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reviewer1753023 - PeerSpot reviewer
Independent consultant
Real User
Jan 5, 2022
The license is reasonable, and the packages are competitive
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure services like EDM and Batch are all famous, but one of the most popular services for development is Azure Functions, especially the PaaS option. Depending on a customer's environment, they can go for the PaaS."
  • "The management portal can be confusing sometimes. We have difficulty navigating the menus because the terminology is unclear, especially when referring to the content or actionable items."

What is our primary use case?

Most workloads can be migrated to Azure. For example, say a small business wants to have a website or even do development. 

What is most valuable?

Azure services like EDM and Batch are all famous, but one of the most popular services for development is Azure Functions, especially the PaaS option. Depending on a customer's environment, they can go for the PaaS.

What needs improvement?

The management portal can be confusing sometimes. We have difficulty navigating the menus because the terminology is unclear, especially when referring to the content or actionable items. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working as an Azure trainer for about a year and a half. In my last job, I was working with on-premises solutions, but the whole industry is transitioning to the cloud, so Azure, AWS, Google, and many other cloud providers are trying to get a market share now.  

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Microsoft Azure
December 2025
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I don't have any issues with scalability or stability. We moved migrated from our physical infrastructure earlier, and we haven't seen any problems. It's more about the organization getting comfortable with the solution. That's the only thing.

How was the initial setup?

Azure setup is straightforward. There is no comparison to on-premises deployment because it's all automated. It's very fast, but I can't compare the speed to other vendors because I've never deployed AWS or Google.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

AWS is good, but Azure's license is reasonably priced, and Microsoft is gaining market share with a competitive package overall. Moreover, Microsoft is well ahead of AWS in terms of ease of use and billing, so I think I still love Microsoft. Obviously, both have a market, but customers working on development projects or using Microsoft products often go for Azure because of the license benefits and product support. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft Azure eight out of 10.

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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Marco Cenzato - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Dec 12, 2021
Limited maintenance, good interface, helpful support
Pros and Cons
  • "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 solution should improve the shared cache. For the shared cache, Microsoft uses RADIUS third-party services. We have a lot of trouble with RADIUS and I suppose that is due to the fact that is not owned completely by Microsoft."

What is our primary use case?

Our target markets are advisors and all the staff they need to manage for their customers, such as regulatory information, accounting tax, tax income, tax regulation, accounting, balance sheets. We have also targeted different niche countries. It's a very regulated market and these are our principal customer.

At the corporate level, we have another division. That does not produce or sell software, but content, normative content, educational content.

For the software division, we work with advisors and payroll consultants.

How has it helped my organization?

Microsoft Azure has helped organizations because they no longer need to do a lot of server maintenance.

What is most valuable?

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.

All the Microsoft Azure's interface for managing the portal is very good and responsive.

What needs improvement?

The solution should improve the shared cache. For the shared cache, Microsoft uses RADIUS third-party services. We have a lot of trouble with RADIUS and I suppose that is due to the fact that is not owned completely by Microsoft.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is highly stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is scalable in my experience.

We have approximately 400 customers with many terabytes of data. We have some customers that are using this solution that has 400,000 customers.

At the moment our product is intensively being used by the advisors that are onboarded because our software is the primary tool for the advisors.

How are customer service and support?

If we have a problem with Microsoft Azure we open a ticket with Microsoft and they respond very quickly and are very helpful.

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

I have previously used other solutions but nothing comparable to the Microsoft Azure cloud solution.

We chose Microsoft Azure because it's tied to Microsoft technologies. We are already working with Visual Studio and other Microsoft technologies, such as .NET, and other on-premise products. The migration path is all shorter and our corporation suggested using Microsoft Azure.

How was the initial setup?

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.

What about the implementation team?

We are producing, maintaining, and are selling solutions for our customers, such as Microsoft Azure. We do not use an integrator.

We have a two-person team that does the implementation and maintenance of the solution. Once you prepare the infrastructure, sometimes we have to improve by changing some things. Recently we had to prepare for the disaster recovery from Europe to Europe, and we had to invest time in the pipelines and deployment.

What was our ROI?

When you have on-premise solutions you have to manage lots of aspects, such as security, patching, large expense, and acquiring hardware and servers. With Microsoft Azure, you have the ability to activate a lot of processing power and then dismiss it when you do not need it. It saves you a lot of money not have to have the infrastructure or the maintenance. 

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

The cost of Microsoft Azure depends on the services that are used and there can be a discount at a corporate level from Microsoft.

What other advice do I have?

In the next release of Microsoft Azure, they will be addressing the problem of the continuous  ETL workload to continually extract the data and ingest it in a docker analysis database. This will be released in the next version released in 2022. Microsoft Azure is continuously improving the solution for the market.

It is important to know that cloud services work differently than on-premise solutions.

I was talking with our colleague in the internal department to let me test the scalability of his system because we have a process from our application to the online shop. They are having a problem with the scalability test because of their hardware. They have hardware that they can't scale the testing environment. Using Microsoft Azure we do not have these issues because it is on the cloud.

