Microsoft Azure Reviews

Name: Microsoft Azure
Brand: Microsoft
Rating: 4 (75 reviews)

Vendor: Microsoft

4.2 out of 5

75 reviews

5,662 followers

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Featured reviews

Marco Cenzato

Product Architect at Wolters Kluwer

Dec 8, 2021

The initial setup is difficult because when you move into a fully managed cloud environment with a lot of services, you change your mind completely about how you operate and in the first month we had to learn a lot of tasks. Looking back to the past the difficulty was not the interface of the solution, there was a lot of information to know and to have knowledge about concepts for cloud service that took time. There was a lot of documentation and finding the correct one can be difficult sometimes. When I used Google to find something, I can find a lot of information but the problem is to find the current information or the most effective information. There is a lot of different elements you need to set up or configure, such as the environment, monitoring, deployment of applications, preparing the dashboard for monitoring, and the continuous development integration by clients. We have two kinds of deployment, a continuous integration deployment when we don't change the database schema. This is fully unattended and can be done online with no problem for the users. It takes approximately 30 minutes but the time can vary. Once a month, or less, there is a major release. In this case, often we modify the database schema. This requires stopping all the applications, no user can have access while the modification to the database is taking place. The operation takes from half an hour to an hour and a half depending on the database schema and the types of modification required. When we change the structure of tables we have hundreds of thousands of records that can take a lot of time. We are moving to a more continuous development strategy. We are trying to have more applications because at the moment we have approximately seven web apps and a lot of services, but they are too tightly bound to the database. They're trying to divide them for more flexibility and to have continuous deployment. We had no continuous deployment. Normally we deployed some minor releases once or two a week, and there is a major release once a month. We are moving to have more continuous deployment. We are working this year on test automation from unit test integration. They're investing a lot in this because we managed numbers for the tax declaration. Regulation can be problematic.

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Deborah Gamelin

Vice President at Asset Track for Cloud, LLC

Jan 14, 2022

Most of the problems that we've had are related to the DNS and the SSL certificate. Those two things have been a real pain. Sometimes, it happens because of GoDaddy and sometimes it happens because of Azure. Either we make a change in GoDaddy and the configuration is lost, or our developers make a change to the website and from there it gets lost. It would be helpful if Azure provided more information on the various add-ons to give people an understanding of what they are used for, and how they're applied by other companies or businesses. One downside is that I find myself signing up and paying for things that I don't really need, and I have to call them to find out exactly what it is that I'm paying for. For example, I recently added the Azure Data Studio and I don't know what I need it for. I see that it can create a connection and run a query but I don't know if I'm going to be using it. That said, I will probably need it in the future.

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AlanGulle

Data SME at Sparta Global

Dec 27, 2021

Microsoft Azure is highly scalable. On only one web application I created with one service plan I can connect 10 projects. Imagine one machine can run 10 projects at the same time because whatever the project has more requests or demands, it will scale its machines and auto-scale down. This is why it makes it affordable. I can control which project is demanding more computing power or storage power. We have approximately 50 people using this solution in my organization. It is mainly back and front developers. We are drastically increasing our usage because last year we were running 13 projects, and now 19 projects. In 2022 we are trying to double our team.

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Pricing

"Pricing is very difficult to guesstimate. With so many a la carte options and individual pricing it can be a hassle to understand."
"Keep to PaaS to gain the optimal benefits from an OPEX finance and resource perspective."
"Be careful with Azure Cool storage accounts; if you are dealing with high object counts, then it can be more economical to use Hot storage because of the high storage access costs associated with Cool."

Valuable Features

"Storage has made remote access to files much more painless and easy."
"In general, the entire suite of PaaS is valuable. It enables a true breakdown of IT siloes and allows an organization to embrace DevOps."
"Azure Active Directory: Has powerful security and auditing capabilities that we use to secure all our apps."

Room For Improvement

"Predictability and quality. Make sure things work predictable, as expected, and documented."
"The Azure Billing API could be so much better. It only provides billing metrics for a set duration."
"Monitoring options should be more sophisticated, as there are dashboards on which a end user is able to pin a lot of charts and a number of web parts, but for example, I would love to have some option like in Operational Management Suite."

Pricing

"Pricing is very difficult to guesstimate. With so many a la carte options and individual pricing it can be a hassle to understand."
"Keep to PaaS to gain the optimal benefits from an OPEX finance and resource perspective."
"Be careful with Azure Cool storage accounts; if you are dealing with high object counts, then it can be more economical to use Hot storage because of the high storage access costs associated with Cool."

