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Senior System & Security Administrator at a retailer with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 20
Oct 18, 2021
Installation is straightforward and doesn't take much time
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a cloud-based application, so installation is straightforward and doesn't take much time."
  • "The price of the Azure license could be cheaper."

What is our primary use case?

We use Azure for the Active Directory and integration with Exchange Online. Our customers need it to manage, connect, and administrate the permissions from Cloudbase. Here in Egypt, we are not using or connecting with the cloud-based application, but in the last two years, we have supplied the solution for our customers. In total, we have between 10 and 20 customers using Azure.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with Microsoft Azure for about two years.

How was the initial setup?

It's a cloud-based application, so installation is straightforward and doesn't take much time.

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

The price of the Azure license could be cheaper.

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What other advice do I have?

I rate Azure nine out of 10. It's a perfect application, and I would recommend it to others.

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
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reviewer1680546 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 201-500 employees
Real User
Oct 14, 2021
A stable and scalable cloud computing solution that enables you to work from anywhere
Pros and Cons
  • "The most important thing is we don't have to maintain any physical infrastructure. With typical conventional on-premise solutions, we have to maintain many things like the hardware, clusters, etc. With this cloud platform, you don't have to worry about all those things. We have the service always available, and this is the main advantage. I like that we use everything on our standard Active Directory on on-premises on Azure. The key advantage is that you can have the sole indication based on the cloud. This isn't possible with an on-premise Active Directory. This enables work from home and at the office because it's on the cloud."
  • "It could be more flexible. If you look at all Mircosoft products, they are not up to the mark. For example, Azure Ready doesn't provide the same kind of access a domain administrator has and the kind of flexibility that they have when using Active Directory. Microsoft support could be better. Their service could also be better. For example, specific policies for templates suddenly become unavailable. When I checked, they said that certain things might be withdrawn based on customer feedback. This happened once or twice, and it wasn't available at all for five days, it just went down."

What is our primary use case?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for Infrastructure as a Service in the cloud. We're using it to get the devices registered and be Azure Ready at home or the office.

What is most valuable?

The most important thing is we don't have to maintain any physical infrastructure. With typical conventional on-premise solutions, we have to maintain many things like the hardware, clusters, etc. With this cloud platform, you don't have to worry about all those things. We have the service always available, and this is the main advantage.

I like that we use everything on our standard Active Directory on on-premises on Azure. The key advantage is that you can have the sole indication based on the cloud. This isn't possible with an on-premise Active Directory. This enables work from home and at the office because it's on the cloud.

What needs improvement?

It could be more flexible. If you look at all Mircosoft products, they are not up to the mark. For example, Azure Ready doesn't provide the same kind of access a domain administrator has and the kind of flexibility that they have when using Active Directory. 

Microsoft support could be better. Their service could also be better. For example, specific policies for templates suddenly become unavailable. When I checked, they said that certain things might be withdrawn based on customer feedback. This happened once or twice, and it wasn't available at all for five days, it just went down.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for about ten months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is a scalable solution. We have close to 1,200 people using this solution at our organization.

How are customer service and support?

I have used Microsoft support before. I would give them a six out of ten. This is because we had certain glitches happen that could have been avoided. For example, they say that this is because it's a new product or the new architecture. They say things like, "it will be more stable after some time, maybe a year or two." 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup and deployment were straightforward. 

What about the implementation team?

Our in-house team implemented this solution. We have about 15 to 20 people to install and maintain this solution.

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

We pay yearly for the license. 

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this cloud computing service to new users.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Microsoft Azure a nine.

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.
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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.
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reviewer1686495 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managed IT Services Provider at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
Oct 12, 2021
A scalable solution for one's directory management needs, but lacks fluidity and intuitiveness
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is completely scalable."
  • "The solution lacks fluidity and is not intuitive."

What is our primary use case?

Microsoft Azure can be used for everything, including development, hosting and storage. Since it offers active directory as relates to the cloud, it can be used for directory management and logins.

