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reviewer1297236 - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
ExpressRoute makes it easy to connect to services, but it could be more user-friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the ExpressRoute because that makes it easy to configure connectivity to Azure-hosted services."
  • "Azure could be made more user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

We are a service provider and Azure is one of the products that I use to assist my clients.

What is most valuable?

I like the ExpressRoute because that makes it easy to configure connectivity to Azure-hosted services.

What needs improvement?

Azure could be made more user-friendly. For example, the configuration wizard should be more intuitive for the users.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for about 18 months.

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Microsoft Azure
December 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This product is stable enough.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability-wise, we have not had any problems.

How are customer service and support?

We have been in touch with Microsoft technical support and I would say that they are average.

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

I am also working with AWS and I find that it is more user-friendly. I am a fan of AWS and although it depends on the use cases and requirements, we generally implement AWS more often than Azure.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was fairly simple. If we did have any issues then we would consult with Microsoft Professional Services, or some of our cloud architects, just to figure out how to resolve them.

We follow the Microsoft update paths. There isn't any maintenance required because it's a managed service and the providers take care of it.

What other advice do I have?

For the most part, Microsoft Azure works well. They are constantly upgrading their services. That said, I don't think that it's perfect.

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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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reviewer1383426 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Enterprise Architect at a construction company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Easy to build connectors but they should offer more customization
Pros and Cons
  • "It comes with a lot of ready-made studies that we can connect with other existing Microsoft applications, for example, Office, Outlook, Chatline, and OneDrive. Everything is behind the scenes running with Azure. It's easy to build the connectors."
  • "They are a bit closed on the customization side. If they open the customization then it will be very good."

What is most valuable?

It comes with a lot of ready-made studies that we can connect with other existing Microsoft applications, for example, Office, Outlook, Chatline, and OneDrive. Everything is behind the scenes running with Azure. It's easy to build the connectors.

What needs improvement?

They are a bit closed on the customization side. If they open the customization then it will be very good.

It covers pretty much the similar problems that we face in many areas of Azure. If we are planning to use some of the Azure applications within our organization, there are some places that we need to complain about a complaint. Because of the design of Microsoft, we were not able to make this complaint. So, we are not able to use that interface.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure for two years.

How was the initial setup?

The Azure setup itself is a big procedure, but once that setup is done, the adoption is basic, allowing developers to use the Azure platform for their resource site. Then we slowly open the Azure for the website and we slowly allow Azure to impact our office. 

What other advice do I have?

We don't have customer reviews of some of those applications. They should provide a lot of understanding. If reviewing and rating also becomes one of the alternatives, I think that will be a big win for them.

They are loaded with functionalities. I would rate Azure a seven out of ten.

They are very open with the options, but customers are not there with the road map. There are too many options. That confusion is a con of the solution.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Microsoft Azure
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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reviewer956922 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Architecture - Digital at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Time to market is fast compared back to the traditional on-premise hosting but it needs to mature
Pros and Cons
  • "The time to market is fast compared back to the traditional on-premise hosting. That is one of the better things I can say because there is no need to worry. The Pack services will enable it to start immediately."
  • "There were also a lot of constraints with the serverless parts."

How has it helped my organization?

The time to market is fast compared back to the traditional on-premise hosting. That is one of the better things I can say because there is no need to worry. The Pack services will enable it to start immediately. 

What is most valuable?

I think Azure is good. We're exploring the Cosmos DB for the dealer distribution, which is in a project phase. We are happy with their services. 

What needs improvement?

They should enable more other products to enable other commercial products as a Pack services, from the database side, more from the security perspective. Some of the databases don't have the features that Azure SQL has. Those parts have to enabled.

There were also a lot of constraints with the serverless parts. They are far behind compared to AWS.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure for the last three years. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is a bit clumsy. Their time to respond is not that much great.

How was the initial setup?

In terms of the UCs, they are very cumbersome. It's not very user friendly.

Each deployment takes around ten minutes. We do around 300 a day.

What other advice do I have?

