Senior System Administrator at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Easy to use, scales well, and the technical support is good
Pros and Cons
  • "This product is quite easy to use and is available on-demand."
  • "There are so many services available that the interface is a little bit messy, and when you're looking for a specific service, you have to know exactly where to search."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Active Directory in Azure, so it's for all of the Office 365 services.

What is most valuable?

This product is quite easy to use and is available on-demand.

What needs improvement?

There are so many services available that the interface is a little bit messy, and when you're looking for a specific service, you have to know exactly where to search. Having better visibility in the interface would be an improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable product and we plan to continue using it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure is a scalable solution. We have approximately 150 users.

How are customer service and support?

We have used technical support and it is very good.

How was the initial setup?

As a cloud-based product, there is no installation.

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

This is an expensive product.

What other advice do I have?

In summary, this is a good solution, and other than some improvements to the user interface, I cannot think of any features that are missing.

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
General Manager at a tech company with 11-50 employees
Real User
A reliable, stable, and scalable solution that meets our needs and is easy to implement and use
Pros and Cons
  • "There are many useful features. We use web apps, so instead of starting a web server, we just have machines running some web services. This was helpful for us in terms of the scalability of the application. We also use Active Directory for authentication and some services for the data backup. It is a very good and reliable solution. It was easy to implement this solution. It fits very well into our plans and covers our needs to provide infrastructure in the cloud. The portal to configure new resources is very easy, and it is very easy to allocate new resources."
  • "We would like it to be cheaper. As a customer, we always want to pay less."

What is our primary use case?

Our production system is on Microsoft Azure. We are using the latest version of this solution.

We have services for the data in the SQL Server database. We also have servers for our web-based applications. All transactions occur in this environment. We also have a mirror environment in Azure, which is a different cloud geographically. 

What is most valuable?

There are many useful features. We use web apps, so instead of starting a web server, we just have machines running some web services. This was helpful for us in terms of the scalability of the application. We also use Active Directory for authentication and some services for the data backup.

It is a very good and reliable solution. It was easy to implement this solution. It fits very well into our plans and covers our needs to provide infrastructure in the cloud. The portal to configure new resources is very easy, and it is very easy to allocate new resources.

What needs improvement?

We would like it to be cheaper. As a customer, we always want to pay less.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution since 2013.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In the past, they had some major outages, but it is a pretty stable platform.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable. It is as easy as assigning more resources, but it also depends on the architecture. If you have web apps or microservices, it is easy to implement a kind of dynamic or elastic growth. When you have a lot of activities, Azure will automatically assign more resources, which is pretty convenient.

We have around 200 users in our company, but we also have a merchant network that uses our system. This network has about 1,000 users.

How are customer service and technical support?

We had to escalate one case with the Microsoft team because we lost the connection with a data store. We got a response back within an hour of the event, and it was normal. Their service is fine in this regard. You can also have a better support contract, but what we have is enough for our purposes and needs.

How was the initial setup?

It is pretty easy. You just have to follow the step-by-step guidelines. The deployment happens almost immediately. If you need to increase or upgrade a server or have a new server, you just go to the portal and create a new resource, such as a server or a disk. It is very fast. There is no waiting time at all.

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

Its price can be cheaper. Price is always an issue. We pay around $10,000 per month for all resources.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are launching a new platform for software as a service. We create our software, and for a new concept and architecture, we are comparing AWS with Azure. We are exploring AWS. It is a different stack, and we don't have much experience with it. So far, we don't have a lot of information about production on AWS because the product is not live yet. It will take a couple of months to be finished.

What other advice do I have?

It is a good solution. If you have any on-premise applications, you have to be very careful about the architecture. What you don't want to do is copy what you have in your data center and put it on the cloud because there are various alternatives once you are in the cloud. Therefore, I would recommend others to review the architecture and take advantage of the features that it provides.

I would rate Microsoft Azure a nine out of ten. We are happy with Microsoft and this 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: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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Microsoft Azure
April 2024
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Senior System Engineer at a engineering company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Easy to use with good scalability potential and good stability on offer
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is rather stable. We haven't had any issues with it in that sense."
  • "It would be ideal if they could reduce costs a bit. Right now, we find the product to be expensive."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution to host the web server.

