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reviewer1078404 - PeerSpot reviewer
Strategic Sourcing Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Dec 1, 2021
An absolutely stable solution that allows us to scale up and down as needed
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to scale down is a big thing."
  • "It can be improved in terms of ease of billing or monitoring of the billing. That gets to be a little difficult."

What is our primary use case?

We have our data lake on it. In terms of deployment, I believe we have a hybrid deployment.

How has it helped my organization?

We can temporarily build out an environment for different scenarios, such as testing, and when testing is done, we can shut that environment down. So, we do not have an overhead in our own data center.

What is most valuable?

The ability to scale down is a big thing.

What needs improvement?

It can be improved in terms of ease of billing or monitoring of the billing. That gets to be a little difficult.

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.
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For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is absolutely stable. Microsoft doesn't want to sell something that isn't.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is excellent. You just turn something on, and it is there. We have not made any reservations on it. We can scale up and scale down as needed. There is nothing that we have that is a commitment.

We probably have about 500 users, and they are administrators, developers, BI folks who actually manipulate it and create reports, and then we have end-users for the data. They are the people that use those reports.

In terms of the plans to increase its usage, right now, we're going through a merger, which will impact the data a little bit. So, we are in a holding pattern in terms of scaling up anything until that merger gets completed.

How are customer service and support?

We go through a third party for that, and their support is really good.

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

We were fully on-premise with some SaaS platforms, and we then moved to Azure for a part of that.

How was the initial setup?

It was complex, and that was mostly because of the security needs. We had to understand how things fit together.

The original deployment, just for testing, took about half a day, but to really get it going and to be able to allow access to people, other than the administrators, took more time. We're a financial institution, so we had to have everything monitored and secure. It probably took about four months to get it functional on the production side.

What about the implementation team?

We used a consultant. They were excellent. They knew exactly what they were talking about. They were able to give us not only what was needed presently for our deployment but also the things to think about as we let the environment grow in the future.

For its deployment and maintenance, I've got security folks who watch what's going on. They make sure that only the right people are getting the right data, and it is not being allowed to folks who shouldn't have access. I have nothing public-facing on it. I've got administrators. I've probably got three people in security and five people in the administration. We're a 24/7 business, so it is split across all of that time.

What was our ROI?

Originally, when we implemented it, it was basically in a like-for-like way, which is not the way the platform is designed. So, once we were able to really get in there and figure things out, we figured out that we could use a much smaller footprint. That helped us out quite a bit in terms of a return on investment. We are seeing probably about 75% of the regular data center cost in Azure, so there were 25% savings, but we could see that go down as testing was being eliminated over different platforms.

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

Currently, we do not have anything reserved. There are no reservations that we have built into the Azure environment, so all of our licensing is on a consumption basis. As things spin up, those licenses spin up.

In terms of the additional costs incurred beyond the standard licensing fee, such as for operations, it's kind of tough for me to judge because I already had a fully-staffed operations team in a fully on-premise platform environment. So, we didn't spin up anybody extra for that. It just changed what they were doing.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated other options. We decided to go with Azure because we understood the licensing and VMs and how all of that worked together. Prior to the merger, we were looking at bringing the platform onto AWS. It wasn't that we were necessarily exclusive; we just felt that this was our best first step.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise understanding what data you're going to be putting out there, and what your security requirements are for that. You should be ready to have a workshop so that everyone involved knows what's going on. Get a good understanding from the accounts payable team about how the payments are coming in and how to monitor them.

I love the product. From a procurement standpoint, I don't have a lot of control over it. Unless we've got some contracting of what we plan on doing, I don't have a lot of control over licenses, etc. An administrator can just go out, do it, and put the licensing in place, and then it is like you've got to pay for it. It doesn't function well in a P2P type of environment.

I would rate it an eight out of 10.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Deputy Manager - Radio Frequency Planning at RF-SMART
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Jul 30, 2024
A cost-effective solution with high uptime and zero downtime

What is our primary use case?