If you look at it from the cloud product perspective, AWS is first. There is no doubt about it, and Azure is in the second position, and Google is the third.

Serverless is something that Microsoft needs to focus on, it is not so mature. That would be a game-changer.

I would rate it a seven out of ten. Not a ten because they need to improve in terms of maturity, flexibility, and user experience. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Data Architect at Prolifics
Real User
The data factory is a valuable feature; ML component could be improved
Pros and Cons
  • "The data factory feature."
  • "Auto ML could be improved technically."

What is our primary use case?

My current project is to carry out a comparison between Azure, AWS, and GCP, the three variants of cloud in order to analyze the best possible solution. In terms of costing and services I've been carrying out a comparison between all three. We are currently building the machine learning pipeline. We're partners with Microsoft and I'm a data architect. 

What is most valuable?

The data factory is a valuable feature. I come from a hardcore Microsoft background so I was able to relate to the data factory best among all the components as it's close to my existing system. 

What needs improvement?

I think the pricing model could be improved. I have that clarity with AWS but with Azure it's not that easy. If I am building a solution on Azure, the first question that stakeholders will ask me is about the cost. If I'm using multiple services of Azure, then how do I figure that out given that it's all on cloud.

Technically, I would say there could definitely be improvement on the AutoML part, which is the machine learning component of Azure. I made a comparison between AutoML versus DataRobot, another vendor that provides machine learning. DataRobot is definitely ahead of Azure AutoML. Of course that could be because I'm using the licensed version of DataRobot versus the free version of AutoML but there does seem to be a gap. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for about six months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't had any issues with stability. I think it's more to do with the volume of data that I am playing with which for now is only 5GB of data. I don't expect any problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I don't see any issue with scalability. But here again, on the cloud platform, there won't be any issue with the scalability but you need to understand the pricing. Once you have that,  scaling will never be an issue. 

How was the initial setup?

The complexity or otherwise of the initial setup depends on the person who will be using it. If you take the AutoAI services from other vendors, those are more graphical, more eye pleasing versus what Microsoft offers and less complicated to implement. With Azure ML, values have to be manually fed into the columns and that's clearly going to be more time consuming. 

What other advice do I have?

There are multiple players in the market and this seems to be a good solution. It really depends on the use case and on the customer. I would personally choose AWS over Azure because that's where my experience is and I'm more familiar with AWS.

I would rate this solution a seven out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
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AVP (Enterprise Architecture) at National Stock Exchange of India Limited
Real User
Will enable us to move on-premise servers into the cloud to hold data
Pros and Cons
  • "We are going to use Microsoft Azure to move some on-premise servers into the cloud so that our data can be held there."
  • "Microsoft Azure can be pretty advanced and difficult to understand. I would like it to be simplified. The licensing especially needs to be simplified."

What is our primary use case?

We are going to use Microsoft Azure to move some on-premise servers into the cloud so that our data can be held there.

What is most valuable?

We are now trying to decide exactly this. Where can it improve our daily business?

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Azure can be pretty advanced and difficult to understand. I would like it to be simplified. The licensing especially needs to be simplified.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have not been using Microsoft Azure for very long, about three months. My company has asked me to look for a better solution in terms of security perspective. They have asked me to technically go through to see if there is a real need to change or not, and what the new features are.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Microsoft Azure has been very good from what we have seen.

How was the initial setup?

I have not actually gone through the initial setup yet. So I am trying to figure that out. They want me to go through the training so I can understand the setup.

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

So far we are satisfied with the pricing of Microsoft Azure.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are also looking into other platforms. Perhaps an open-source platform.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Microsoft Azure at an eight out of a scale 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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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System Administrator at A&T Systems
Real User
Offers multi-factor-authenticated single sign-on and the technical support is good
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the single sign-on with multifactor authentication."
  • "The subscription licensing is very complex and we would like to have it simplified."

What is our primary use case?

Everything we have is hosted on Azure, include our email, as well as applications that we use like SharePoint and Office 365.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the single sign-on with multifactor authentication. Our staff uses an accounting system, they visit different bank sites, and the sales team uses Salesforce We want to be able to access all of these things with a single sign-on. In total, there are more than 50 sites. We are still evaluating this and it is not in production, yet.

