Architect- Cloud/Automation at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Enables us to store information related to our automation
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a NoSQL database."
  • "It is not as easy to use as DynamoDB."

What is our primary use case?

I use the product for storing information related to our automation.

What is most valuable?

The product is simple to use. It is a NoSQL database. It is easy to commission the environment and use it.

What needs improvement?

It is not as easy to use as DynamoDB. The product always shows JSON-based documents. However, DynamoDB shows a table-based document. The documentation must be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I used the solution a couple of months ago.

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Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
April 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The tool’s stability is very good. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool is highly scalable. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten. We have more than 1000 users.

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

I used DynamoDB in my previous organization.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. The deployment could be completed within minutes.

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

The tool is not expensive. It is good for small use cases.

What other advice do I have?

Cosmos DB is a good option if someone is looking for a NoSQL database. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Chandrakant Deshmukh - PeerSpot reviewer
Director - Service Lines at Mastek Ltd
Real User
An solution for a fast NoSQL database, with open APIs for any scale
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is user friendly and Microsoft's technical support is good."
  • "In Microsoft manufacturing, managers really need to know about the product."

What is our primary use case?

We provide automated solutions to manufacturing plants. 

What is most valuable?

The solution is user friendly and Microsoft's technical support is good. 

What needs improvement?

In Microsoft manufacturing, managers really need to know about the product. This market is flooded by other vendors. So putting Microsoft in action in such places looks challenging.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for four months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Cosmos is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution and twelve hundred users are using the solution. 

The entire POC process and Microsoft's entire page were really smooth. There are no hiccups at all, and the kind of documentation support has really helped to build a competitive customer, so that is good enough.

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten. 

How are customer service and support?

The technical support team is good. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. Two developers and one architect were enough for the deployment. The maintenance is easy. 

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

Microsoft provides fair pricing. 

What other advice do I have?

If somebody is really looking to adopt a solution like this, this is the best option to go.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
769,630 professionals have used our research since 2012.
SaurabhSingh1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Sales Architect at Softline
Reseller
Top 10
Provides flexibility from a cost and data perspective
Pros and Cons
  • "With Azure you can start small and grow as you need."
  • "A couple features that would help me in architectural solutions would be customizable architecture or customizable documentation, which both Microsoft Azure or Microsoft Teams can provide."

What is our primary use case?

My current title is that of a Solution Sales Architect.

What is most valuable?

The biggest benefit of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is the general cloud model that Azure gives you. It provides more flexibility from a cost and data perspective. The solution is reasonable. Microsoft gives the best security solutions with zero trust protection.

With Azure, you can start small and grow as you need.

What needs improvement?

I provide architect solutions on top of Azure. A couple of features that would help me in architectural solutions would be customizable architecture or customizable documentation, which both Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Teams can provide. I can easily pick and choose a couple of architecture and merge them. This would be a very helpful feature for me in my role.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have had five years of experience working with Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is stable. I rarely receive concerns from my clients that they are facing any downtime or that some solutions or configurations are not working.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure cloud is very much scalable however, you do need to consider your database. If I am scaling the product, the traffic will increase and the database also has to be optimized in that way. 

My application is static, so it can be scaled to infinity, but the same cannot be done with the database. The database needs to be sufficient to get the load directly. I cannot go ahead and directly deploy a database with another skill functionality as I have to do some manual effort with downtime involved.

From a scalability perspective, the key database has to be optimized in a better way that can support auto-scaling architecture or scalability architecture.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is straightforward.

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

Azure is a pay as you go subscription. Each month you utilize the solution and at the end of the month, based upon your utilization, you will get a report and invoice. It depends on the architecture and the services being used, how they are deployed and what the stories are. It is variable.

What other advice do I have?

My general advice to anyone looking to implement Microsoft Azure would be to start small. When you see your application increase or your traffic increase on site, you can slowly scale. 

I would rate the solution a seven out of 10 overall.

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:
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Associate Director at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Provides single-digit millisecond response times but struggles with large amounts of data
Pros and Cons
  • "I would recommend Cosmos. It made our lives a lot easier. There's not a big learning curve in order to understand the structure and how to use it."
  • "We should have more freedom to tweak it and make our own queries for non-traditional use-cases."

What is our primary use case?

We have a database stored on Microsoft Azure where we fetch records and validate them against the application data that is displayed. We use it as a backend in an application to store data.

Within our organization, there are around 500 people using this solution.

What is most valuable?

There's no specific feature of Cosmos. Basically, we try to query the database. Since it's unstructured data, all the related fields are stored as a single JSON. You don't have to go ahead and hit multiple tables, or multiple containers. Instead, you get all of those things, relationally, stored in a nested JSON — in one single container itself. This way, you don't have to go back and forth to different tables. There are pros and cons with this feature, but often it makes things easier for us.

I am impressed with the TTL (time to live feature) of Cosmos. If we need to perform a manual addition to a container, we just need to configure the time to live. And then based on that, it can be deleted.

What needs improvement?

We should have more freedom to tweak it and make our own queries for non-traditional use-cases.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for roughly one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cosmos should be more stable. Sometimes we fetch more than 60,000 records at a time. When we try to fetch large amounts of data, sometimes it breaks-down, requiring us to rescale it. Overall, performance-wise, it needs to be a little more stable. 