What is most valuable?

The product is very convenient for us. It ensures the website is set up right.

The solution can scale if you need it to. Expanding it is easy.

The product is rather stable. We haven't had any issues with it in that sense.

The solution is very easy to use.

What needs improvement?

I can't say that we have any complaints in terms of features or lack of capabilities within the product. Over the last two years, I'd say it's been so far so good.

It would be ideal if they could reduce costs a bit. Right now, we find the product to be expensive.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for around two years at this point. It hasn't been too long.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution so far has been reliable. We haven't had problems with stability over the last two years of use. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's been good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of the solution is very good. If a company needs to expand it, they can do so rather easily. It shouldn't give them any trouble.

We don't currently have plans to increase the usage ourselves at this point. There's no scaling that will be done in the near future on our end.

How are customer service and technical support?

We've been in touch with technical support in the past. We had a question we needed them to answer and they were able to help us. I'd say they were knowledgeable and responsive and that we've been happy with the level of service so far.

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

The licensing is based on usage. I'm not sure of the exact costs involved as it's not an aspect of the solution that is my responsibility.

That said, it is my understanding that it is a bit expensive.

What other advice do I have?

We're just a customer. We aren't a reseller or consultant and we don't have a professional business relationship with Microsoft.

We only really use the solution to host a website, and therefore we don't really use the full scope of features right now.

I'd recommend the solution to other organizations as it is rather easy to use.

Overall, we've been quite happy with the product. I'd rate it 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: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Systems Administrator Team Leader at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Good workload performance and the ExpressRoute connects us directly to the Microsoft cloud
Pros and Cons
  • "We have implemented the ExpressRoute connection, which is an established circuit between the local provider and the Microsoft network edge."
  • "At times, the support is terrible."

What is our primary use case?

This year, we built our own data center, and we use this solution to extend it into the cloud.

We have implemented the ExpressRoute connection, which is an established circuit between the local provider and the Microsoft network edge. This leads you directly to the Microsoft data center.

The digital workload transfers from on-premises here to the Azure cloud, which is a hybrid model. We have two different zones in Azure. One is for the intranet, and the other is for the internet.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the performance for our digital workloads.

What needs improvement?

At times, the support is terrible. It is not bad all of the time, but many times when we have contacted them, there are juniors without refined knowledge. We have had instances where it takes a long time to solve just a single problem.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Microsoft Azure for the past two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability depends on the customer. They decide the compute and other things, such as the level of support. If they take premium support then the SLA given by Microsoft is higher than when you choose a virtual machine without premium.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

At the moment, we are reviewing and studying how to migrate our full workload to the cloud. We have one datacenter with more than 120 virtual machines and we are learning how to do the migration. Once it is achieved, the hybrid model we have can become a public model.

How was the initial setup?

Our design was complex because we wanted it done in a certain way. There were lots of things to be done. We just experienced problems in the firewall's compatibility with Azure because when you implement a firewall, it's not as straightforward as in the case when you implement it on-premises. This led to some challenges and we had to troubleshoot the deployment of one firewall for a full month.

Even the local providers did not have experience with how to deploy that one firewall, which is why we spent so much time troubleshooting. It turns out that when you deploy a firewall on-premises and you want to migrate to the cloud, there are certain considerations that you have to keep in mind, which makes it more complex.

For our second firewall implementation, it was faster and better.

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

Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis.

What other advice do I have?

This is definitely a product that I recommend, but it has to be done smartly. Not everything can be migrated and you shouldn't try to migrate everything as-is. It has to be done properly and people have to understand how services that are to be migrated need to be done. Also, there are some services that should not be migrated because it is better to keep them on your own cloud. This should all be studied in advance.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid 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
IT Senior Consultant and trainer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Real User
Simple to use, easy to configure, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is very simple to use. It has a lot of great practical applications we really appreciate."
  • "The solution could use mutual segmentation for servers. It would be ideal if you could constitute something like five or 15 groups among the groups of different computers inside Azure."

What is our primary use case?

I primarily use Microsoft Azure for application development in our development environment.

