Alvaro Olivares - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Cloud Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
Easy setup, good backup features, and good stability and scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "The backup features are the most valuable."
  • "Its compatibility with existing applications can be improved. Its compatibility is currently a little bit imbalanced."

What is our primary use case?

We use it as a backend product. We are using the Managed Instance and the SQL Database.

What is most valuable?

The backup features are the most valuable.

What needs improvement?

Its compatibility with existing applications can be improved. Its compatibility is currently a little bit imbalanced.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for about two years.

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SQL Azure
March 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is pretty good. It seems very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It has good scalability. We have about a thousand users.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support was very good. I would rate them a ten out of ten.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty easy. The deployment took about a day.

What other advice do I have?

It is a good product for any new development or organization.

I would rate SQL Azure a nine out of ten. It is working fine right now, and I am pretty happy with this solution.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Solution architect at ACS
Real User
Top 10
A highly stable solution that has user-friendly VMs
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of SQL Azure is the user-friendly VMs."
  • "The solution’s visibility could be improved."

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of SQL Azure is the user-friendly VMs.

What needs improvement?

The solution’s visibility could be improved.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution's stability is good, and we haven't faced any issues so far.

I rate SQL Azure a nine out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SQL Azure is a scalable solution. Around ten users are regularly using SQL Azure in our organization.

How was the initial setup?

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

The solution’s deployment takes hardly a day.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I rate SQL Azure ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
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Buyer's Guide
SQL Azure
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about SQL Azure. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
768,886 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Solutions Architect - Cloud at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
A solution with good uptime and multi-region features with a valuable dashboard
Pros and Cons
  • "The dashboard is valuable."
  • "The solution can be improved by reducing the constraints available."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for the solution is for applications. We get many applications in the environment, and most applications use Microsoft SQL, Azure SQL, and DBs, and a few use Postgres SQL. So primarily, the focus is to connect with the DB team and have a specific expert in the SQL environment.

How has it helped my organization?

We find the uptime and multi-region features available. Additionally, the dashboard is valuable.

What needs improvement?

The solution can be improved by reducing the constraints available on cloud and improving support response times.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have beee using the solution for approximately two 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?

The solution is scalable. I rate is as nine out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

We have had a good experience with customer service and support. They are knowledgeable but sometimes take a while to give solutions. I rate customer service and support as seven out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. I rate is as eight out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution as eight out of ten. The solution is good but can be improved by reducing the constraints on cloud and improving support response times.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
Rafael Veloso - PeerSpot reviewer
Analyst Cloud Support Consultant at SoftwareONE
MSP
Helpful support, scalable, and beneficial turning process
Pros and Cons
  • "The backup solution in Azure is great, the firewall settings in SQL are very easy to use and work very well. Additionally, the turning process is very good and has improved the SQL services and queries."
  • "SQL Azure could improve by adding more features."

What is our primary use case?

I have used SQL Azure for the backend tier application. If the customer has the flow change application with an application service, they will use the backend. I always suggest using SQL Server and Azure.

What is most valuable?

The backup solution in Azure is great, the firewall settings in SQL are very easy to use and work very well. Additionally, the turning process is very good and has improved the SQL services and queries.

What needs improvement?

SQL Azure could improve by adding more features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used SQL Azure within the past 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have found SQL Azure to be stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of SQL Azure is very good.

How are customer service and support?

The support of SQL Azure is very good.

How was the initial setup?

The implementation of SQL Azure is simple.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate SQL Azure a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Business Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Stable and scalable but could better integrate with Python
Pros and Cons
  • "Emergency mode is quite useful."
  • "I haven't explored SQL Azure's features much, but I would like to see some better integration with Python."

What is our primary use case?

I'm an end-user. I'm a business analyst, so I'm using SQL Azure to do analysis.

What is most valuable?

Emergency mode is quite useful.

What needs improvement?

I haven't explored SQL Azure's features much, but I would like to see some better integration with Python. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using SQL Azure for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

SQL Azure is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I think SQL Azure is scalable. Almost 200 people are using it in the commercial department.

How are customer service and support?

I can't say much about Microsoft support because the IT people are the ones who deal with the Microsoft support team. Whenever we have an issue, we put our IT team on it and leave everything to them. They try to handle it if they can or they might bring in some consultants from the Microsoft team. 

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

I previously used Oracle, but I didn't spend much time with it, so I really can't say. I don't think Oracle has any capabilities that SQL Azure lacks, and it's not used in as many companies and institutions.

How was the initial setup?

Setting up SQL Azure isn't complex.

What other advice do I have?

I rate SQL Azure seven out of 10. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Naresh Reddy - PeerSpot reviewer
Naresh ReddyEnterprise Solutions Architect at OORWIN LABS INC
Top 5Real User

Python is well supported by AWS EC2, enabling smooth deployment and use of Python applications on EC2 instances. A large variety of EC2 instance types that support Python are available, and installing Python modules and frameworks is simple.

Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Offers High Availability and a decrease in total operating cost compared to on-premises
Pros and Cons
  • "This solution offers high availability, and business continuity is in place."
  • "This solution would be improved with the inclusion of better self-service tools."

What is our primary use case?