What needs improvement?

We work with Azure, which is okay, but very clunky and complex. It lacks fluidity and is not intuitive. This can be problematic and require one to work with external consultants. Things can depend on the client. Not everything can be known in advance and there may be a need to make changes to the interface. Changes which are made to the functionality are not always intuitive. As such, while the solution offers very good functionality, its intuitiveness, in respect of user experience and configuration, is not the best. I should note that these are minor issues and I do not work with Azure very much, there being only a couple environments in which we employ it. 

We see the same issue with Microsoft, which is not an intuitive platform. The ways in which the various components are placed seems to be illogical. There are different screens and end-configurations. In my familiary with Microsoft, a decision was reached to do things this way and there is no way to alter this. 

As such, the solution could definitely be more intuitive. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is reasonably stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is completely scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

I have encountered no issues with Microsoft tech support. 

How was the initial setup?

The setup of everything is very quick, although the real issue revolves around the speed at which the changes get synchronized. While this may take 24 hours, there are occasionally issues which arise, such as problems with the DNS or general networking issues. This requires one to involve Microsoft tech support.

What about the implementation team?

The technical team required for deployment and maintenance can vary. One of the clients with whom I work is an external provider who does all the configuration in Azure. Another has a back-end of Microsoft 365 and I manage this on my own.

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

Everything involves an annual commitment with a monthly charge.

What other advice do I have?

The solution is also cloud-based.

At present, two of my clients are using the solution. 

I would not recommend the solution to someone who does not require it, instead referring the person to AWS. Like Microsoft Azure, AWS is also not sufficiently intuitive, although it is a more robust solution in my experience. 

I rate Microsoft Azure as a six out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
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Sundaresan Subramanyan - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder and Managing Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Sep 26, 2021
Interface is user-friendly, easy to set up databases fast
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure is very user friendly. I was able to create some database servers really fast. The user interface is intuitive."
  • "Some of the capabilities available in an on-premise SQL Server aren't available in Azure. For instance, we found Azure Managed Instance to be lacking in certain aspects. One of our clients decided to stay on-premise rather than migrate to Azure because of this reason."

What is our primary use case?

The typical use case is where you are trying to avoid investing in a solution that you are only going to be using on a limited basis. You need a pay-as-you-go solution where you can have access when you need it, but you don't have to make a major long-term investment. For example, say you need a software application but you want someone to build that application for you, and you don't want to invest in hardware or networking or other things for on-premise deployment. You can have your solution hosted on the cloud on the Azure platform so that it can be accessed from anywhere and you don't need someone to take care of it or maintain it. You can access your software application from your home or wherever without having to worry about the server going down or anything like that.
In these cases, a cloud-based platform like Azure or Amazon Web Services can be useful.

What is most valuable?

Azure is very user-friendly. I was able to create some database servers really fast. The user interface is intuitive. I don't work on the networking or firewall side of things. So I'm not familiar with those areas. 

What needs improvement?

Some of the capabilities available in an on-premise SQL Server aren't available in Azure. For instance, we found Azure Managed Instance to be lacking in certain aspects. One of our clients decided to stay on-premise rather than migrate to Azure because of this reason. Maybe Microsoft is working on building these capabilities in the future, and we are unaware. 

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 scalability of the solution?

With Azure's capabilities, like sharding, we can really scale it up. They also offer features to increase performance, such as the ability to switch between performance tiers as needed.

How was the initial setup?

It's fairly easy, but it really depends on a lot of factors, such as the size of your application, how many databases you have and how many web servers you have. 

What about the implementation team?

We outsource some of the work of the actual deployment to external consultants. And we don't do any work on the hardware side of things ourselves.

