Khang Do - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Low-priced and stable tool for data export and visualization, but has very few features
Pros and Cons
  • "Data exporting is easy, and this tool works seamlessly with other solutions. It's a stable and low-priced solution."
  • "This solution has fewer features than some of its competitors, so adding more features to it would make it better."

What is our primary use case?

We use Azure Monitor as our alert system. We also use it for other types of measurement.

What is most valuable?

Currently, we use Power BI for our data visualization, and Azure Monitor is a very good fit with those cases. Another thing I like about the solution is that we can easily export the data, and the tool seamlessly works together with Datadog, though in terms of visualization in Azure Monitor, it's not as beautiful. It also doesn't have as many features as Power Bi, and this is why we were comparing it with Datadog.

We use Power BI because it has many features, so that's the main part we consider when selecting which tool to use. As for Datadog, people think of it as an application performance monitoring tool, rather than a data exporting tool, so they will still use Azure Monitor for exporting data. In some cases when the data analyst team needs some type of data, we can set that up for them on Azure Monitor, then consider using Datadog as a platform monitor.

What needs improvement?

Visualization in Azure Monitor needs improvement. Adding more features to it would also make the solution better.

For how long have I used the solution?

My experience with Azure Monitor is six months.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure Monitor is a stable tool.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Monitor is scalable, but the only downside to it is that it's not an out-of-the-box (OOTB) solution, so we cannot scale it to something outside of Azure ServiceNow. Currently, we use ServiceNow as a ticketing system, then use Datadog as the incident and alert system to trigger a ticket in ServiceNow, which we cannot do in Azure Monitor.

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

Azure Monitor is a low-priced solution.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Datadog.

What other advice do I have?

I was comparing Datadog and Azure Monitor. We had a POC for Datadog and we were trying to test it with the trial account for our current data solution in Azure, so we tried to measure the differences between the two solutions.

Now we use Azure Monitor for our alerts and other measurements, but not as an application performance monitoring tool, so we're considering Datadog for that purpose. They made the final decision to use Datadog for application performance monitoring.

We are not in the setup phase for Azure Monitor yet, because we're still doing a POC for visibility, so we still have no idea on whether it'll be complex or straightforward to set up the tool.

As we are very small, we have not had the chance to contact tech support for this solution, plus we have a dedicated team from Microsoft who handles our questions and issues. Currently, we don't have an issue on Azure Monitor, but have raised issues about other Microsoft solutions, and the Microsoft dedicated team have been very supportive.

My advice to others looking into implementing Azure Monitor is that if they're working on small-scale projects and their projects fit Azure, then Azure Monitor will be the best solution for them, particularly because it is low-priced. The tool is also good when building a solution, e.g. they won't need to explore outside of it, but if they're building a multi-cloud solution, and they have a mix of on-premises and cloud, my suggestion is for them to use Datadog.

I will rate Azure Monitor a seven out of ten, because this solution has two things that we don't like, e.g. it doesn't tell you what and how it happened. It just says: "Hey, that happened", and "Go and check it". This is the reason why I don't recommend Azure Monitor, e.g. it's not a very informative tool, so we don't use it for our root cause investigation.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Cloud Architect at Cloud4C Services
Real User
Affordable, easy to configure and offers good integration capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "Technical support is helpful."
  • "The solution needs better monitoring. It requires better log controls."

What is our primary use case?

We have multiple customer internet-facing applications, so we require granular control of each of the data flows. That is something this product helps with.

How has it helped my organization?

The ease of use and direct integration with various products have been very useful aspects of the solution that our organization has taken advantage of.

What is most valuable?

It's easy to configure and easy to integrate with other products.

The initial setup is simple.

Technical support is helpful.

The solution is very stable. 

It can scale.

What needs improvement?

The solution needs better monitoring. It requires better log controls.

At this point in time, I don't expect them to add many other features. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for six months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is quite stable. It's reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. We haven't had any performance issues. I'd rate the level of stability ten out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is auto-scalable. I'd rate its ability to expand ten out of ten. It's a SaaS solution and does not require manual scaling. 

Our user base is about ten individuals. We don't have any more than that on it right now. We do not require it to expand too much in the future. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has been great. They are helpful and responsive. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I found the initial setup process to be straightforward. 

I'd rate the ease of deployment ten out of ten. The deployment itself was fast and took maybe ten to 15 minutes. 

Just two people were involved in the deployment process. They were regular architects or technical individuals who were part of the deployment.

ONce deployed, the solution itself does not require maintenance. 

What about the implementation team?

We handled the deployment in-house. We did not need any help from outside integrators or consultants. 

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

I'm not involved in licensing aspects.

That said, my understanding is it is affordable. 

What other advice do I have?

We have a partnership with Microsoft. 

We are always on the latest version of the solution as it is on the cloud. 

