What is our primary use case?
My experience primarily revolves around modernization, IT transformation, and infrastructure as a service in the cloud, along with managed services, cloud service provider strategies, designing cloud services, and monetization strategies.
So, I'm mainly focused on consulting for customers. However, I also use it personally.
How has it helped my organization?
My customers integrate Microsoft Azure into their existing IT infrastructure. They adopt a hybrid approach, and they tend to move as much as possible to the cloud. It's a transition to fully cloud-based solutions, dealing with legacy systems through temporary hybrid solutions until everything can be migrated.
Projects often leverage Azure for data handling, using Microsoft's data platform, Power BI, and Azure Synapse Analytics. Innovations with Azure are increasingly driven by integrations with OpenAI and tools like ChatGPT, enabling rapid project initiation and delivering substantial results in artificial intelligence applications.
It's very exhaustive and very comprehensive. Regarding the security features, the security stack of Microsoft has made a lot of improvements in the last two years. We really appreciate the offerings, particularly what they have done with Microsoft Sentinel, a platform that helps manage what is happening within your organization, which is very good.
An improvement could be a version that is more adapted for small companies. Microsoft Sentinel is great for large companies but less so for smaller ones. I also appreciate what they have done with Microsoft Purview. The cybersecurity stack of Microsoft is very good.
What is most valuable?
Microsoft Azure promotes clear, logical structures preventing impractical configurations. So, compared to the older platform I know, the advantage of Microsoft Azure is it's very coherent. You can't really build something totally stupid.
With other platforms, it's possible to build something technically possible but practically very stupid. So, it's very coherent on the Microsoft platform, and it's also consistent with what Microsoft has done on-premise.
If we have a customer with a strong Microsoft footprint, it's pretty obvious that we should move to Microsoft Azure. On the opposite side, if we have a customer that's super Linux-oriented, they have a lot of Linux services and stuff like that for those types of customers. It's easier, maybe, to move to AWS.
Another area of improvement is Microsoft Sentinel. It is great for large companies but less so for smaller ones. An improvement could be a version that is more adapted for small companies.
What needs improvement?
The only thing is regarding the management of multi-cloud environments. That's not really possible.
So basically, it's wonderful if you manage Microsoft clearly and if you manage Microsoft Azure, but if you need to consume external services and have a global overview of all your consumption, it's not the case.
Google, for instance, has tools that help you manage multiple environments, which makes sense because Google is really the cloud provider. So that's why they need to be compliant with the others.
But for sure, Microsoft's approach is different, and it's wonderful when you're one hundred percent on Azure. But if you'd like to have something more of a multi-cloud strategy, that's a bit of a gap where they could improve.
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for more than ten years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a very stable solution. I would rate the stability a ten, but I never give it ten, so I would rate it a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten because no one is perfect. Azure's scalability features are fundamental. They allow our applications to grow with our customers.
For instance, when a customer enters new markets, it's easy to deploy an environment in a new data center or provide a CDN for closer distribution. We encourage customers to adopt modern applications based on microservices, which are natively scalable and elastic, allowing the IT infrastructure to grow with their market demands and expectations.
In Switzerland, where I'm based, the majority of people use Azure. AWS entered the market a bit later. The problem is they're working more with Microsoft products like Microsoft 365 than with Azure as an infrastructure platform, which is still pretty new here. We're at an early stage in Switzerland for full cloud adoption.
Our customers are medium enterprises mostly because they are the most prominent customers we see in my business. Large customers already use Azure extensively, like the top 50 big companies, including Zalando, Nestle, Kraya, and Philip Morris for PMI. They're using Azure a lot, but not always AWS. If you're very big, you'll have at least two cloud providers.
The medium market is more Microsoft-oriented than AWS. Small companies, however, don't know much about the cloud or are not interested in it; they are interested in solutions that may be hosted in the cloud, but that's not their focus.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and support are very good. When we have an issue in an Azure environment, it's usually our fault, not Microsoft's. Maybe it is an issue with the design we made.
However, when we raise a ticket, we quickly get feedback or someone assigned to help us identify the problem, which, 90% of the time, was on our end. I'm very happy with the support they provide.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've worked with many solutions as I'm involved in cloud strategy, focusing on cloud technology.
I have substantial knowledge of the AWS platform and Microsoft Azure, particularly in infrastructure as a service, management, cloud platforms, FinOps, containers, and microservices.
I have a good overview of the offerings from AWS, Microsoft, and Google, and they're very close. They observe each other and are very similar. For me, Microsoft Azure is a very good platform with a lot of utility.
AWS is probably the most exhaustive platform, allowing for a wide range of technologies. However, this means you can create monster systems that don't make sense, though it might be useful for a very niche market.
Google tries to think out of the box, offering alternatives that can comply with other platforms, and having a more data-driven approach. But AWS and Microsoft are very close.
How was the initial setup?
I would rate my experience with the initial setup a five out of ten, with ten being easy to set up.
It's not difficult because you are well-guided, but it requires an understanding of the philosophy and knowledge. It's definitely easier than AWS, which is more complex and designed by engineers for engineers. Managing AWS is definitely a bit more complex than Azure.
What about the implementation team?
The time it takes to deploy Microsoft Azure varies. You can create an environment in five minutes, but setting up a whole organization can take longer. It depends on what you mean by "deploy."
In Azure, the environment size matters; whether you have one server or three thousand, it's not the same thing, and it also includes factors like replication. Now, everything is scripted, so the deployment time also depends on your maturity and experience. It's faster to deploy a cloud environment than a physical one.
First, we identify what needs to be achieved and make the architecture. Then we deploy in a test environment, perform integration and acceptance tests, move to a pre-production environment for real-life assessment with limited users, and based on success, move to production.
There's a sandbox or dev environment, a test environment for testing, a pre-prod for limited user testing, and then production for a dedicated market or group if successful.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
It's not about licensing but subscription. For an SME, spending roughly 5,000 euros per month becomes interesting, indicating a significant infrastructure setup in the cloud.
For those just starting their cloud journey or using only Office 365 and similar services, it's much cheaper, about 1,000 to 2,000 euros per month.
Customers pay Microsoft to get the environment up and running, but they may also need to pay external providers or suppliers for managed services. This is where we see an opportunity to provide an integrated offer that includes both the Microsoft suite and management on top.
It's crucial, especially for companies that may not know how to fully leverage the product, to have this guidance and support.
This is where Microsoft partners come in, adding value on top of Microsoft's offerings.
For an SME, depending on their IT infrastructure, having managed services is important, as they may not have a large IT department. The cost of managing the environment might be similar to the expense for Microsoft services, potentially around 5,000 euros a month to manage the environment.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise that migrating to the cloud is an amazing opportunity. However, it's crucial to understand the drivers of the cloud, what changes it brings, and to reconsider the organization and skills within the organization.
If you expect to move to the cloud without changing the structure, processes, personnel, or without providing training, it won't work. You might end up disappointed, wanting a direct copy of what you had in a cloud environment in the past, which could be more expensive.
Moving to Azure requires training your IT teams, but also providing basic cloud training for everyone, including the CFO, CIO, and even the CEO. Everyone needs to understand the concept of the cloud and what can be achieved with it.
Creating a cloud center of excellence is also critical to reshaping the company with cloud capabilities. This can lead to significant changes and transformation, increasing elasticity, reactivity, and potentially huge savings.
Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: consultant