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

Azure uses enterprise licenses, and I believe they are on a yearly basis. One piece of feedback from other users I have heard from is that Azure is somewhat expensive, so I would advise anyone thinking about this solution to be aware of the cost. You need to take into account the configuration you are going with or it could turn out to be a more expensive solution than you anticipated. Sometimes, I feel that it may not be very straightforward for a consumer to estimate the cost. It's important to be clear in terms of your budget and what you're actually purchasing.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it 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 has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
it_user1672716 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chef manager at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Sep 21, 2021
Stable, and scalable, but expensive
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is straightforward."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are using Microsoft Azure for the UAT environment and data warehousing purposes.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Microsoft Azure for approximately seven 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?

    Microsoft Azure is scalable.

    We have 12,000 users using this solution.

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

    I use other cloud services, such as Amazon AWS and Google Cloud services.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is straightforward.

    What about the implementation team?

    We have a team of 30 that does the implementation of the solution.

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

    We are on a monthly subscription for Microsoft Azure and the cost is more expensive than some of the competitors, such as Amazon AWS. They should be more competitive with other solutions.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would recommend this solution to others.

    I rate Microsoft Azure a seven 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
    reviewer1666392 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Senior Vice President Information Technology at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
    Vendor
    Sep 15, 2021
    Easy to understand, helpful technical support, and scalable
    Pros and Cons
    • "We are using Microsoft Azure because our organization uses a lot of Microsoft solutions. We have used Microsoft technology for a long time and we have internal engineers with great capability that understand the technology. This is why Azure is the best for us."
    • "The quality of some components of Microsoft Azure is not that great. For example, Microsoft has not fixed issues in Microsoft Teams for many years. There are well-known issues that are submitted by customers two years ago and they still are not fixed."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use Microsoft Azure for different use cases. For example, we are hosting our corporate website on Azure. We are a software development company and we have hundreds of development and testing environments in Azure. Additionally, we use different Microsoft services, such as Office 365 and Azure Active Directory. A lot of our services are based on these technologies.

    What is most valuable?

    We are using Microsoft Azure because our organization uses a lot of Microsoft solutions. We have used Microsoft technology for a long time and we have internal engineers with great capability that understand the technology. This is why Azure is the best for us.

    What needs improvement?

    The quality of some components of Microsoft Azure is not that great. For example, Microsoft has not fixed issues in Microsoft Teams for many years. There are well-known issues that are submitted by customers two years ago and they still are not fixed.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Microsoft Azure for approximately four 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?

    The solution is scalable.

    We have hundreds of users using this solution in my organization.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    The technical support has been great.

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

    We use Google GCP and AWS by Amazon.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is not a problem it is similar to competitors, such as AWS.

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

    The pricing of Microsoft Azure is not very flexible.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would recommend this solution to others.

    I rate Microsoft Azure an eight out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
    PeerSpot user
    JayronWilliams - PeerSpot reviewer
    IT Security Specialist at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Real User
    Top 10
    Sep 12, 2021
    Great for single sign-ons and hosts most of our virtual machines; provides good security
    Pros and Cons
    • "I appreciate that everything is basically shift forward from a security standpoint."
    • "The authentication method only allows me to have up to 90 users, and there are 2,300 people in the company."

    What is our primary use case?

    We're using Azure Premium P1 and it hosts our website and most of the applications we use. We are an airline company and for some of our enterprise apps, it enables things like single sign-on and hosts most of our virtual machines, as well as some of our web servers for the on-prem application. Our customer mobile app for purchasing tickets is for that purpose but we also use it for enterprise apps. I use Minecraft for my email security, but I integrate it with Azure to incorporate the single sign-on, as well as for multifactor authentication in my Office 365 environment, and the productive Parti app. I'm an IT security specialist and we are customers of Azure.

    What is most valuable?

    The feature I appreciate is that everything is basically shift forward from a security standpoint. Most of our systems are integrated with Azure for authentication purposes. Given that I'm a security specialist I use it for that purpose. The rest of the team uses it more for things like application deployment. I also use it to determine sign-ons, and things like compliance to devices. 