I'd advise others it was quite affordable and easy to configure. 

I would rate the solution 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: Partner
PeerSpot user
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April 2024
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Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 5
Scalable and stable monitoring tool with data collection, analysis, and alerting features
Pros and Cons
  • "The feature that I found most valuable in Azure Monitor is its monitoring abilities. With Azure Monitor, you are able to monitor all of your cloud resources across multiple subscriptions in one dashboard and create solution-specific alerts that can trigger an email to the team responsible for that specific solution."
  • "Setting up this solution is complex. It's also missing the functionality of assigning alerts."

What is our primary use case?

My client used Azure Monitor to monitor the environment in Azure.

What is most valuable?

The feature that I found most valuable in Azure Monitor is its monitoring abilities. With Azure Monitor, you are able to monitor all of your cloud resources across multiple subscriptions in one dashboard and create solution-specific alerts that can trigger an email to the team responsible for that specific solution.

The ability to customize is endless. The majority of the data used for creating alerts does not require any agent installed, like so many other monitoring tools.

Azure Monitor is a monitoring solution that you should not miss out on the second you move workflows, solutions, infrastructure, and much more onto the cloud.

What needs improvement?

Azure Monitor is a complex product because you can use it to monitor different things, and that could be an area for improvement. Having templates by Microsoft added to it is another area for improvement.

What I'd like to be added in the next release of Azure Monitor is an overview of best practices from Microsoft and what they'd recommend users to monitor.

Assigning an alert is another feature I'd like to see in the next release of the solution. Currently, you can't assign an alert to anyone, if a server crashed and you need to assign that alert to a specific team, it's not possible.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure Monitor is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Monitor is a scalable solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup for Azure Monitor is quite complex. If I would rate its setup from one to five, with one being complex and five being straightforward, I would rate it 1.5.

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

Azure Monitor is not too expensive. On a scale of one to five, with one being expensive and five being affordable and competitively priced, I'm giving the solution a four.

What other advice do I have?

I have not used the technical support for Azure Monitor.

Azure Monitor relies more on your ability to collect data and make the correct queries, while on-premises solutions rely on an agent and have many templates to choose from.

Azure Monitor is a nice monitoring tool, particularly if you have the skills. I'm rating it nine out of ten, I can't give it a ten because there's still something missing in it.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Consultant / Implementer
PeerSpot user
Principal Application Developer at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Provides an overview and high-level information of where problems lie; lacks sufficient user flow information
Pros and Cons
  • "Provides an overview and high-level information."
  • "Lacks information including details related to where problems lie."

What is our primary use case?

We all use Microsoft in the company and we are customers of Azure Monitor. 

What is most valuable?

The product is very good for developers who want to integrate with Visual Studio. The solution provides an overview and high-level information on what hurdles to expect, and which endpoints have problems. 

What needs improvement?

If Azure Monitor wants to compete with other APM products in the industry, it has to stitch together the information and user flow. It also needs to provide all the information, as you get with Stock Trace, including details related to where the call came from and where the problem lies. That's what we'd like to see. With a solution like Dynatrace, you have a clear path and you know which calls were made before and after the problem, and where the issue occurred. That feature is lacking in Azure Monitor.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for a year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution scales easily. It's not a big deal for Azure Monitor or any other APM product.

How was the initial setup?

With Azure, implementation needs to be carried out in multiple places and you need to add other things to get the information and that's a tedious process. The Dynatrace setup is much easier. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We made a comparison between Dynatrace on-prem and Azure Monitor as to what each solution offers. Azure is great for developers wanting to integrate with Visual Studio but when it provides Azure monitoring information on the dashboard there is a lot of Google analytics. When it comes to the application performance monitoring information, Azure gives you the overview or high-level information regarding issues and which endpoints have a problem, but it doesn't give you anything in-depth at the matter level.

What other advice do I have?

It's important to know what your requirements are. If you're able to put best practices in place, and need to add SBKs and turn on profiling at the meter level to look into the details, then Azure Monitor can help. But if that's not something you need, Monitor might not be the best solution for you.

I rate the solution six out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Erwin Del Rosario - PeerSpot reviewer
Full Stack Software Engineer at Collabera Philippines
Real User
Top 5
Provides good stability and maximizes the application's performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's most valuable features are its ability to focus on delivery and maximizing the performance of applications and services."
  • "The solution's monitoring feature has limitations for analyzing multiple metrics."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to develop AI technology, particularly for financial services. It involves creating a chatbot or conversational AI system.

What is most valuable?

The solution's most valuable features are its ability to focus on delivery and maximizing the performance of applications and services.

What needs improvement?

The solution's monitoring feature has limitations for analyzing multiple metrics. Also, its support services could be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been a customer of AWS Monitor for less than a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have more than ten people using the solution.

How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support services need improvement.

How was the initial setup?

