features and, as a developer, I'm not comfortable with that. AWS is more user friendly and in general, people find it easier to use. AWS is easier to install and to experiment and play around with to get a feel for the product.

How was the initial setup?

There is no setup as such, it's on a server and it's a matter of configuring on the cloud. If you need, you can spawn 3,000 machines with a single execution and 10,000 or so test scripts within minutes.

What other advice do I have?

I would definitely recommend this solution. 

I rate it an eight out of 10. 

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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Essam Younis - PeerSpot reviewer
SOA & BP Technical Manager at EJADA
Real User
Feb 7, 2021
Easy to install, stable, easy to use, and they have good technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of this solution is the ease of use."
  • "We have installed many competitive products, such as Appigee and IBM, but Microsoft Azure is the easiest one to install."
  • "I would like to see this solution support integration."
  • "I would like to see this solution support integration."

What is our primary use case?

We are vendors. We are neutral from the technologies. We provide solutions to our clients as well as implement the customer needs with the different technologies.

We have a multi-channel mobile app solution that we implement, and we have an API deployed on Azure cloud. We use API management in the Azure cloud.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of this solution is the ease of use.

The Azure APIs is monetization. Its support, monetization for prepaid and postpaid are good features that we look for.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see this solution support integration.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been selling Microsoft Azure for a couple of years.

We are implementing the latest version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable solution. We have approximately 1,000 users who are using this solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is awesome! It's very good.

How was the initial setup?

We have installed many competitive products, such as Appigee and IBM, but Microsoft Azure is the easiest one to install.

While I was not a part of the deployment, I know it took them less than a week.

We have a team of 10 to 15 for the deployment, customization, and implementation of this solution.

What other advice do I have?

For anyone who is interested in using this solution, I would recommend it.

I would rate Microsoft Azure a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Founder & Chief Technology Officer at Lavelle Networks
Real User
Dec 21, 2020
Responsive technical support, scales easily, and is the most economical of the main cloud providers
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure is a good networking solution from a WAN perspective."
  • "Azure is pretty good and in fact, we have about 100 customers who are using Azure on our technology."
  • "I would like to see all of the cloud providers be more compatible with each other."
  • "I would like to see all of the cloud providers be more compatible with each other."

What is our primary use case?

We are an SD-WAN vendor and we deal with a lot of networks. Microsoft Azure is one that I use regularly.

It's application migration. We run a network as a service from Azure. People are migrating to Azure, either it's MS SQL, SAP on Azure deployments or just running on Azure that we connect. 

The primary use case is to provide the SD-WAN to connect their remote offices and users to Azure and the data center.

How has it helped my organization?

Azure is pretty good and in fact, we have about 100 customers who are using Azure on our technology. These are some of the largest manufacturing companies in this region.

What is most valuable?

Azure is a good networking solution from a WAN perspective.

Features and functionality from a scale perspective, at least in the top three, are very compatible. These are AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see all of the cloud providers be more compatible with each other. All of the big organizations, such as large manufacturing and banking and financials, use Azure, while other places will use Google Cloud to AWS. Compatability between these is important.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been associated with Microsoft Azure for the last three and a half years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure scales like any other cloud.

How are customer service and technical support?

As a partner, the technical support is pretty responsive.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We also use Digital Ocean, Google Cloud, AWS, and we are set up with multi-cloud.

I think Azure and AWS are similar in terms of pricing. Google Cloud is cheaper compared to either of these two. Google Cloud on the same sales chart. It is 30% to 40% cheaper than AWS or Azure. The Azure additional option is even cheaper than Google Cloud.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is comparable but from a cost perspective, this solution is the cheapest.

What other advice do I have?

We use both Private Cloud and Public Cloud. For Banks it's generally through Private Cloud, otherwise, it's on a Public Cloud, as we deliver services as well on Azure.