What is most valuable?

The solution is pretty dynamic.

We prefer that we can configure our environment very quickly. 

We can add some notes if we need to. The testing capabilities are great. We can use the load balancing environment, and we can test a lot of different components from an infrastructure point of view. We can also test different scenarios within the application. 

The solution is very simple to use. It has a lot of great practical applications we really appreciate.

What needs improvement?

The licensing model is not ideal. It is not very useful in predicting actual costs. Sometimes we found that we could not accurately predict how much specific products will cost the company in the future. Just now, for example, we want to start using Log Analytics for Office 365, however, we don't know the final price. It's inconvenient for us as we cannot predict the budget and it puts off making a decision. For Microsoft, it's very disadvantagous.

The solution could use mutual segmentation for servers. It would be ideal if you could constitute something like five or 15 groups among the groups of different computers inside Azure. If you could get something like logical groups of servers outside the mutual servers, it would be an improvement. 

Sometimes we want to start and do a penetration test. If, for example, we're planning new security scanning for our customers. You have to inform Microsoft that you want to start a penetration test. If you have regular scans Microsoft should allow regular scanning, without having to plan and to ask for approval from the Microsoft side every time. When it's meant to be a regular occurrence, it's very inconvenient for us.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution is pretty good. It doesn't cause bottlenecks or any other major issues for us. We find it to be reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

While we can dynamically add servers according to the user request, it's not profitable for us. Currently, it is possible to scale the solution. It just costs more to do so.

How are customer service and technical support?

We are not so satisfied with technical support right now. Sometimes they cannot help us. We had problems with licensing and with the invoicing and so on and so on. Sometimes it's not very easy to explain the problems, the technical or non-technical, and they can't really assist us effectively.

In one instance, we had an issue with anti-spam on the service. We were trying to figure out why certain emails were being marked as spam. It took far too long to get to the bottom of the cause.

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

It's hard to gauge what the pricing will be, so It's hard to plan with the solution. The licensing needs to be more transparent and obvious.

What other advice do I have?

We're simply Microsoft customers. We don't have a business relationship with the company.

Overall, I would rate the solution eight out of ten. We're mostly happy with it, although we would prefer if pricing was more transparent.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Diretor de Sistemas de Informação at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Mobility of cloud-based directory reduced reporting and sped implementing new solutions

What is most valuable?

  • Virtual Networking
  • Security
  • Feature packing
  • Virtual Machines
  • Ease of implementation
  • Azure AD
  • Azure AD Directory Domain Services
  • Database as a Service
  • Operations Management Suite
  • RBAC

How has it helped my organization?

Mobility, no more "metal" on-premise, cloud-based directory with SSO features, sped implementing new solutions, reduced skillset for management and reporting.

We have a full Azure plus Office 365 implementation for servers and desktops, authenticating users on Azure AD over 802.1X switching and wireless. No on-premise servers, DC's, file-servers, etc.

What needs improvement?

Stability. Microsoft is implementing changes too fast and sometimes things break.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three years, but the full stack only since January 2017.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

None.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Yes. Beware of August. Microsoft makes some big changes during this month and they have an impact on customers.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

None.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

10 out of 10.

Technical Support:

10 out of 10.

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

On-premise traditional solutions.

How was the initial setup?

Complex in the beginning, because the company I was migrating had some peculiarities.

The latter move was totally stable as we did a cutoff migration and no garbage was imported. Some downtime was expected, but this was minimal.

What about the implementation team?

In-house, with support from a vendor team. Excellent support: 10 out of 10.

What was our ROI?

Not yet calculated since it was a major digital transformation and an ongoing project.

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

Setup cost is low and Microsoft may help your project financially with services from a partner.

Be sure to know your licensing or ask for advice. It's worth it. You may be led into something you don't need, if following Microsoft or a vendor.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No.

What other advice do I have?

Evaluate extensibly (the actual scenario), have a definitive vision of where you want to be in a near future, align the strategy with your management and expect that it may not be cheaper. A correct vision of a project of this kind cannot be focused on lowering costs but vision alignment, future scalability, speed on delivering services, and maintaining smaller IT crews focused on business needs.