I rate Microsoft Azure a nine 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

Great, an amazing organization to work with. You did a great job guys very very good.

See all 2 comments
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure
December 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,425 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Software Architect at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Dec 4, 2021
Powerful and easy to integrate
Pros and Cons
  • "One of the most valuable features of Azure is that it's a very integrated solution. You have to learn how to use it properly, but it's not that hard, and you can define your whole scrum process and deploy it from one place. It was a really nice surprise to see how easily integrated this tool is."
  • "I would say an improvement could be allowing for more external, third-party tools. However, I think that's their vision, how they develop the product."

What is our primary use case?

We have many use cases of Azure. For example, in this project, we usually use Jira for tracking the tasks, stories, etc., but in this case we used Azure. We used it for the whole scrum process. We also used it as our deployment environment for testing the software and production. The production was also deployed on the Azure cloud. 

What is most valuable?

One of the most valuable features of Azure is that it's a very integrated solution. You have to learn how to use it properly, but it's not that hard, and you can define your whole scrum process and deploy it from one place. It was a really nice surprise to see how easily integrated this tool is.

What needs improvement?

I would say an improvement could be allowing for more external, third-party tools. However, I think that's their vision, how they develop the product. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure for about a year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is stable. We were quite happy with Azure's performance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure is scalable. 

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

I have also used AWS. To put it this way, I don't think Azure is worse than AWS—certainly it's not the same, so if you're used to using one, it may initially be different, but it's not hard to learn. Maybe if I use it more, I can give some specifics, but I think Azure is a very good solution. 

How was the initial setup?

Azure is a cloud tool, so the installation is a very easy process. 

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

Their licensing costs might be a little bit lower, compared to AWS, but I'm not sure. I think we get licenses, especially on long-term projects, on a yearly basis. It could be cheaper. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft Azure an eight out of ten. There is some hype in the industry around AWS, but I think Azure is quite powerful and could be a really nice alternative to AWS. 

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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Real User
Nov 23, 2021
Remote data access from anywhere, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The best feature in Microsoft Azure is that I don't have to change computers. I don't have to upgrade or if something breaks or a hard drive crashes. The lack of a physical aspect is the major feature for me."

    What is our primary use case?

    I generally, use Microsoft Azure for storage and to have applications running, such as the Microsoft Suite without having to have a physical desktop or hardware. I could use it wherever I want. I could use it from a tablet, instead of having all that files on a tablet, you can have it stored, saved, everything right there in Azure.

    What is most valuable?

    The best feature in Microsoft Azure is that I don't have to change computers. I don't have to upgrade or if something breaks or a hard drive crashes. The lack of a physical aspect is the major feature for me.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Microsoft Azure for approximately two years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Microsoft Azure is stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I do not have to worry about scalability because I do not have users other than myself. However, it is scalable.

    How are customer service and support?

    I have not had the need to contact the support, I have not any issues.

    How was the initial setup?

    The installation was easy.

    What was our ROI?

    By using Microsoft Azure you can save money from not having to purchase or maintain infrastructure.

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

    The price of the solution could be reduced. There should be a loyalty cost reduction model. If customers have been using the service year after year they should receive a discount.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would advise those thinking about using Microsoft Azure to try it out, especially for businesses. If you know that your office might be moving, instead of having all the cost of physical hardware to either get rid of or repurchase, the cost of the subscription is going to be a lot less than moving all your physical servers, storage devices, and computers. You won't have any maintenance, the need to worry about hardware breaking, hardware crashing, or people breaking any of the hardware. The workstations and connectivity are all they would need to worry about if they decided to move from one spot to the other.

    I rate Microsoft Azure 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
    Vishal Khare - PeerSpot reviewer
    IT manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Top 5
    Nov 2, 2021
    Maintains the infrastructure so we don't have to
    Pros and Cons
    • "Azure is very flexible."
    • "Any time you use a cloud service, there are increased security risks. If you want more security, you have to have private hosting."

    What is our primary use case?

    The use case for Azure is maintenance. Azure maintains the infrastructure so we don't have to, and that's the best use case for any cloud-based application.

    What is most valuable?

    Azure is very flexible.

    What needs improvement?

    Any time you use a cloud service, there are increased security risks. If you want more security, you have to have private hosting.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using Azure for about five or six years.

    How are customer service and support?

    In general, I think Microsoft support is strong.

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

    Azure could be cheaper. Of course, if you ask anyone, they'll always say it could be cheaper. We are paying monthly.

    What other advice do I have?

    I rate Azure nine out of 10. I would recommend it to others.

    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
    Amarjit Rathee - PeerSpot reviewer
    Associate Vice President at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
    Real User
    Top 5
    Oct 29, 2021
    Stable, easy to use, and scalable
    Pros and Cons
    • "It's set up to handle any cloud requirement."
    • "The security of the solution could always be much better."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are primarily using the solution for One Drive on Microsoft, as well as Office 365 and Microsoft Teams.

