Sr Solutions Architect at System Soft Technologies, LLC
Real User
Information protection is great as is the ability to provide temporary and secure access to vendors
Pros and Cons
  • "Good information protection feature."
  • "Could be more user friendly; initial setup is difficult to understand."

What is our primary use case?

The product is being used for document sharing and archiving. The company wants their customers to be able to pull certain documents that they put on file. The idea is that through active directory B2B, they will offer access to the different files and customers will be able to pull the files they need from the server. The company uses information protection to make sure that only the right people have access to the right files. We are integrators, mainly on the software side. We are partners with Microsoft Azure and I'm a senior solution architect. 

How has it helped my organization?

The company has different vendors that they bring in. This product has made it easier to onboard those individuals and to provide access to them when needed and then to basically cut them off when the time comes. The way they have it set up, documents can't be downloaded. They are only accessible online but can be accessed from anywhere so the company doesn't have to worry about setting up VPNs and the like. They provide a username, password, a two-factor authentication and that enables access.

What is most valuable?

Information protection is a good feature because you can label different documents and different files, and that allows them to put like NDA files in a specific bucket, as opposed to just regular, safe or confidential storage.

What needs improvement?

This solution is not user friendly to set up and it's difficult to understand, particularly with regard to information protection and the sort of licensing needed to utilize it. Simplification would go a long way. 

I'd like to see them improve on the watermarking. There's a feature that allows you to watermark documents that are checked out. Currently it watermarks a document with whoever publishes it. For example, if you wanted to watermark the email address, it doesn't watermark with the person checking out the file, but with the person publishing the document. It would be more valuable if the watermarking was related to the person checking out the document, in case it leaks out.

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For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for several years and on my most recent project, for the past six months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability has been great. We haven't had any issues whatsoever with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

As far as I know, scalability is fine. Our current customer isn't huge so I can't speak to enterprise size customers. It's not infinite scalability, but it is Azure Cloud. If you need more storage, you buy more storage. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is fairly complex. There is a ton of documentation, but once you get through that it's really not difficult, it's just not intuitive. The product requires better documentation that explains things. I think a lot of it has to do with the licensing requirements. It's not obvious and so you can be following a step-by-step tutorial and still not get it right because the software requirements aren't right but it doesn't give you that in clear text. 

You can probably set this up within 30 minutes, realistically, as long as you know all the steps. Unfortunately, it took about four or five hours to troubleshoot the situation because we didn't understand what the license requirements were. We had to go and obtain those licenses and try it a second time. It'll be fine now because we understand it but there are certain things like having to be a security administrator within the roles and responsibility matrix, and that's not really outlined in the documentation.

What was our ROI?

The company wanted it to deploy rapidly. They didn't want to spend a lot on this project to buy storage, and clear that storage, ensuring that it was 100% secure. This was either going to be a very short-term project or it was going to blow up to something large and they weren't sure which direction it was going to go. Enabling them to use OPEX spend just to utilize what they need when they need it at a low cost, was super valuable to them.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend anyone wanting to implement this solution to carry out background homework on active directory, on information access management (IAM), and then understand the licensing before you deploy. That aside, it's pretty straightforward. I've learned that setting up secure documents doesn't have to be difficult as long as you take into account those caveats of understanding your licensing and active directory.

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

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
Krupa Gandhi - PeerSpot reviewer
IT/OT Specialist at Cell Engineering Pty Ltd
Real User
Top 20
Reliable Cloud Platform With Global Presence That Offers Comprehensive Services
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a very straightforward solution that provides a wide range of services."
  • "I would recommend some enhancement regarding integration features."

What is our primary use case?

We use it internally to manage all of our clients, but it also helps us connect with different customers located globally.

What is most valuable?

It is a very straightforward solution that provides a wide range of services. I highly appreciate its help availability. If there is any issue in operating, it only takes to Google a solution and it can be easily fixed.

What needs improvement?

I would recommend some enhancement regarding integration features. 

For how long have I used the solution?

Our company has been utilizing Microsoft Azure for five to six years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is a very stable solution. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It offers good scalability. 

How are customer service and support?

Our experience with their customer service is satisfactory. We find it valuable that numerous essential information are readily accessible. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was seamless and very fast. It took a few hours to complete the whole process. 

What about the implementation team?

The deployment process was efficient and fast. Due to the complexity and extensive range of services and configuration options, it took a significant number of IT professionals to execute the task. 

What other advice do I have?

Microsoft Azure provides a reliable cloud platform and comprehensive services so it would be a great choice for first-time users. I am rating it eight 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: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
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Microsoft Azure
March 2024
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Rafael Veloso - PeerSpot reviewer
Analyst Cloud Support Consultant at SoftwareONE
MSP
Useful services, highly scalable, and easy to implement
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft Azure has a lot of useful features. They have databases, application services, PaaS solutions, such as platform and infrastructure services. The virtual machines' functions and services are good."
  • "Microsoft Azure can improve by adding more features for virtual machines, such as tier virtual machines."