This is a product that I can recommend to others.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1417791 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Regional IT Infrastructure Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Dec 5, 2020
A feature-rich and stable platform with good redundancy and scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "The redundancy across different regions is the most valuable. It provides a big value for cloud services, especially for Microsoft."
  • "Azure cloud is a platform for many things, such as hosting, file services, application or power apps, and data lake."
  • "The level of authorization or authorization cascading can be improved. We have the most powerful admins and then we have sub-admins, but the level of authorization is not that easy to handle or manage."
  • "The level of authorization or authorization cascading can be improved. We have the most powerful admins and then we have sub-admins, but the level of authorization is not that easy to handle or manage."

What is our primary use case?

Azure cloud is a platform for many things, such as hosting, file services, application or power apps, and data lake. All these things are a part of Microsoft Azure. We're using it as a full suite. We are a big tenant with all solutions for Microsoft. We are using the latest version of Microsoft Azure.

What is most valuable?

The redundancy across different regions is the most valuable. It provides a big value for cloud services, especially for Microsoft.

What needs improvement?

The level of authorization or authorization cascading can be improved. We have the most powerful admins and then we have sub-admins, but the level of authorization is not that easy to handle or manage.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for three years. I am using this solution on a daily basis. It is the main platform that we have.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Its stability is good. It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very easy to scale. We have more than 7,000 users. 

How are customer service and technical support?

They are pretty sufficient. I would rate them an eight out of ten.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We also have different cloud vendors like Amazon and Salesforce, but they all are for different purposes, so it depends on the service.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was simple. It was done in stages. 

What about the implementation team?

We had the full support and dedication from Microsoft for its installation. Its maintenance is done by a vendor, and we also have some technical support from Microsoft when we are doing this stuff.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Microsoft always provides the entry-level solution with a cheap license. Once you start to like the product, then you have to pay for the full package, which is more expensive than the entry-level solution. Every feature comes with a license and a cost. Some licenses have multiple features, and some features require a specific license.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise starting directly with Microsoft and then asking the vendors to recommend the trusted partners to work on the implementation or migration, and not vice versa. First, talk with the architect of the design and see if they can recommend a trusted partner who can do the implementation.

I would rate Microsoft Azure a nine out of ten. It is a big product and platform. It covers many things in terms of features.

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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
IT Unit Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Dec 5, 2020
Kubernetes service and API management are the most valuable, and it has very good stability and scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "Kubernetes service and API management are the most valuable."
  • "It provides us with access to technology that's not available in any other form and only exists in the cloud, so in order to keep our solutions modern, we have to do it through the public cloud."
  • "It should have a better hybrid-cloud central analysis. Their support service also needs to be improved. Our main concern is support calls. Our issue is basically related to the technical functionality of the services that we use. It doesn't behave as expected, and support often fails to solve the problem."
  • "It should have a better hybrid-cloud central analysis. Their support service also needs to be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to extend our own data centers and banking scenarios for banking solutions.

How has it helped my organization?

It provides us with access to technology that's not available in any other form. It only exists in the cloud. In order to keep our solutions modern, we have to do it through the public cloud.

What is most valuable?

Kubernetes service and API management are the most valuable.

What needs improvement?

It should have a better hybrid-cloud central analysis. Their support service also needs to be improved. Our main concern is support calls. Our issue is basically related to the technical functionality of the services that we use. It doesn't behave as expected, and support often fails to solve the problem.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is pretty stable. It has very good stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. There are no issues with scalability.

We have a maximum of 200 users. They include internal developers and other types of profiles.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their support service needs to be improved.

How was the initial setup?

It is complex because the solutions are complex. It depends on how you want to do the setup. For our business scenario, it is complex because there are a lot of security rules that are involved in it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is competitive with other public cloud providers, and its price is very close to different cloud providers. There is not a noticeable difference between different cloud providers. Otherwise, it would be a risk for them to have services that were much more expensive than their competition. They're pretty much neck to neck on pricing.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise others to go for the closest possible platform as a service. Do not go for infrastructure as a service; go for platform as a service.

I would rate Microsoft Azure a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2026
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.