Please do some previous math regarding actual licensing versus a costs model. Extrapolate this to a five year plan to match current hardware lifespans.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Cloud/System Administrator at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Vendor
Saves a lot of time for our developers as it enables moving from the virtual machines to the Web Application-side

What is most valuable?

Virtual machines, Azure Web Applications, MS SQL DB, DNS, Azure Active Directory, etc. are some of the most valuable features.

It is quite easy to learn to start working with them and they are composite enough to use them in many different scenarios.

For example, you can create a web app with a few clicks from Visual Studio and publish it to Azure Web Apps. You also can integrate that Web App to CI/CD pipeline (https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/build/get-started/aspnet-4-ci-cd-azure-automatic), assign custom SSL certificates to it (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service-web/app-service-web-tutorial-custom-SSL), configure auto-scale (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-environment-auto-scale), implement Azure AD authentication (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service-mobile/app-service-mobile-how-to-configure-active-directory-authentication?toc=%2fazure%2fapp-service%2ftoc.json), etc.

How has it helped my organization?

It enabled moving from the virtual machines to the Web Application-side, which in turn saved a lot of time for our developers.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for about two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were some stability issues. Some of them were user-specific (some applications were buggy), while some were global https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/status/history/.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no scalability issues. My work duties are not connected to this feature.

How is customer service and technical support?

On a scale from 1-10 (1=worst, 10=best). I would rate the technical support a seven out of 10. First level support is awful (it works only if you have a generic issue). But if you are lucky enough, you could get a real technical person, who could help you.

How was the initial setup?

The setup/installation depends from which service you start (for example, start to use DNS which is much easier vs the web applications).

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

If your company is big enough and oriented to the cloud, then go for the Enterprise Agreement. If you want just to try it first, then use the trial version.

What other advice do I have?

Learn the fundamentals using the official documentation; for example, you have the Developer Guide and courses.

Start using new services based on the scenarios described in the official documentation.

Use communities for consulting, such as Stack Overflow, Reddit, and Slack. However, personally, I prefer the channel azured.slack.com.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user8577 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Infrastructure at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
When to use different Azure IaaS storage types…

I’m been using Azure IaaS in a lot of enterprise deployments lately and I’ve noticed that there is some confusion regarding the different storage types available and provisioned for the virtual machines.  In many ways the capabilities associated with Azure storage is its greatest strength, but unless you configure it properly, you might be in for a surprise regarding your results.    The key message to understand is the difference between the operating system disk, the temporary disk, and data disks as they have different performance characteristics and will impact your systems in different ways when used correctly or incorrectly.

The operating system disk:

This disk is used for the operating system install and it will exhibit great read performance.   It is not however scalable for write performance, so you shouldn’t use it for any write-centric or data-centric use.   It would NOT be the place where you would put your Microsoft SQL data, or your file server.

The cache / temporary disk

The cache disk is used for temporary data that you don’t want to keep.  It might seem like it is retained, but eventually you will find this disk refreshed when the system is booted back up, or undergoes a “repair”.  The cache disk is really only appropriate for storage of data you don’t want to keep.

The data disk

The data disk is where you should put any of your important information, especially databases and file stores.  The data here can be effectively scaled out through striping several data disks together.  A rule of thumb to use is that each data disk is worth approximately 500 IOPS.  If you stripe several together you’ll see that number increase.  At this point you might find it helpful to run some tests against the disks you’ve allocated to ensure you’ve added the appropriate IOPS for your capacity requirement.  I’ll note that the disk IOPS will increase as it is used, which is a component of the caching engine of the data disk type.  The cool thing about the data disk is that they are easy to provision and you can create stripes of a lot of disks (16) which will provide excellent scalability to your application.

The key point?  Use the right disks for the right things.  If you don’t, then you’ll get a different performance experience than you’re expecting.  Now move some workloads to Azure and take advantage of the scalability!

Want to learn more?  Check out the Azure internals session from TechEd!

Azure Internals

Also, check out Azure Storage Testing, which checked a standard Azure hard disk against a local SSD and a small server.  This performance can be improved by striping multiple Azure disks together.

Disclosure: The company I work for is a Microsoft Partner

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 Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.