What needs improvement?

The cost of Microsoft Azure could be lowered.

The subscription licensing is very complex and we would like to have it simplified.

The ease of configuration and use should be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Azure for about four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure is quite stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would say that this solution is scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support for Exchange and Sharepoint is quite good. Their response time is really good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not complex.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution an eight 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: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
AndyChan3 - PeerSpot reviewer
General manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 10
A scalable solution that requires minimal administrative effort
Pros and Cons
  • "The scalability is good."
  • "I would like to see more advanced functionality in terms of information security."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use Azure for our ERP system and DR usage. It is set up for multiple production workloads.

What is most valuable?

This solution requires minimal administrative effort.

The scalability is good.

The most valuable feature is Azure SQL.

What needs improvement?

Improvements need to be made with respect to the availability of third-party services.

I would like to see more advanced functionality in terms of information security.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Microsoft Azure for six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There is room for improvement in terms of stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is one of the best features. We have thousands of users.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have been in contact with technical support and would rate them better than average. I find that it takes a long time to reach somebody who is a subject matter expert. This is because they first need to escalate requests from the level one or level two helpdesk. For the problems that we have experienced, we needed support directly from people with expertise.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward and the deployment can be completed within short time. Now we can deploy most components/services within a day or two.

What about the implementation team?

When we first implemented Azure, we engaged with a third-party system integrator. Now, however, we can do everything ourselves. We have approximately five people who do the maintenance of the cloud infrastructure.

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

The price of Microsoft Azure is pretty good. Among the top market players, it’s usually the cheapest or the one after. Our usage is more than $1,000,000 USD annually.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is considering this product is that it can be a good start for SME, up to MNC who needs to see their full environment, rather than just a particular system or area.

Overall, this is a good solution but there is room for improvement.

I would rate this solution an eight 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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Data Engineer at Prodxia
Real User
An easy interface that is helpful for creating minimal environments to develop POCs
Pros and Cons
  • "The incorporation of several kinds of storage, such as SSD Premium, enhanced the performance of machines."
  • "Virtual networks might be improved by adding more rules for the validation of protocols and peripheral elements in security assurance."

What is our primary use case?

Our first deployment was CRM Dynamics, and it was done in the same way that we launched the previous version. However, it was easier than the last migration because the ease of preparing new machines with the wizard contributed to the quick implementation. It also includes great hardware specifications such as SSD Premium, which wasn't there until last year.

How has it helped my organization?

Azure has helped in the setup of operations with minimal environments for developing a proof of concept. The POC is the most useful and charming feature to get a minimal valuable product for all deployments. Customer satisfaction did increase the performance of sales, meanwhile, customer requirements were optimized.

What is most valuable?

This solution has an easy and (almost) intuitive administration interface to set up and deploy elements.

The incorporation of several kinds of storage, such as SSD Premium, enhanced the performance of machines.

The Machine Learning library for remote calls using REST and SOAP, as well as the legacy integrations of hybrid clouds are useful.

What needs improvement?

Virtual services might be improved by adding more rules for the validation of protocols and peripheral elements in security assurance. This feature could help to gain more visibility in compliance validation using cross-referencing between firewalls and legacy systems. By example, only mobile devices with Windows at phone, laptops, or tablets running either Windows 10 or Windows Mobile can print using Windows Server Hybrid Cloud Print, and this possibility cannot apply to another devices due to the feature uses an UNC path. UNC means for Universal Naming Convention, a standard for identifying servers, printers and other resources in a network. The UNC uses double slashes or backslashes to precede the name of the computer.

For how long have I used the solution?

Four years.

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

I was using hybrid solutions with several web hosting services, but several customers could not be accommodated. They needed to solve the problem of migrating huge data centers with confidential information, and the initial costs of proof of concepts were complicated if the isolation of every component relied on legacy systems.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated HostGator VPS before choosing this solution.

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: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.