We have deployed the NMS network monitoring system in Azure. We can monitor the network through it. There is no need to deploy an NOC (Network Operations Center) in my country. If we use Audiovi and Airspace there and install the NMS network element and Microsoft, everything is configured in Azure. Configuration is done remotely from anywhere. By entering Azure, we monitor the NMS network.

What needs improvement?

The stability could be improved.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution’s scalability is good. 

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward and user-friendly. 

What was our ROI?

Azure offers a trial version, which you can use for free before proceeding to payment.

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

We are using the free version.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend the solution to use it. This solution is cost-effective, with high uptime and zero downtime.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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.
Wai KongWong - PeerSpot reviewer
Information security consultant at Ypsilon System
Real User
Feb 28, 2024
Helps to deploy web servers but navigation needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft Azure has proven to be beneficial for our organization due to its quick deployment capabilities. Setting up virtual machines or any required infrastructure is fast."
  • "The tool needs to improve its navigation."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to set up access to process queuing, configure virtual instances, obtain a domain name, acquire the necessary certificates, and deploy the web server to the internet.

What is most valuable?

Microsoft Azure has proven to be beneficial for our organization due to its quick deployment capabilities. Setting up virtual machines or any required infrastructure is fast. 

What needs improvement?

The tool needs to improve its navigation. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for two to three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure's stability depends on the resources allocated. If you provision sufficient resources, it tends to be stable. However, choosing lower resources, like two gigs of RAM and CPUs, might lead to less stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable. My company has five users. 

How are customer service and support?

I haven't contacted the technical team yet. 

How was the initial setup?

Microsoft Azure's deployment is straightforward for me, given my experience and understanding of the Azure system. It is not difficult for me to handle.

What about the implementation team?

The tool's deployment was done in-house. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the product an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Co-owner at Min shan saw
Real User
Feb 28, 2024
Can be used for operations, email, and office applications
Pros and Cons
  • "We use Microsoft Azure for operations, email, and office applications."
  • "The solution’s learning curve could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Our people are familiar with Microsoft Azure, and we use it for our day-to-day operations.

What is most valuable?

We use Microsoft Azure for operations, email, and office applications.

What needs improvement?

The solution’s learning curve could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for two to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Around nine people use the solution in our organization.

How are customer service and support?

We contact our local partners so that they can help us with our issues. For some difficulties, we try forums and open support. We don't contact enterprise support because we don't have it.

How was the initial setup?

The solution’s initial setup is very straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented Microsoft Azure through an in-house team consisting of two to three people. The solution’s deployment takes a few weeks.

What other advice do I have?

Microsoft Azure is deployed on the cloud in our organization.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven or eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Managing director at antarymain solutions
Real User
Oct 15, 2023
A scalable and stable tool that provides various valuable features under one roof
Pros and Cons
  • "I get all the features under one roof."
  • "The subscriptions are complicated."

What is our primary use case?

We use the email accounts and SharePoint. We want to use the AI and OCR services, but we do not have many use cases.

What is most valuable?

I get all the features under one roof.

What needs improvement?

The subscriptions are complicated. The process is not user-friendly.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for almost one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The tool’s stability is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool is scalable. Around 30 people use the solution in our organization. We are trying to get projects from Europe and North America. Once we get more projects, we will be scaling up.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It took me around one week to set up the product. I did the deployment myself since I am into IT.

What was our ROI?

The return on investment is good because everything is in the cloud. We save a lot on infrastructure costs and server costs.

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

I pay a yearly subscription fee for the solution. The pricing is normal compared to other service providers. I can increase or decrease my subscription based on my organization's needs.

What other advice do I have?

We are into data management. We do a lot of data consumption and data validation. We need a lot of virtual solutions and storage solutions to process data. I would recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Victor Akidiva - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Semper Systemis Ltd
Real User
Sep 10, 2023
A flexible and highly scalable solution that provides a host of security tools and a responsive support team
Pros and Cons
  • "The product provides a host of security tools."
  • "The solution must improve its pricing."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for hosting business applications and the test environment.

What is most valuable?

