Hemal Lathia - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Analyst at Hella Infra Market
Real User
Top 20
A user-friendly solution to monitor all instances
Pros and Cons
  • "I am monitoring all of my Azure Monitor and getting good reports. I can customize the reports to get the information I need. I am also getting emails about which AAS instances are down and everything in the system related to my services. It is easy to use, scalable, and user-friendly. Microsoft has Many guides and videos to help you understand how to create and use Azure Monitor."
  • "have used multiple products like Webex and PRTG. Some features could be added. Azure Monitor should add SMS and APIs. We have very limited access to Azure Monitor. I usually get alerts on my phone when they are integrated with Slack. I am not always available, but my team is. Sometimes, I am traveling and don't have access to my email, but I have Slack and other third-party projects that send me instant messages if a sensor goes down."

What is most valuable?

I am monitoring all of my Azure Monitor and getting good reports. I can customize the reports to get the information I need. I am also getting emails about which AAS instances are down and everything in the system related to my services.

It is easy to use, scalable, and user-friendly. Microsoft has Many guides and videos to help you understand how to create and use Azure Monitor.

What needs improvement?

I have used multiple products like Webex and PRTG. Some features could be added. Azure Monitor should add SMS and APIs. We have very limited access to Azure Monitor. I usually get alerts on my phone when they are integrated with Slack.
I am not always available, but my team is. Sometimes, I am traveling and don't have access to my email, but I have Slack and other third-party projects that send me instant messages if a sensor goes down.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Monitor as a customer for seven years. I have been working in my current company for the past year, but in my previous organization, we used Citrix and Azure Monitor to monitor the instances. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable.

We have almost 23 users, and the network security zone has four users using the solution. Currently, we are not planning to add usage.

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How are customer service and support?

The technical support team is good. Sometimes, there was a long waiting period. I've never faced any issues with Azure Monitor. If I’m deploying, I’m drafting a mail to the Microsoft team and receive the response after three days of purpose.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I faced many issues in my previous organization since I was a beginner in Azure, but I have no issues now. When implementing Citrix on-premises to Azure, we had some problems with adding sensors and SSL certificates.

What other advice do I have?

If I have experience with Azure monitor, everything will come into word-of-mouth publishing. If I am satisfied with Azure monitoring, I will tell my colleagues in any previous organizations or anyone I’m connected with on LinkedIn.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Praveen Kumar Deverakonda - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Administrator at Wipro Limited
Real User
Top 10
Easy to use and the documentation is very easy to understand
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure Monitor is a very easy-to-use product in the cloud environment."
  • "We cannot use AI services with the solution."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for the monitoring of the agent. Whatever resources we create, it will install one agent on that resource. It will collect all the matrices. It will do a detailed analysis of how much CPU, RAM, and memory should be utilized. We can get all this information by using Azure Monitor.

What is most valuable?

Azure Monitor is a very easy-to-use product in the cloud environment.

What needs improvement?

We cannot use AI services with the solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Monitor for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure Monitor is a very stable product, and I don't find any bugs in it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Around 50,000 users are using the solution in our organization.

How are customer service and support?

I have contacted the technical support team regarding how to use the solution, how to monitor, and what to do if we lose any logs. I am happy with the technical support team and the information they provided.

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

The solution’s pricing depends on how much logs it collects.

What other advice do I have?

The solution is deployed on the cloud in our organization.

Most of the resources are inbuilt monitoring systems. Apart from those things, we can have more monitoring by using the analytics tools. Azure will provide the insights and analytics tool to collect data from all the resources, and we can store it in one centralized storage account.

We can analyze and do a lot of research on the logs. Azure will provide all these things, and it is a very easy-to-use product. Azure Monitor is not a standalone product. An inbuilt agent will be already running when you create any VM or machine. On top of that, we can see the logs as soon as the VM or machine is created.

The solution's documentation is very easy to understand. We can go through the documentation, and we can find the related information very quickly. Azure Monitor is very easy to use.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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March 2024
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Founding Partner at 2Five1
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A comprehensive cloud-based monitoring with seamless integration, offers robust resource utilization insights, but it may require further development of the detailed issue analysis capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "The dashboard allows us to easily track various metrics and quickly understand the overall health of our system."
  • "Enhancing and reaching a level of detail that facilitates pinpointing and addressing issues at such a refined level within the application and database components would be helpful."

What is our primary use case?