What is our primary use case?

I have worked in a consultant company and we have customers who migrate their services to the cloud and to modern applications and services using Microsoft Azure.

What is most valuable?

Microsoft Azure has a lot of useful features. They have databases, application services, PaaS solutions, such as platform and infrastructure services. The virtual machines' functions and services are good.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Azure can improve by adding more features for virtual machines, such as tier virtual machines.

In an upcoming release, I would like to see more information, features, and warehouse information on data.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is highly stable. However, Microsoft could improve the availability of the services by creating availability zones that are services working active-active in different positions around the globe. If any of these positions fall down, then another position will deliver the solution. This way there is no loss of service or loss to the business.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure has a lot of features for scalability. You could increase the scalability of any service, such as databases storage or virtual machines. 

How are customer service and support?

Microsoft Azure technical support is not the best, they could improve the knowledge of their team and solve problems faster.

How was the initial setup?

The solution can be easy to implement. You could start easily, there are some services that have simple steps, and you could speed up the entire process. However, there are some more difficult deployments in more complicated architectures. You could start easily in the solution and then you can improve your skills.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to those thinking about using Microsoft Azure is to try it, it's a great service. It's a great opportunity to improve your career because there are a lot of challenges. I would recommend using the documentation and the information from the YouTube channels. There is a lot of documentation and data about Microsoft Azure available.

I rate Microsoft Azure a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Director Technology at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
It gives us the speed and predictability to build something in a short time.
Pros and Cons
  • "Azure's Data Lake services are decent. I like AKS, and API Management is relatively straightforward to use. The security and SIEM options Azure offers are good. All the infrastructure services are easy to use and set up."
  • "Pricing is one area where Azure has room for improvement. There should be some due consideration. Azure has solved some issues with pricing from the development team's standpoint, but it is still quite costly. They should also offer a trial period for the individual platform solutions. I think that would be pretty handy for the developers."

What is our primary use case?

In general, we use Azure for financial services.

How has it helped my organization?

Azure helps us take a few things to the market predictably and robustly. It gives us the speed and predictability to build something in a short time. The cost can sometimes be clumsier, but I believe it is similar to other cloud providers. These are the main advantages, but the price is one factor that has really bothered our clients.

What is most valuable?

Azure's Data Lake services are decent. I like AKS, and API Management is relatively straightforward to use. The security and SIEM options Azure offers are good. All the infrastructure services are easy to use and set up. 

What needs improvement?

In terms of adoption, one issue we face is providing training for users who are new to Azure and want to try some features out. There are some methods by which the organization has to allot some budget to them, but it has to be apart from the developer endpoints. It's difficult for them to try out something new. It would be nice if Azure had an evaluation period of 30, 60, or 90 days, so people could try out a few things and learn.

That is one challenging area, but this is a problem with all cloud providers, not just Azure. Some free subscriptions are available, but they are for the cloud platform as a whole rather than just a single service. For example, say I don't have a trial subscription, but I want to try something new like Azure AKS for 30 days to learn and to try out. 

It's hard to say what Azure could add. There are a few specific requirements that clients raise based on business needs. In general, I don't think there is any particular feature I can recommend.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Azure for about four or five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Azure has had some issues on and off, but that was a couple of years back, and now it seems okay. Sometimes the performance of the cloud degrades, but there are workarounds. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We mainly use AKS, which is pretty scalable, so I don't see any issue there. Azure's scalability is relative, so it depends on the client and the solution. Most of our clients are B2B, so they don't have many users. However, we provide a retail banking solution that involves hundreds of transactions per hour. Azure can handle up to a hundred transactions per second can be supported, so I think it's okay.

How are customer service and support?

We talk to Microsoft support often.

How was the initial setup?

Azure setup is pretty straightforward and we mostly handle it in-house. However, it depends upon the complexity of the use case, how we are deploying, and the kind of application we are building. The build and deployment times depend on how we structure our packaging. 

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

Azure is expensive, but that depends upon who you ask. It probably wouldn't be considered a significant expense for a large corporation, but it's costly for smaller enterprises or startups.

Pricing is one area where Azure has room for improvement. There should be some due consideration. Azure has solved some issues with pricing from the development team's standpoint, but it is still quite costly. They should also offer a trial period for the individual platform solutions. I think that would be pretty handy for the developers.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Azure eight out of 10. I would recommend it. I don't see any challenges from a technology standpoint.

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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Operations at Infomag
Real User
A cloud solution to host applications and ERP
Pros and Cons
  • "One advantage of using Azure is that clients can start with a low-cost entry in terms of hardware and scale as their business and user base grows. They don't need to allocate a large budget for infrastructure upfront."
  • "The solution should be more intuitive and provide better support. We often do not receive frequent updates or comprehensive support, even as partners."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft Azure to host our applications. It is for the software development department. We also use it to host our internally developed application, ERP, and manufacturing execution applications for our clients. We use the data center in Singapore, as we are based in Malaysia, and our clients access it from the region encompassing Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

We create tenants for each of our clients where we deploy our applications. Clients or users access these applications from their respective tenants. We also train our clients to monitor the resources their tenants consume. This empowers them to adjust resources according to their needs, enabling them to manage these tasks independently.