How are customer service and technical support?

I personally haven't had contact with the technical support. Our solution architects deal with support. 

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't involved in the initial setup. We have a DevOps team that was responsible for handling the installation. We are just leveraging it for developmental purposes.

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

Cosmos should be cheaper. We actually intend to stop using it in the near future because the price is too high — and because of the stability issues. 

What other advice do I have?

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of seven. Aside from the scalability issues, we haven't experienced any other issues. 

I would recommend Cosmos. It made our lives a lot easier. There's not a big learning curve in order to understand the structure and how to use it. We were good to go with only one container. Anybody who is new can learn quickly.

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: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Joyal Benni - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at ProArch
Real User
Top 5
Is scalable with multiple master file and provides good performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is scalable with multiple master files."
  • "Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's pricing model is complicated, which people don't understand."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for faster databases.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is scalable with multiple master files. The performance of the solution is also good.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB's pricing model is complicated, which people don't understand. So, the pricing model should be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a highly scalable solution, and 15 to 20 people use the solution in my organization.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB’s technical support an eight out of ten. They do take some time to get to the root of a problem.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward and needs a few tools to upload.

What was our ROI?

We have had an ROI with the solution.

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

The pricing model of Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB is a bit complex.

What other advice do I have?

We are using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB as a cloud-based solution. Two admins and one manager are required for the deployment and maintenance of the solution.

New users must keep an eye on its pricing models and configure them properly.

Overall, I rate Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Sr. Engineer at ericsson
Real User
Top 20
Easy to use and has many features, but expensive with poor customer support
Pros and Cons
  • "The product has a lot of useful features that are there and ready to use, it's also very easy to use."
  • "I have to say technical support is not very good as it takes too long. Sometimes it can take them two or three days to respond to your ticket."

What is most valuable?

The product has a lot of useful features that are there and ready to use, it's also very easy to use.

What needs improvement?

There are features that are ADF only or ADB only, so it would be good to see more cross-compatibility between the two. The solution is also more expensive than the alternatives. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for over two and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is very good, you can scale up or down according to your requirements.

How are customer service and support?

I have to say technical support is not very good as it takes too long. Sometimes it can take them two or three days to respond to your ticket.  

How was the initial setup?

The setup for this solution isn't complex.

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

The cost very much depends on the task and on how much data is being processed and transferred.

What other advice do I have?

The cost is the biggest limitation of this solution. I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Enterprise Integration Architect at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 20
Highly stable and scalable solution that supports databases
Pros and Cons
  • "Cosmos DB is a pretty stable solution. I would rate it a ten out of ten."
  • "It doesn't support all databases."

What is our primary use case?

In our accounting department, we store data in Azure Cosmos DB. We query and store IO-based data there.

What is most valuable?

I'm still in the process of exploring all the features. We're continuously adding and releasing data, so there are several apps that have been useful to me.

What needs improvement?

Since we're working in the cloud, it's not easy to incorporate all the features it supports. There is room for improvement in terms of integration with other vendors.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for about a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cosmos DB is a pretty stable solution. I would rate it a ten out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is pretty scalable. I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten.

How was the initial setup?

If I had to rate it based on my initial usage, I would rate it around a seven.

What about the implementation team?

The setup was done by the team. They followed a set of instructions and it was pretty straightforward. 

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend understanding the underlying databases like Cosmos DB, but I don't think it supports Oracle. However, it does support various other databases. If it supports the databases you need, then go for it. If it doesn't support them, there's not much you can do.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. I'm not giving it a higher rating because it doesn't support all databases.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
KopanoRamaphoi - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at Rpc Data
Real User
Top 10
Straightforward to set up, stable, easy to use, and well-compliments a solution that includes a relational database
Pros and Cons
  • "Cosmos DB is stable and easy to use."
  • "Better documentation on how to integrate with other components would be helpful because I was struggling with this."

What is our primary use case?

Cosmos DB is a non-relational, NoSQL database. We are a solution provider and we implement this product for our clients. It is used for integrating and managing unstructured data such as videos, pictures, and other big objects that you cannot include in a standard database tablet. It is made for these kinds of activities.

Some of our customers include banks, where together with their main relational database, it provides a place for keeping track of unstructured data. The relational database is used to store the regular data, whereas Cosmos DB stores what is unstructured.

I also use this product for my own purposes.

What is most valuable?

Cosmos DB is stable and easy to use.

What needs improvement?

Better documentation on how to integrate with other components would be helpful because I was struggling with this. For example, I had trouble finding information on how to integrate with other Microsoft components. Also, consider a situation where you want to use Cosmos DB to manage the uploading of data to your website. Information on how to do things like this should be readily available.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB for less than a month.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cloud-based solutions like Cosmos DB are quite stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable product. When I originally used it on the cloud, Microsoft Azure, I tried changing a lot of things such as increasing the memory to see how it performed. The response was quite good. 

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is good and they are responsive.

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

Prior to Cosmos DB, was using MySQL, but it isn't a non-relational database.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It was complete in about five minutes.

What about the implementation team?

I deployed it myself.

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

There is a licensing fee.

What other advice do I have?

This is a good product and I recommend it, especially in cases where people want to keep their information outside of the organization and on the cloud.

I would rate this solution 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: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
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Managed NoSQL Databases
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.