Our main focus is on monitoring the utilization of resources, specifically within the ARRIS environment, where we utilize MySQL as the server. We actively track metrics such as CPU and memory utilization, as well as internet usage. The primary objective is to closely monitor resource utilization, providing insights that help us determine when adjustments to resource allocations are necessary.

What is most valuable?

One standout feature is its user-friendly dashboard. It simplifies the process of monitoring by providing a comprehensive overview of metrics, particularly in terms of resource utilization. The dashboard allows us to easily track various metrics and quickly understand the overall health of our system.

What needs improvement?

Establishing a threshold for resource utilization below 40% over a specified duration could trigger an automated scaling down, and vice versa. This way, the system could dynamically adjust configurations based on predefined conditions, such as scaling up or turning off resources. Enhancing and reaching a level of detail that facilitates pinpointing and addressing issues at such a refined level within the application and database components would be helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using it for one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We currently find it stable since our present requirements are relatively straightforward, and we are utilizing its basic functionalities.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is highly commendable with around three hundred users currently using it within our organization. The application we are employing primarily caters to the education sector. It is currently in use by the Ministry of Education, in conjunction with their division offices, and the plan is to extend its usage to the school level. Upon full implementation, we anticipate the user base to grow significantly, reaching an estimated range of twenty to thirty thousand users.

How are customer service and support?

We have utilized Microsoft's Azure technical support services, both from the global cloud support and the local support team in the Philippines. Most of our technical support requests to Microsoft Azure have revolved around resource allocation issues. Initially, we deployed services across different regions, but we later consolidated in the Asian region. However, due to limited space in the Asian region, Azure imposes restrictions on certain resources.

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

We used New Relic. While Azure Monitor covers resource aspects, New Relic excels in providing a thorough examination of application issues. New Relic can precisely identify problems related to resource allocation, pinpointing issues within the application, whether they originate from application resources or the database.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We operate as a collaborative effort, partnering with Microsoft's education group, which supports the Ministry of Education. Under our agreement, we have an Azure expert within our team whom we can approach for support and assistance in implementation and deployment.

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

Since we are using the basic set, it is more cost-effective compared to other third-party APM solutions.

What other advice do I have?

It is a more seamless and effective monitoring solution compared to third-party options like New Relic. The alignment of Azure Monitor with our Azure-based infrastructure simplifies the monitoring process, ensuring all applications and resources are easily accessible within the Azure ecosystem. While third-party APM solutions, such as New Relic or NetNix, are useful for troubleshooting specific issues, they face limitations when applied to Azure app services. These services often have restrictions and prerequisites that impede the full utilization of third-party APM for cloud monitoring, especially with the latest Azure technologies. Given these considerations, our recommendation is twofold. For those utilizing the latest Azure technologies, Azure Monitor is advised due to its seamless integration. If choosing a third-party APM provider, it's essential to confirm compatibility with the latest Azure technologies to ensure effective monitoring without encountering potential issues. Overall, I would rate it seven 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.
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Deivid Viana - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Architect at Vale
Real User
Top 5
Monitors the infrastructure and applications but needs connectivity in cost management
Pros and Cons
  • "I use the solution to monitor the infrastructure and applications."
  • "I need connectivity with cost management."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution to monitor the infrastructure and applications. 

What needs improvement?

I need connectivity with cost management. 

How are customer service and support?

Azure Monitor's customer service is good. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

The tool is expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Azure Monitor a nine out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Lead architect at Ziggo Services B.V.
Real User
Top 10
Extremely stable, scalable, and quick to deploy
Pros and Cons
  • "Log analytics and log queries are the most valuable features of Azure Monitor."
  • "We encounter some difficulties in monitoring the operating system on its own."

What is our primary use case?

Azure Monitor is utilized for observability purposes, specifically for monitoring and alerting Azure states to customers.

What is most valuable?

Log analytics and log queries are the most valuable features of Azure Monitor.

What needs improvement?

We encounter some difficulties in monitoring the operating system on its own. Therefore, we require additional tools to obtain a comprehensive view of the entire application chain.

The technical support can be faster and has room for improvement.

The dashboarding and reports could benefit from improvements, as Microsoft seems to prioritize Power BI as their main dashboarding tool. Perhaps these enhancements could be integrated natively into Azure, as there is certainly room for improvement in that area.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I give the stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Monitor is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is not always perfect. Sometimes it takes a long time to get the right person who actually understands the issue to work on the case.