    What needs improvement?

    Microsoft allows you, via Azure, to have different authentication methods. You can use the Microsoft Authenticator app, text or voice, or something called a FIDO, which is like a USB security key. Unfortunately, the authentication method only allows me to have up to 90 users, and there are 2,300 people in the company. When I have to push multifactor authentication, I cannot specify certain users for the authenticator app. It forces me to lock it down and say conditional access only allowed.

    Another issue I have is that Microsoft notifies me retroactively about certain things. For example, when a user sends an email with over 200 recipients, it can take half an hour for me to get a notification but sometimes it can take 24 hours. I have the same issue when it comes to things like phishing attempts. It's a problem. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using Azure for three years. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The solution is stable, although I'd like some advance warning when they make changes. It can sometimes take hours to update so that if I have a user using multifactor authentication and I take them off, it can take up to an hour for it to take effect.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is very good. 

    How was the initial setup?

    I can only speak from my own experience and I have many Microsoft certificates, including as a Microsoft solution architect expert in Azure, so it might be easier for me than it is for others. I tend to do a lot of things on the app and I use it on a daily basis. Even if I don't know where something is, the documentation on techniques, everything is there. I wasn't involved in the deployment at this company but in my previous position, it took a couple of days, not very long. Microsoft provided support. It's just a matter of configuring the tenant.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would recommend Azure because there's a lot of documentation available and a lot of user guides, it has everything. 

    I rate the solution eight out of 10. 

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Hybrid Cloud
    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    PeerSpot user
    IT Systems Administrator at a transportation company with 51-200 employees
    Real User
    Top 10
    Aug 29, 2021
    Stable, knowledgeable support, but the support subscription model needs improvement
    Pros and Cons
    • "Being cloud-based saves the provisioning aspect of an on-premises solution."
    • "The support subscription models need improvement."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use Microsoft Azure for our IDB. That is our primary use, but we also have a certain degree of MDM through Microsoft.

    What is most valuable?

    It does what it is supposed to do, and what we expected of it. That's the key benefit. Being cloud-based saves the provisioning aspect of an on-premises solution.

    What needs improvement?

    The support subscription models need improvement.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Microsoft Azure for a couple of years.

    We are using the latest version.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Microsoft Azure is a stable solution.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    As far as we have expanded it, it is scalable. It's a startup company, we haven't scaled it to a significant number of people yet.

    We have between 100 and 150 people in our organization who use Microsoft Azure.

    I don't think that we will expand our usage at the moment.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    I have contacted technical support on one occasion. My biggest issue with the technical support of Microsoft is when we had an issue that was product-related and it was difficult to get support on the subscription level we were on. In order to try to get support, we were told that we needed to upgrade. It was quite frustrating that an issue with their product required an upgrade to get serviced when it was a failure that they were responsible for.

    It's not a question of knowledge, the knowledge was there. Access to that knowledge and the subscription model they were trying to put in place was the issue.

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

    I used to work for Oracle. My previous experience was with Oracle Enterprise Manager.

    How was the initial setup?

    I wasn't present or involved at the time of installation. I came along later. I started with the company after that.

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

    Licensing fees are paid monthly.

    What other advice do I have?

    We are currently in the process of deploying Zabbix to cover our monitoring needs. We have used other monitoring products which come with certain components.

    From my point of view, it would depend on the type of solution and everything they were trying to encompass. In our case, it made sense to go with Azure. I think that for other companies, I would recommend that it's a good solution, but that depends on what problem you are trying to solve. It also depends on what infrastructure is already in place, and whether you want to have a lot of disparate systems communicating, or whether you want to consolidate that to a specific vendor. But for the purposes of what we needed Azure to do, it does the job. However, we don't use all of the MS Apps functionality.

    It does the job, but it doesn't wow me. I am pretty happy with it. I don't get overly excited about it, but I am not disappointed with it. I would rate Microsoft Azure a six 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
    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.