Microsoft Software and Solutions

We use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB as a NoSQL database to store JSON documents for our clients in the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance sectors, primarily insurance. They require storage for numerous documents, including policy, claims, and costing documents, making Cosmos DB the ideal solution.

Because the company is spread across multiple regions, maintaining consistency with traditional relational databases was a challenge. Cosmos DB solved this by offering various consistency options and geo-replication capabilities. Logical partitioning within Cosmos DB improved routing efficiency, and composite indexes, combined with the partition key, optimized query execution by directing requests to specific documents, minimizing resource consumption.

Cosmos DB can offer faster data retrieval than SQL for certain queries and workloads, particularly those involving large volumes of unstructured or semi-structured data.

Cosmos DB is highly capable of handling large workloads and offers exceptional reliability for document storage and similar needs. Its particular strength lies in-stream analytics, a functionality currently not supported by MongoDB. This makes Cosmos DB the ideal solution for customers requiring real-time data processing, and it is our consistent recommendation for those working with stream analytics.

I appreciate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's robust document management and consistent availability. The databases are always operational, ensuring continuous accessibility and simplifying disaster recovery procedures. The geo-redundancy feature is particularly valuable, especially for European operations.

Cosmos DB needs improvement in a few areas, primarily the ability to join data across containers. Currently, it doesn't support cross-container joins, forcing developers to retrieve data from each container separately and combine it using methods like LINQ queries. This workaround is inefficient and cumbersome. A built-in join functionality would be a significant improvement. Additionally, Cosmos DB's SQL queries are susceptible to injection attacks due to limited parameter support. Currently, only one parameter can be used, compelling developers to use string interpolation, which introduces security risks. The ability to pass multiple parameters would enhance both security and code quality.

Sometimes, clients may lack technical expertise and run queries without utilizing partition keys, leading to significantly increased request units and higher costs. While Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB currently leads the market, enhancements are needed, particularly regarding data statistics across different containers. Dealing with clients who have multiple containers often requires custom code to stitch data together, highlighting the need for functionality supporting joins across containers. Additionally, a more stable and predictable pricing plan would benefit both developers and clients.

I have been using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for more than four years now.

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB offers exceptional stability, boasting a reliability rating of 99.95 percent. This ensures continuous availability without downtime.

I rate the scalability of Cosmos DB highly, with a score of nine point five out of ten.

Microsoft's support services are inadequate, especially during critical incidents. The faster response times found in community-driven resources, such as Stack Overflow, underscore the shortcomings of Microsoft's customer support.

Negative

While Amazon DynamoDB offers extensive configurability, this can be time-consuming. For projects with tight deadlines requiring a NoSQL database, Cosmos DB is a preferable choice due to its ease of setup and minimal configuration. Additionally, Cosmos DB provides superior support for the Jira application and offers better uptime than DynamoDB.

The provided templates help us deploy Cosmos DB quickly.

Cosmos DB's billing is based on request units, which isn't ideal for all clients. Pricing plans offering set benefits, similar to Azure's platform resources, could be beneficial. The current method lacks clarity for clients new to cloud-native architectures, hindering migration from on-premises systems.

Billing is based on request units, so it's crucial to optimize queries to minimize consumption. A standard estimate is one to one point five request units for read requests and four to five for insert, update, or delete operations.

I would rate Cosmos DB's cost at seven out of ten, with ten being the highest.

Cosmos DB can provide improved search result quality, but we must understand the partition key of our container. Using the correct partition key in our queries ensures precise results. Without it, queries may consume excessive Request Units of over 5,000 and ultimately fail.

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a strong product with the potential for improvement in supporting joins from different containers and providing more stable pricing plans. Despite these areas for growth, Cosmos effectively competes with services like AWS DynamoDB and currently leads the market. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Our Cosmos DB deployment spans across Europe, with the primary data center located in Italy to serve our European users. Additionally, we have another customer based in the eastern US, where their data is replicated across three data centers in the eastern US and three more in the western US for redundancy and high availability. We currently have 40 projects using Cosmos DB for clients in different industries ranging from oil and natural gas to sports and media.

We use Azure WebJobs to maintain our databases by removing expired policies and contracts. However, Microsoft should implement a similar system in Cosmos DB, utilizing its Hot and Cold Tier functionality for archival storage. This would allow us to efficiently move outdated data to archival storage, mirroring the functionality we have with Azure WebJobs.

We are in retail and marketing, and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB gives us the opportunity as a retail industry to store catalog data. This is essentially used for event sourcing. In my department, it is particularly useful for our catalog data storage and marketing operations.

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB has improved our overall search result quality. It is very easy to use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB to search through large amounts of data. This is one of the advantages that I can mention with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, which is not available or accessible with other solutions. Searching and working with large amounts of data while using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is one of the biggest advantages it provides for enhanced business operations.

The aspect I appreciate most about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is the scalability. Horizontally, we can add as many servers as possible, which is very key for us as a company. Another important feature is that it is a globally distributed product that comes with numerous benefits. The real-time analytic features it offers, as opposed to structured query language features, provide real-time analysis for our retail and marketing operations. The integrated features, such as Azure Snipes link, enable easier running analytics for our operations. Additionally, we have noticed that it positively impacts our transactional performances as a company.

In terms of improvement for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, while it eliminates the burden of managing database infrastructure, we realized it might not be possible to use various models simultaneously as it only accepts a single model at any given point in time. This is an area that could be improved upon.

The operational complexity of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB can be challenging for individuals who are not tech-savvy. Making it simpler for companies to navigate through various features would be beneficial for future development in terms of reducing its complexity. However, it remains a good product that eliminates many bottlenecks we experienced before in terms of database management, storage, transmission, and retrieval for our business.

While there is complexity in Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, we have found that software experts and IT professionals who are passionate about the product can overcome these challenges. We have not yet achieved fifty percent in terms of training our staff due to its complexity. However, the benefits significantly outweigh the complexity, particularly in terms of database storage, management, retrieval, and transmission in milliseconds. The global access, real-time capabilities, and low latency in terms of turnaround time make it an excellent solution once fully embraced and deployed.

We have been using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for one year.

The initial deployment of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB was challenging at the beginning, but we overcame these challenges and ultimately achieved positive results.

The performance and stability of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB maintains low response times in milliseconds. It is fast, effective, and reliable.

In terms of scalability for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, the servers can be horizontally scaled, and we can add as many servers as needed. This capability is possible with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, which is not common in other solutions. This is a significant advantage of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB.

It took us approximately three to four weeks to fully set up Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and get it operational. Our company utilizes multiple software solutions, so integration was a key consideration. With a team of six to seven software developers, along with additional IT experts, we completed the setup within this timeframe, which we considered reasonable for this type of product.

Our company has multiple software solutions, and integration is a crucial aspect. We have a team of six to seven software developers, along with additional IT experts, who assist in working with these software solutions.

I have used SQL as an alternative to compare with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. Having Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB come with additional features beyond SQL capabilities was advantageous for our company's deployment.

I rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB a 9 out of 10 because there is always room for improvement in any software.

The benefits of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB were immediate for us. It was within our budget, and we cannot say it constrained our finances because it was approved. The cost-benefit analysis shows that the benefits outweigh the costs. The maintenance costs are also within our estimated budgeted projections as a company.

I am willing to provide references for Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and can be a reference for anyone interested in purchasing the same product. I am available to be contacted by Microsoft regarding this review should they have any questions.