How has it helped my organization?

During the pandemic, some clients faced issues because they were hosting their applications on-premises. The transition to remote work took some time for them. There was no impact on their operations for clients already on Microsoft Azure Cloud.

Clients continued to support Azure because, before the pandemic, they were hesitant about moving entirely to the cloud. They wanted a hybrid of both cloud and on-premises solutions. However, after the pandemic, many eventually migrated fully to the cloud.

What is most valuable?

We focus on applications hosted on Azure and use the Power Platform. We leverage Azure to set up tenants and dynamics within the platform.

What needs improvement?

The solution should be more intuitive and provide better support. We often do not receive frequent updates or comprehensive support, even as partners. Additionally, we are exploring the AI functionality within Azure. We are looking to collaborate with Microsoft to activate AI features in Azure to fulfill AI-related tasks requested by our clients.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for more than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable. We have not encountered any security threats or issues during our five years of using Azure.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

One advantage of using Azure is that clients can start with a low-cost entry in terms of hardware and scale as their business and user base grows. They don't need to allocate a large budget for infrastructure upfront. Additionally, it offers progressive scalability.

Around 200 users are using this solution.

I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

Customer support is very responsive. They are unable to resolve our issues. When we encounter technical problems and seek assistance, they can help us on a surface level. Many times, you may have to investigate and troubleshoot.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap.

What other advice do I have?

We've been leveraging Microsoft products on the Microsoft platform for the past 20 years. We are dedicated to Microsoft products and platforms.

We no longer need someone to take care of the physical servers on our end. Many server administrations have been drastically reduced.

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

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
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Wai KongWong - PeerSpot reviewer
Information security consultant at Ypsilon System
Real User
Top 5
Helps to deploy web servers but navigation needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft Azure has proven to be beneficial for our organization due to its quick deployment capabilities. Setting up virtual machines or any required infrastructure is fast."
  • "The tool needs to improve its navigation."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to set up access to process queuing, configure virtual instances, obtain a domain name, acquire the necessary certificates, and deploy the web server to the internet.

What is most valuable?

Microsoft Azure has proven to be beneficial for our organization due to its quick deployment capabilities. Setting up virtual machines or any required infrastructure is fast. 

What needs improvement?

The tool needs to improve its navigation. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for two to three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure's stability depends on the resources allocated. If you provision sufficient resources, it tends to be stable. However, choosing lower resources, like two gigs of RAM and CPUs, might lead to less stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable. My company has five users. 

How are customer service and support?

I haven't contacted the technical team yet. 

How was the initial setup?

Microsoft Azure's deployment is straightforward for me, given my experience and understanding of the Azure system. It is not difficult for me to handle.

What about the implementation team?

The tool's deployment was done in-house. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate the product 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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Darren Brodrick - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Owner at Transform8tion Limited
Real User
Top 20
Provides useful features and can be deployed within a few hours
Pros and Cons
  • "SQL Server has been most beneficial for our client’s workload."
  • "The security must be improved."

How has it helped my organization?

We had a cloud migration project from on-premise to the cloud. We used various components like Azure’s cost calculator to provide the ongoing running costs.

What is most valuable?

SQL Server has been most beneficial for our client’s workload.

What needs improvement?

Everything needs improvement. The tool must constantly improve to provide a better experience. The security must be improved. The scalability could also be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s stability an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s scalability a nine out of ten. Our clients are medium to large businesses.

How was the initial setup?

I rate the ease of setup a five out of ten. The product is deployed on the cloud. The deployment took a few hours.

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

I rate the pricing an eight out of ten. All cloud services are expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution’s ability to support our client’s business growth a seven out of ten. We don't get direct support from Microsoft. I rate Azure's integration capabilities a seven out of ten. I will recommend the tool to others. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Co-owner at Min shan saw
Real User
Can be used for operations, email, and office applications
Pros and Cons
  • "We use Microsoft Azure for operations, email, and office applications."
  • "The solution’s learning curve could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Our people are familiar with Microsoft Azure, and we use it for our day-to-day operations.

What is most valuable?

We use Microsoft Azure for operations, email, and office applications.

What needs improvement?

The solution’s learning curve could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Azure for two to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft Azure is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Around nine people use the solution in our organization.

How are customer service and support?

We contact our local partners so that they can help us with our issues. For some difficulties, we try forums and open support. We don't contact enterprise support because we don't have it.

How was the initial setup?

The solution’s initial setup is very straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented Microsoft Azure through an in-house team consisting of two to three people. The solution’s deployment takes a few weeks.

What other advice do I have?

Microsoft Azure is deployed on the cloud in our organization.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven or 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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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Azure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.