Valuable Features

"Storage has made remote access to files much more painless and easy."
"In general, the entire suite of PaaS is valuable. It enables a true breakdown of IT siloes and allows an organization to embrace DevOps."
"Azure Active Directory: Has powerful security and auditing capabilities that we use to secure all our apps."

Room For Improvement

"Predictability and quality. Make sure things work predictable, as expected, and documented."
"The Azure Billing API could be so much better. It only provides billing metrics for a set duration."
"Monitoring options should be more sophisticated, as there are dashboards on which a end user is able to pin a lot of charts and a number of web parts, but for example, I would love to have some option like in Operational Management Suite."

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our Microsoft Azure Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Learn more about Microsoft Azure

Windows Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform, where developers can create, deploy, and maintain their apps. This cloud application platform allows developers to concentrate on the actual applications, while it takes care of all the elements behind the apps.

Windows Azure works across multiple frameworks and languages. It is fully scalable, localized in that it is hosted globally in many datacenters, and has widespread capabilities with elements of application development, deployment, and management.

Azure is comprised of several different service modules, including Infrastructure; Web; Mobile; Dev & Test; Big Data; Media;Storage, Backup & Recovery; and Identity & Access Management.

Microsoft Azure works as a:

Platform as a service (PaaS)
Software as a service (SaaS)
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Microsoft Azure is available:

On-premises
Hybrid
Multi-cloud
At the edge

Compared to its competitors, Microsoft Azure:

Has more affordable features
Has easier migration for organizations already using other Microsoft tools
Has several educational resources available
Provides robust support
Is ideal for small and large businesses

Microsoft Azure Features:

Scalability
Stability
Flexibility
Azure Site Recovery
Active Directory
Monitoring features
Cloud-based
Automated tasks
Change capability cadence
Showback capabilities
Information protection
Azure Data Lake
Excellent portal
Intuitive user interface
Remote desktop
Fast provisioning
Data security
Data resiliency
Speed of service
Integrated delivery pipeline
Disaster recovery
Robust templates
Flexible coding languages
Virtual systems testing

Benefits of Microsoft Azure:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Because Microsoft Azure is an IaaS, organizations can deploy as well as manage applications easily and quickly. Azure also provides you with the ability to customize the cloud software to meet your specific business needs.
Seamless integration: Microsoft Azure is built to seamlessly integrate with existing IT departments via hybrid databases, secure private connections, and storage solutions.
Cost-effective: Because Azure can harmoniously exist in your business environment with your data center, it is a very cost-effective solution.
Analytics support: Azure is designed with built-in support that is used to analyze data and provide key insights. Azure offers Cortana Analytics, Stream Analytics, Machine Learning, and SQL services.
Unique storage system: Compared to other cloud services, Microsoft Azure has more data centers and delivery points, which helps create an optimal user experience and also helps deliver content faster. In addition, Microsoft Azure makes it possible for organizations to exchange content across several virtual machines.
Enhanced flexibility: Azure provides extreme flexibility by allowing you to choose any level of functionality you require. It also supports many of the same technologies IT teams and developers usually depend on, making it easier for them to manage.
Easy implementation: Microsoft Azure is easy and quick to deploy. If necessary, you can change web apps to Azure with almost zero downtime.

Reviews from Real Users:

"It is a flexible solution that is straightforward to use," says the principal consultant at a computer software company.

OmarJ., future datacenter consultant: Microsoft Azure Cloud at a tech company, adds that "The user interface is very nice and makes everything easy to use."

“You can build an environment in minutes. It's very good in terms of being an infrastructure as a service, and I found that really fascinating,” says an information technology consultant at a computer software company.

"I think Azure's level of automation to achieve efficiency or agility is valuable. I also like the change capability cadence, the showback capabilities, and understanding what our costs are," says an enterprise architect at an energy/utilities company.

Marco C., Ing. at Wolters Kluwer, says "The valuable features of Microsoft Azure are that it is cloud-based and has good storage. The storage is completely managed by Azure. We do not need to do any patching of security because it is handled by Azure which is a benefit. The solution is fully compatible with the Microsoft technology stack and is very scalable."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure is it has everything together in one place. It is one large tool with lots of small tools that are updated often," says the owner of a media company.

Microsoft Azure was previously known as Windows Azure, Azure, MS Azure.

Microsoft Azure is the #1 ranked solution in PaaS Services and #2 ranked solution in top Infrastructure as a Service Clouds. PeerSpot users give Microsoft Azure an average rating of 8.4 out of 10. Microsoft Azure is most commonly compared to Oracle Cloud Platform: Microsoft Azure vs Oracle Cloud Platform. Microsoft Azure is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 49% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a educational organization, accounting for 32% of all views.