Name: Microsoft Azure
Brand: Microsoft
Rating: 4.2 (324 reviews)

Head of Infrastructure at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Jul 15, 2012

Good for running Microsoft Enterprise Applications, although a pricey alternative to other IaaS/Paas service providers in the market.

Pros and Cons

"It has good support for various platforms like Java, Ruby, and PHP for websites."

"Compared to other IaaS service providers out there in the market, Azure is a bit expensive."

What is most valuable?

1) Windows Azure supports ASP.NET and Node.js, among other platforms. 2) Due to the Node.js supported library, Azure is capable of supporting the Map Reduce Infrastructure, Hadoop, for distributed data processing and number processing. 3) With the help of AppFabric Internet services, it can support Java, Ruby, etc. 4) Since the underlying Azure OS runs on Windows Server 2008 edition, it supports running all Microsoft Enterprise Applications, hosting services like IIS and many more. 5) Using Windows Azure Connect, various Virtual Machines can be easily connected with each other 6) Has support for multiple users & roles for management purposes.

What needs improvement?

1) It is a well known fact that Microsoft has yet to upgrade its IaaS technologies for providing a near zero interruption triggered by Load balancers. 2) Physical security of data is a major concern for various IaaS service providers, and Azure is no different. 3) Though having data served from multiple data centers improves performance, it has increased the risk of data security. 4) Compared to other IaaS service providers out there in the market, Azure is a bit expensive.

What other advice do I have?

It's true that to run various Microsoft Enterprise Solutions, Azure is the best option, keeping aside minor caveats. Unless your requirement makes it mandatory to use IIS, you should consider other IaaS service providers available in the market, which are comparatively cheaper as well. It has good support for various platforms like Java, Ruby, and PHP for websites. Windows Azure provides API's built on popular and robust technology like HTML, REST, and XML.

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

it_user1068Tech Support Staff at a tech company with 51-200 employees

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Jun 30, 2013

Is it possible to use Azure with other non-Microsoft enterprise solutions or are there compatibility issues? In case it is not possible, which other alternative can you recommend to SME businesses that are looking for a cheaper alternative with almost similar capabilities of Azure if not completely the same or even better?

it_user1065

Senior Manager of Data Center at a integrator with 51-200 employees

Jul 2, 2012

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Microsoft's cloud computing platform Windows Azure is a combination of both PaaS and IaaS

Pros and Cons

"Windows Azure is a cloud computing platform from Microsoft for running windows applications and working with data on the cloud."

"Poor debugging and logging management for applications."

Valuable Features:

The pros of using Windows Azure are- 1) Windows Azure Virtual Network which enables virtual private network creation for enterprise usage 2) Support for Python, PHP, JAVA, .NET 3) More focus on application deployment, rather than infrastructure 4) Provides an application interface built on REST, HTTP, and XML 5) Content Delivery Network

Room for Improvement:

Few cons on Azure are- 1) Poor debugging and logging management for applications 2) Increased competition for development resources 3) Pricing 4) load balancing causes interruption in many of the stateful applications

Other Advice:

Windows Azure is a cloud computing platform from Microsoft for running windows applications and working with data on the cloud. It is based on the architecture of HyperV and windows fail over clustering to support redundant instances of application with zero downtime. It's built to quickly deploy application with .NET, JAVA, SQL, Python, and other cloud services. It works on the combination of SQL, azure, and AppFabric, along with other cloud services.

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

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it_user1023

Director of IT at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Jun 30, 2012

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Windows Azure is classified as platform, as a service, and forms part of Microsoft's cloud computing strategy, along with its software as a service offering Microsoft Online Services

Pros and Cons

"Windows Azure is available in multiple data centers around the world, enabling you to deploy your applications close to your customers."

"Systems mirroring is currently not available within Azure, unlike Amazon Web Services."

Valuable Features:

-Windows Azure is available in multiple data centers around the world, enabling you to deploy your applications close to your customers. - Its enables you to use any language, framework, or tool to build applications. Features and services are exposed using open REST protocols. -Windows Azure’s distributed caching and CDN services, allow you to reduce latency and deliver great application performance anywhere in the world. -Giving power back to the users to concentrate on the application and take away all their worries from the hosting and provisioning point of view.

Room for Improvement:

-Systems mirroring is currently not available within Azure, unlike Amazon Web Services. -Lose account control to MS. -MS has calibrations to compute how much you used them, and how you plan to validate it.

Other Advice:

The Windows Azure platform, which provides a range of functionality to build applications that span from consumer web to enterprise scenarios, includes a cloud service operating system and a set of developer services. With Windows Azure there are at least two instances of each role that the application needs and therefore, the Fabric controller load balances users’ requests between them. What this means is that there is no guarantee two requests from the same user will go to the same instance. This may be a problem with some applications that need a stateful connection with the user. A stateful connection is one in which some information about a connection between two systems is retained for future use.

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

it_user4401Developer at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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Oct 19, 2013

I agree with your pros, and as other pro I would add that the only need is to deploy the application, because all the rest is Microsoft managed, the user has no worry about the windows patching and updates, server running out of space, technical troubleshooting and maintenance cost, and time saved in building up the servers.
As a con, I would say that only windows centric applications are supported by Microsoft for technical assistance, so if there is an error it could be difficult to determine where is from.

it_user936

Engineer at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

Jun 21, 2012

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Microsoft Azure is best cloud computing platform available in the market.

Pros and Cons

"Yet another powerful and reliable product from Microsoft."

"Microsoft is not an innovator for this cloud computing platform."

Valuable Features:

Yet another powerful and reliable product from Microsoft. Windows Azure is a very reliable cloud computing platform, coupled with Microsoft data centers. More positives are that it can be used with non-Microsoft based data centers. It is fast and secure. It stands first among all other cloud platform providers.

Room for Improvement:

Microsoft is not an innovator for this cloud computing platform. Still some of its products, like Dynamics GP 2013 online, are not compatible with iPad, iPhone, and some Android based devices.