We offer this solution as part of a bundle to our customers for which we offer technical services. We are aiming to have a centralized marketplace.

We have experience with hybrid, on-premises, and public cloud deployments. We have a complex environment and are slowly transitioning to this solution. Our production environment is the only one that we're putting into Microsoft Azure. For security reasons, we still have some systems on-premises.

What is most valuable?

The DR for this solution is Active/Active.

This solution offers high availability, and business continuity is in place.

What needs improvement?

This solution would be improved with the inclusion of better self-service tools.

It needs to be easier for my technical teams to perform support tasks.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for about four months.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is scalable. Multiple tiers and multiple layers are there. 

How are customer service and technical support?

We are still very early in the process and have not yet had many use cases. However, at this stage, Microsoft is working proactively with us. We have premium-level support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of this solution is usually complex, especially for an enterprise customer. This solution is tailored to specific customers, which is why complexity varies.

The typical deployment takes six months.

What was our ROI?

Our Total Cost of Operations is cheaper using this solution as compared to an on-premises deployment.

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

The licensing for this solution is based on subscription. We have an enterprise license, so the price of this solution is high.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution, as long as the cloud environment is suitable.

This is a good solution, but from the angle of security, everything can be breached.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
IT Manager at European University
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Scalable and reliable with good processes and support
Pros and Cons
  • "What I like the most is the processes and the easiness of deployments."
  • "The configuration is the area that is most cumbersome."

What is most valuable?

What I like the most is the processes and the easiness of deployments.

What needs improvement?

What I don't like is the personalization of an instance is difficult to deploy. Sometimes it's hard if you want to make a cluster of SQLs on Azure; it's not a good approach, but sometimes it worked out for me.

If I have to do something very specific to the instance, sometimes I am not allowed to leave those types of configurations because they need it to be broader. They are not at the level that I need to make the configurations that I want.

The configuration is the only area to be improved. Everything else is what it is and what we expected. The configuration is the area that is most cumbersome.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SQL Azure for two years.

I have the latest version. I always update to the latest version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a very stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SQL Azure is perfectly scalable.

We have a team of 20 to 25 developers who are using this solution for development. 

Also, we have thousands of clients for the databases that are using it.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is fast, it's reliable, and they are knowledgeable.

If your problem is in the knowledge base then support is very good. If it's not in the knowledge base, then it's central and not on the Microsoft roadmap.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is more complex than it is straightforward.

The easiest deployment requires an hour. If you have a one-by-one project that consists of migration and replication, it can take several weeks.

What other advice do I have?

Using SQL Azure really depends on the settings that you want to deploy, or the amount of money that you want to spend. If you are deploying and thinking that something will grow so that you can align your income to pay per use, then it's pretty good. 

If you are considering something where your payments or your income is not related to pay-per-use, you may consider using it on-premises during the beginning. It really depends on your settings.

Overall, this solution is pretty good.

There are still some areas that have to develop, but I would rate SQL Azure an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private 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
Solution Principal at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
A very mature product with good documentation and good stability
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is a fairly mature product. It provides good stability."
  • "From a security perspective, although their features are decent, they can always be improved upon, updated, and refined to help protect clients better."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for its Data Lake and Data Warehouse, in both cases for our customers.

What is most valuable?

The solution is easily integrated into other SQL solutions. It's flexible in that sense.

The solution is a fairly mature product. It provides good stability.

The initial setup isn't too difficult.

There is very good documentation. It's unbelievable, the amount of documentation on offer through Microsoft's site.

The security features are quite good.

What needs improvement?

In terms of management, you can't really pause things. It doesn't allow for that kind of capability.

From a security perspective, although their features are decent, they can always be improved upon, updated, and refined to help protect clients better.

I would love it if that had dynamic data masking and features of that nature.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for two years at least at this point.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution is pretty good. It's a mature product, so you don't get bugs or glitches, and they update it regularly. It doesn't crash. It's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution can scale well. That's not a problem at all. If a company needs to scale, they can do so easily.

How are customer service and technical support?

Microsoft's technical support is great. We're satisfied with their service. They have a pretty extensive online database and an online community that is quite helpful. It's all very helpful.

If you need to reach them in person, you need to have a licensing agreement in place. If you purchase that, you can get more personalized assistance.

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

We previously used SQL on-premises servers. It's very easy to migrate over to the cloud if you have that setup. It's basically one-to-one.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup isn't complex. It's pretty straightforward. However, it does take a long time to provision and manage everything. It can take a couple of hours typically to deploy the solution.

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

You do have to pay for technical support. If you have it in your licensing agreement, you will gain access to a team you can call if you run into issues.

I'm not sure of the exact licensing costs. From a cloud perspective, a client would be charged based on consumption, so the pricing would depend on elements such as how many users or how many queries (and how complex), et cetera. 

I do know that it's competitive pricing, however. Most solutions of this caliber are around the same price. They compete with each other.

What other advice do I have?

We're Microsoft partners.

The solution is constantly being updated. We're on whatever the latest version/update is at any given time.

We're a consultancy, so we work with a variety of clients and adjust solutions based on their needs.

I'd advise new users to take advantage of the documentation on offer from Microsoft. It will really help them understand the solution.

Overall, I'd rate the solution 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: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user