The compliance is really good. It provides visibility of our top risks and recommendations on how to close them. Sentinel is really good from a security standpoint. The product provides a host of security tools. We deploy and configure everything ourselves. So far, we have not had any issues related to Azure.

What needs improvement?

The solution must improve its pricing.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for a couple of years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the stability of the tool a nine and a half out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool is highly scalable, depending on the design. I've not had any issues. We have to factor in cost and design. About 2000 people use the solution in our organization. It is extensively used in our organization. Based on business growth, we might increase the number of users.

How are customer service and support?

We had some technical issues. The support team was ready to support us once we raised a ticket. They responded in a reasonable time and escalated the issue when necessary.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. The information is readily available, and there are many local partners who are extremely supportive. Deployment is just a matter of getting the login set up. It was pretty fast.

What about the implementation team?

Our in-house team had been trained to deploy the tool, so they knew what to do. We have a few trained cloud admins who can manage the product. There are a lot of automation options, so they don't need a big crowd to work with it.

What was our ROI?

The product has a good ROI. It depends on how we handle the cost based on resource creation and the data we build based on our setup.

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

We have a licensing option from our partner in which the solution is bundled up with a whole host of other services. There are no additional costs associated with the product.

What other advice do I have?

It is one of the best tools in the market. It's a very good cloud service. It has a lot of good security options. The reporting options are also good. The on-premise AD is fantastic. The tool gives us flexibility in deployment. If we get the design wrong, that's not Azure’s problem. It's our problem. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
AbasoJadhav - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead at Tech Mahindra Limited
Real User
Sep 18, 2022
Feature rich, simple deployment, and good support
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure is the Area feature. Additionally, the SQL Server DB as a serverless pool is useful, storage-wide external tables are helpful, and PolyBase is very good at reading external data. The capacity of Synapse to analyze in analytics is very good and it supports a range of data."
  • "The scalability could improve."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Microsoft Azure for many purposes in our project. We have a cloud-based SQL Server and we are bringing data to Azure DB through the Area feature. We are using SQL Server as a database, and from there we are using the data for analysis. We are doing forecasting using all the data. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure is the Area feature. Additionally, the SQL Server DB as a serverless pool is useful, storage-wide external tables are helpful, and PolyBase is very good at reading external data. The capacity of Synapse to analyze in analytics is very good and it supports a range of data.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for approximately one year.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability could improve.

We have many teams that are using this solution in different projects.

I rate the scalability of Microsoft Azure a four out of five.

How are customer service and support?

We did not contact the support from Microsoft Azure often.

I rate the support from Microsoft Azure a four out of five.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I did not use another solution prior to Microsoft Azure.

How was the initial setup?

The deployment of Microsoft Azure is easy because it is cloud-based.

What about the implementation team?

We have one person that can deploy Microsoft Azure when they have proper access rights. If the project is small it can be seamless. For example, I'm handling a 10 to 12 person team, and for deployment, one person that has all access writes can deploy Microsoft Azure seamlessly.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Microsoft Parallel Data Warehouse an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Minos Pitsillides - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Director at IT-Flow ltd
Reseller
Apr 9, 2022
User-friendly, scalable, and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "I use a virtual machine for remote desktop and Microsoft Azure is user-friendly."
  • "Microsoft Azure could improve by having more virtual machine operating systems available."

What is most valuable?

I use a virtual machine for remote desktop and Microsoft Azure is user-friendly.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Azure could improve by having more virtual machine operating systems available.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for approximately three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have found Microsoft Azure to be stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Microsoft Azure is very good.

We have approximately 25 companies that are using the solution. I do not know how many users are using the solution, but it would be a high number.

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

Microsoft Azure overall is an expensive solution.

In general, if you compare Amazon AWS with the price of Microsoft Azure host cloud service, Microsoft Azure is more expensive than Amazon AWS. I didn't see any hidden costs.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to first-time users of Microsoft Azure would be for them to go through certification training. This way they would be able to understand what they are doing. Without certification, it would be difficult to understand how the system is working.

I rate Microsoft Azure a nine 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. reseller
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.