What is our primary use case?
We use Azure Repos for most things. It integrates with Azure Boards.
It's good for the ticketing part and for saving the Azure Repos. We use Terraform.
How has it helped my organization?
Azure DevOps integrations with other tools have streamlined our workflows.
The centralized code repository is a major part. We store code and collaborate, and everyone can see what others are doing and what code they're adding. We can review the code and make changes if needed.
The same code used for implementation is visible to other team members, allowing them to contribute. Additionally, the Azure board interface helps create tickets and assign workloads, keeping everyone informed about progress.
What is most valuable?
Azure DevOps is effective for repository management and code collaboration. We can create branches, differentiate between code versions, save and review code later, get PR approvals, and more. All these features are valuable.
What needs improvement?
There is room for improvement in customer service and support. Sometimes, I create a ticket for a specific issue, and they tell me it's not relevant to that ticket.
They ask me to create a different one, basically saying they can't help with the current one. It's a communication gap. We're troubleshooting, so we don't always know the exact issue. They should let us stick with the same ticket and maybe assign a different engineer if needed. These areas definitely need improvement.
Another area is the Azure monitoring agent for Citrix machines. There's room for improvement there too.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for four months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a very refined tool from Microsoft, so there haven't been any problems with stability for us.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is great. We can add as much code as we need, and the deployed code volume can also be scaled.
The scalability comes in the sense of creating virtual machines using IaaS, which works really well within the suite.
I'm on the DevOps team, and around 25 to 30 of us in the team itself use Azure DevOps. So, overall, there are a lot of end users in my company.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and support are good, but there are some issues when we're doing a deployment and need clarification. They're not very helpful there. Maybe there's a separate team for that.
But in general, for project creation and work, after everything is deployed, Microsoft can help with a general support ticket. But they won't help with the planning phase. They're more like big management. So, there's a gap in the assistance we need for new project deployments.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
For ticketing, we use ServiceNow. Both solve the same problem in that regard. And for code repositories, we use GitHub. So, it's not an all-in-one solution like Azure DevOps, which has a lot of features bundled together.
Since Azure DevOps offers everything in one place, it feels more convenient. It does a bit of everything. So it's a good option because it replaces various individual tools and provides all their services in one package.
How was the initial setup?
It is very straightforward. It was easy for me to deploy.
The deployment depends on the workloads we have. For example, deployment for setting up Azure DevOps or the application itself isn't the same.
It takes a lot of time to get the setup ready.
Regarding setup, connecting it to Visual Studio was smooth on both Mac and Windows. Integrations are quite good.
Deployments depend on the workload. We create virtual machines using Terraform, so it's usually fast, especially when downloading repos from Azure Repos.
What about the implementation team?
Smaller tasks like deploying a prepared code for a single service wouldn't require additional engineers. Many workflows can be handled by one person.
Architecture is different, as the architect designs the infrastructure, which needs to be followed.
What was our ROI?
ROI depends on the cost optimization we can achieve. Sometimes, clients use heavier resources than they actually need. So it depends.
If the environment is fully optimized, there can be significant savings, leading to a good return on investment. But they would also be paying for partner management.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
For Microsoft, it can get expensive when you need heavy-duty machines. But compared to on-premises solutions or the hardware we used before, it's still much more convenient for us. So even though it can be pricey, the benefits outweigh the cost in our case.
Maybe some more flexible payment options could improve the pricing.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would 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.