How was the initial setup?

We find the initial setup to be straightforward as we have extensive experience in it. However, configuring Azure Monitor may prove to be complex for those who are less experienced. The deployment takes about 30 minutes. The deployment process is using a CICD workflow that is fully automated.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed in-house. I work as an integrator and am responsible for implementing solutions for our customers.

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

There is a monthly fee for the alerts triggered and the data stored.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

We have 35 customers using the solution.

We have a small DevOps team of about ten developers that maintain this life cycle.

The reason for using this solution is to align with the hyperscaler's capabilities as close as possible, and this is the best-integrated solution we can find.

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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IT Manager at Software Gurus
Real User
Top 5
The solution provides observability to check everything in the cloud, but it’s really hard to query the logs
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure Monitor gives us the observability to check everything that we have in the cloud."
  • "It's really complex to retrieve or query the logs in Azure Monitor."

What is our primary use case?

We use Azure Monitor to monitor all the infrastructure that we have in the cloud.

What is most valuable?

Azure Monitor gives us the observability to check everything that we have in the cloud. We can set up some alarms to better manage what we have in the cloud.

Azure Monitor has a direct connection with the infrastructure in the cloud. It's like a built-in feature in public services.

What needs improvement?

It's really complex to retrieve or query the logs in Azure Monitor. They have another query language, and it's messy. It never works the first time. You have to check a little bit of queries. It's really hard to make queries in Azure Monitor.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Monitor for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We never had issues with the solution's stability. I rate Azure Monitor a nine out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate Azure Monitor a nine out of ten for scalability. It's a cloud service, and we don't have any issues with it.

How are customer service and support?

Azure Monitor's technical support overall is not perfect.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment with Azure Monitor because it's a tool that's out of the box in the cloud.

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

Azure Monitor's pricing is tied to the services. The Azure Insight is a little bit expensive. It's a little expensive if you want to avail all the features.

What other advice do I have?

I am using the on-cloud version of Azure Monitor.

If they are using the cloud, users can use Azure Monitor as the first tool because it already has integration with all the services. However, the query language that I use is really complex. So if users haven't built queries before, they will have several issues with it.

Even for technical people, they will have issues if they don't have experience using a query language. So if they are using Azure, they should use Azure Monitor initially. Later, they can improve the monitoring environment by applying some other tools.

Overall, I rate Azure Monitor a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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M ANakib - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Cloud Consultant at CloudThat
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Helps us test the performance and efficiency of cloud applications; good log analysis
Pros and Cons
  • "For me, the best feature is the log analysis with Azure Monitor's Log Analytics. Without being able to analyze the logs of all the activities that affect the performance of a machine, your monitoring effectiveness will be severely limited."
  • "Although it's not always the case, the price can sometimes get expensive. This depends on a number of factors, such as how many services you are trying to integrate with Azure Monitor and how much storage they're consuming each month (for example, how large are the log files?)."

What is our primary use case?

As a Microsoft MVP and MCT, I help our company's clients use Azure Monitor in different ways depending on what types of activity they want to monitor. From a big picture perspective, this entails checking and testing both the performance and efficiency of cloud-based applications.

Starting from the basics, such as when monitoring VMs, you are able to integrate Azure Monitor with the virtual machine so as to create alerts and notifications that are automatically triggered when, for example, the machine's performance rises above 60-70%.

You can also use Azure Monitor to help you understand the total internal activity, including the CPU or RAM performance, of specific applications on the cloud. And beyond that, there are many other metrics detailing which users have logged in (or are concurrently logged in) to the application or VM, while showing the ratios of their activity in total.

What is most valuable?

For me, the best feature is the log analysis with Azure Monitor's Log Analytics. Without being able to analyze the logs of all the activities that affect the performance of a machine, your monitoring effectiveness will be severely limited.

What needs improvement?

Although it's not always the case, the price can sometimes get expensive. This depends on a number of factors, such as how many services you are trying to integrate with Azure Monitor and how much storage they're consuming each month (for example, how large are the log files?).