The solution's initial setup was straightforward.

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

The solution is expensive, but it is worth the price.

What other advice do I have?

You can use this technology, as it is unique to Microsoft's services. It focuses on performance monitoring. It is highly effective for diagnostic purposes, viewing metrics, and enabling/disabling logs. It facilitates data gathering and logging, as its name suggests.

I rate it an eight out of ten, as we had a great experience learning the technology.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Server Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 20
It's straightforward, but there are better tools with better interfaces and deeper integration into applications
Pros and Cons
  • "In the last company where I worked about a year ago, it looked very simple."
  • "The biggest one is probably just the user interface. There could be more advanced logging at the database level. They can also improve their query builder to allow you to search for things better, but I last used it about a year ago. They might have already changed a ton of things in the newer versions."

What is our primary use case?

We haven't yet implemented it in my current company. It's going to be for our clients. We're an MSP, and we'll be implementing it for some of our clients. The only thing that we're thinking about is using it for performance monitoring and storage monitoring. Its use case is most likely going to be to manage data.

We're building out a cloud plan. We're trying to pick our own. We're trying to move certain companies into the cloud. There is a debate going on about taking the Microsoft route rather than the AWS route or the Google route. If we're going to go with Azure, we would need a monitoring tool.

What is most valuable?

The only things for which our company might be using it are storage monitoring and performance monitoring. Nothing else.

In the last company where I worked about a year ago, it looked very simple. 

What needs improvement?

Its interface has room for improvement. Some of the options or some of the ways to navigate could be improved, but that's a general thing. All companies are always modifying the user interface because there's a better way to move things around or a better way to put things so that people can see the product features that they didn't know existed. For me, that's probably the biggest thing.

It's a little lacking in features. There are some things that they could do to improve it, but it's not that big of a deal for me. There's obviously competition that does a lot more, but for what we're going to be using it for, it's perfectly fine. The biggest one is probably just the user interface. There could be more advanced logging at the database level. They can also improve their query builder to allow you to search for things better, but I last used it about a year ago. They might have already changed a ton of things in the newer versions.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used this solution for two years. I last used it in my previous company about a year ago.

How was the initial setup?

It was pretty straightforward. 

What other advice do I have?

Based on my experience with Azure Monitor about a year ago, I'd rate it a seven out of ten. There are better tools with better interfaces, deeper integration into applications, and things like that, but they could have improved it, and it could be a lot more comfortable now than when I was using it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior Systems Administrator at Herbalife
Real User
Monitors the server and all of the CPUs so we can audit the bandwidth that has been consumed
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is that it's stable. It hasn't crossed any thresholds."
  • "The troubleshooting logs need improvement. There should be some improvement there. I have a hard time finding the right logs at the right times whenever there is an issue occurring."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to monitor all the services and applications, whether it is running or whether it is standing still. We use it to monitor the server and all of the CPUs so you can audit the bandwidth that has been consumed - all the day to day administrative stuff.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is that it's stable. It hasn't crossed any thresholds. 

What needs improvement?

The troubleshooting logs need improvement. There should be some improvement there. I have a hard time finding the right logs at the right times whenever there is an issue occurring. They should simplify the logs. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for around two years. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We definitely do have plans to increase the usage but it depends on what the management calls. I'm not the authorized person to make calls here but we do have plans to increase the current infrastructure.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have a separate team that handles creating incidents with Microsoft.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Azure Monitor an eight out of ten. In order to make it a perfect ten, the solution should be simplified. For a beginner, it's kind of complex. It should be made easier for beginners or newcomers.

I would recommend this product. We get good results from Microsoft Azure, so that's why we stick with Microsoft Azure

I definitely recommend this product to all my colleagues or my friends or my friend's companies.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 20
Helps with infrastructure monitoring and alert system can be customized to integrate custom metrics but needs improvement in interface
Pros and Cons
  • "The tool's most valuable feature is the alert system, which can be set according to our metrics. The integration is smooth."
  • "Azure Monitor is not user-friendly, and the interface is not exciting. Switching between the dashboards is not easy."

What is our primary use case?

Azure Monitor helps with infrastructure monitoring and getting application logs. 

What is most valuable?

The tool's most valuable feature is the alert system, which can be set according to our metrics. The integration is smooth. 

What needs improvement?

Azure Monitor is not user-friendly, and the interface is not exciting. Switching between the dashboards is not easy. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the tool's stability a seven out of ten. 

How was the initial setup?

I am experienced with Azure, and hence, the installation was easy. However, an inexperienced person may find it difficult. 

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

Azure Monitor is cheaper compared to other third-party monitoring tools. 

What other advice do I have?

You need to go through the documentation before deploying the solution. Also, learn Kusto Query Language to create custom metrics and logs by yourself. I rate the product a six out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Azure Monitor Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Azure Monitor Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.