    What is most valuable?

    The solution is easy to use.

    It's great for ready-to-use services. 

    It's set up to handle any cloud requirement.

    The solution is stable. 

    The scalability is great.

    What needs improvement?

    Microsoft needs to simplify its licensing, which is hard to understand currently.

    The security of the solution could always be much better. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We've been using the solution for three to four years. It's been a while.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability of the product is great. Due to the fact that it is a cloud deployment, it scales well. 

    How are customer service and support?

    I've used technical support in the past. They are okay. We've been satisfied with them. 

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

    We are also using AWS. 

    How was the initial setup?

    We have a team that handles the implementation. 

    Depending on the situation, you don't need too many people to maintain it. We always start with one resource and go from there. 

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

    The licensing is always confusing with Microsoft. It's very hard to understand. 

    What other advice do I have?

    Due to the fact that we're using the cloud deployment of the solution, we're always on the latest version. 

    I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

    I would recommend the solution to other users and organizations. Azure is the first ones to come onto the market. They have a very good solution.

    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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    reviewer936300 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Director Of Sales Marketing at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Oct 24, 2021
    A good choice for enterprises in sectors like semiconductors, biochemistry
    Pros and Cons
    • "To me, the most valuable Azure features are AKS, Cloud SQL, security, and account management."
    • "Azure installation is complicated. When we first deployed Azure, it was challenging."

    What is our primary use case?

    I have developed a platform on Azure for the semiconductor industry. Azure is an excellent choice for enterprises in sectors like semiconductors, biochemistry, etc.

    What is most valuable?

    To me, the most valuable Azure features are AKS, Cloud SQL, security, and account management.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using Microsoft Azure for a couple of years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Azure is as stable as most cloud providers like AWS and Google Cloud.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Azure is stable but not as scalable as I'd like. In terms of scalability, AWS is better than Azure. In my organization, we have 500 or so employees.

    How was the initial setup?

    Azure installation is complicated. When we first deployed Azure, it was challenging. By contrast, AWS is easy to install and maintain. Azure is tough. It takes from one to two weeks to fully deploy. Our technical team responsible for deploying and managing Azure has 30 people.

    What other advice do I have?

    I rate Azure eight out of 10. Azure is difficult to deploy at first, but we have the money to develop, maintain, and support it.

    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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    CTO at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
    Real User
    Oct 23, 2021
    Cloud-based, stable, simple to install, and with good advanced-level support
    Pros and Cons
    • "It is easy to install."
    • "A good strategy would be to include a feature for integrating with external ecosystems."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are resellers. We use Microsoft to provide a service to our customers.

    We offer SaaS software for the marketplace. 

    We offer SaaS software for the B2B marketplace and provide solutions to our customers through public cloud infrastructure.

    What is most valuable?

    We have yet to explore this solution and what it has to offer because we are still in the transformation phase from Amazon to Azure.

    What needs improvement?

    It could be more open to external solutions.

    Integration with other ecosystems would be beneficial. During this transitional period, this is our primary concern. For example, when we offer solutions to our customers, we must connect to their IT ecosystem, which we are unable to do in some cases.

    A good strategy would be to include a feature for integrating with external ecosystems.

    We would also like to improve the security.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We switched from Amazon to Azure six months ago.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    In the short time that we have been using this solution, it appears to be stable enough for our needs.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We work with 50 companies that use this solution on a daily basis.

    How are customer service and support?

    We have no issues with the technical support. It's fine.

    We needed to find someone who could help us. It depends on the support contract you have with Microsoft. 

    The standard level of support was obviously insufficient for us, and we had to resort to a more advanced level of support for partners who had complex technical questions. This meant that there would be some additional support costs, but everything would be fine once you made that decision.

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

    We use Auth0, which is an IAM-based solution.

    We are using an identification solution provided by a cloud provider. We are based on Azure. We work with a Microsoft Azure infrastructure, and we use the solution provided by Microsoft to authenticate the users.

    How was the initial setup?

    It is easy to install.

    It took us a few months to deploy. I did not take a lot of time to move to Azure but moving to another infrastructure using microservice takes longer.

    We are coming from a moderate approach to installation and going for a modular one that is based on microservices.

    To be able to manage the microservices, we made some modifications.

    The length of time it took to complete the implementation was primarily due to changes we made to the infrastructure that was required for our customers.

    What about the implementation team?

    We have a dedicated team of ten people who will deploy and manage the infrastructure.

    We have a separate Dev team for the application itself.

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

    Customers pay for our software and use our solution as a service through monthly payments. They don't pay the licensing fee directly to Microsoft.

    We provide a solution as a service to our customers. They pay us for our services, which are based on Microsoft.

    What other advice do I have?

    We would recommend this solution to others who are considering using it.

    I would rate Microsoft Azure an eight 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
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Azure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: December 2025
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Azure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.