Of course, this totally depends on the particular customer's environment. As the implementer, we can typically only advise on the technical outcomes for a certain usage scenario of Azure Monitor, and not necessarily the advantages or disadvantages of paying for Azure Monitor in their particular use case. For example, if they are paying $400 per month, the advantages for the customer might be that they reduce technical headaches in ensuring proper service performance without having to invest in a separate IT member to handle the monitoring. And for many customers, this makes good business sense, which is why when we propose the use of Azure Monitor in such a way and give them an example, they often take us up on the proposal, despite the costs involved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Azure Monitor for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure Monitor is definitely a stable product once we have deployed it to our target. Azure Monitor, when deployed to a VM, will give you a stable interface for taking readings on various aspects of a machine's performance, such as what's going on with the CPU, memory, and data communications.

When it comes to more advanced usage with deeper monitoring, Azure Monitor can integrate with AI to make the process of advising what to do about resolving certain problems much easier.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Azure Monitor is a key part of service integration and it is easy to scale and extend as needed. You can also integrate other services, even third-party ones, with it.

It provides options for scaling it to your own needs in various ways, such as by providing a choice of what types of logs will be generated and how many days you would like to keep the logs for. It also provides options for how many servers you would like to monitor, and whether you will be logging on an hourly, per-minute, or per-second basis.

How are customer service and support?

I am largely satisfied with how the technical support from Microsoft explains their solutions to the issues that we've raised. Although, most of the time, they simply share the most current link from their blog of knowledge base that explains the specific activity that must be done to resolve a problem. This is because Microsoft engineers don't actually provide the technical work themselves, but instead act as advisors, where companies like mine will then be the implementer of the suggested solutions.

How was the initial setup?

The setup for Azure Monitor itself is easy to understand and, for generating logs and such, it's a simple process of configuring how you would like to gather your logs and for how long you would like to keep those records, etc.

It won't take anyone that much time to deploy their monitoring system with Azure Monitor. This is especially true if you understand your business needs well, because you can then quickly integrate Azure Monitor (and Log Analytics or Workbooks) inside your application as appropriate. As an estimate, it could take up to three or four hours at most.

What about the implementation team?

We implement Azure Monitor in-house. Our deployment plan is to first obtain the Azure identity and then make an effort to better understand the service that will be running on the Azure cloud. For example, is it IaaS or PaaS? If it is based on PaaS, then we'll go straight to the application inside the PaaS, and if it's on a VM, then we'll go to the VM (or container) instance and set up the deployment from there. Here, the deployment also depends on the specific resources or Azure subscriptions in use.

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

Customers of Azure Monitor must pay an amount that depends largely on how many services they need to integrate and the storage space required in terms of logs, etc. If they only have a few small services to monitor, the price won't be too high, but on the opposite side of the spectrum, it can certainly get pricey.

Fortunately, customers can use the calculator provided by Azure to easily estimate the total monthly costs based on the customer's requirements. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Along with Azure, I also have experience with New Relic, for which I have handled both deployment and connectivity.

What other advice do I have?

I can definitely recommend Azure Monitor for most people, but before recommending it to all I would caution that whether you choose to use it depends largely on the type of service that you are running on the cloud.

One must first be clear about the outcomes of the service that is to be monitored; if it is a critical service or application where you absolutely must monitor each data point or watch for incidents, then you will certainly want to use Azure Monitor.

On the other hand, some companies are running services on the cloud that are not actually critical in the grand scheme of their operations, and to these companies I would not blindly encourage using Azure Monitor. Of course, if they are interested nevertheless, then I would say, sure, they can go forward with it as long as they understand that they will have to pay Microsoft accordingly in order to get something out of Azure Monitor. 

I would rate Azure Monitor 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: Implementer
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Subject Matter Expert at Vision Software
Real User
Top 5
Great integration, a good way to collect logs, and help with ISO
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the universality of their functionalities in all Azure services, including, software solutions."
  • "I would like more transparency when we use the solution with another environment, like on-premises, or on another cloud environment, like AWS or GCP."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is included in all of our solutions created with ISO. We always include Azure Monitor as the primary service to review the infrastructure state for our customers.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the universality of their functionalities in all Azure services, including, software solutions.

What needs improvement?

I would like more transparency when we use the solution with another environment, like on-premises, or on another cloud environment, like AWS or GCP.

What I would like to see in the next release is not directly related to the solution, but it depends on Azure cost management. Maybe if we had the opportunity to monitor the cost of Azure and another cloud in one environment, and maybe integrate that with Azure Monitor, that would be incredible and amazing for any IT company to offer that to our customers.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for almost four years.

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

The licensing is a monthly fee.

What other advice do I have?

I give this solution a nine 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: Partner
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Download our free Azure Monitor Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Azure Monitor Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.