A Cloud Guru (discontinued) vs. Windows Server

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
A Cloud Guru (discontinued)
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
A Cloud Guru (ACG) was a cloud learning resource that offered access to updated courses, labs, and learning paths. In 2021 the company was acquired by Pluralsight, and its training is no longer available.N/A
Windows Server
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
N/AN/A
Pricing
A Cloud Guru (discontinued)Windows Server
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
A Cloud Guru (discontinued)Windows Server
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
A Cloud Guru (discontinued)Windows Server
Features
A Cloud Guru (discontinued)Windows Server
Operating System
Comparison of Operating System features of Product A and Product B
A Cloud Guru (discontinued)
-
Ratings
Windows Server
7.8
5 Ratings
8% below category average
File Management00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Software Application Management00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
System Update Frequency00 Ratings6.65 Ratings
Operating System Security00 Ratings7.65 Ratings
Best Alternatives
A Cloud Guru (discontinued)Windows Server
Small Businesses
iSpring LMS
iSpring LMS
Score 9.5 out of 10
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Infosec Skills
Infosec Skills
Score 9.9 out of 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Infosec Skills
Infosec Skills
Score 9.9 out of 10
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
A Cloud Guru (discontinued)Windows Server
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(26 ratings)
8.2
(63 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(6 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(7 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
5.5
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
6.4
(19 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
A Cloud Guru (discontinued)Windows Server
Likelihood to Recommend
Discontinued Products
If your organization is technical-based and offers its employees different online courses to enhance their knowledge, then A Cloud Guru will be perfect for you. There are multiple courses available from different cloud platforms. The platform is easy to use and navigate and does not require much knowledge. Even if you do not have basic technical knowledge, the courses available in A Cloud Guru are designed in such a manner that a non-technical person will understand the concept easily.
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Microsoft
Windows Server and Active Directory is very robust and stable, it has been a staple in every IT environment I have worked in during my career. Junior to Intermediate admins can learn Windows Server easily, the user interfaces make administration tasks very easy as well as the documentation available through a vast amount of resources. There are other Operating Systems available with no GUI which has a smaller attack surface, faster update installation and reboot time. Windows Server does have the ability to remove the desktop experience, however it is not something I have had experience with and I believe most administrators choose not to remove it.
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Pros
Discontinued Products
  • The team at A Cloud Guru is excellent at responding to user feedback that is submitted through their website.
  • The content created is well organized and aligns to certification paths.
  • The content is accessible on mobile and web platforms, which is great for learning on the go.
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Microsoft
  • Backup of workstations & itself - reliably, consistently, with Bare-Metal Restore and deduplication
  • File management and Security on a per file/folder/user basis is simple and fully done through an easy GUI
  • DNS, DHCP server functions are easy to configure using the built-in GUI
Read full review
Cons
Discontinued Products
  • More material on other cloud providers GCP, Azure, Huawei.
  • Extend the sandboxes to other cloud providers not only AWS.
  • Include more material for non-technical people, sometimes the sales teams are completely lost in the platform but they would like to learn about it.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Microsoft needs to minimize the update frequency by making the product more secure. It can become very exhausting trying to keep updated if you don't have a dedicated support team. It can become challenging where the business is unable to allow downtime for reboots as part of the update process.
  • Prone to security and audit vulnerabilities.
  • The operating system needs more CPU and memory resources compared to other options such as Linux.
  • Understanding the licensing model can be abit confusing.
  • Comes with a standard firewall, but not the most secured one available. Would suggest using a more secured firewall as part of your antivirus software.
  • Due to the number of vulnerabilities and the operating system being a target for hackers, anti-virus software is a must.
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Likelihood to Renew
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
I've carefully reviewed the servers and services currently running on Windows Server 2012, and given the opportunity would renew them as is going forward. There are two systems I currently have in place, one is a very large Linux implementation for a large ecommerce site, and one is a very large backup solution front ended by FTP servers running Linux. Neither are well suited for Windows, but the overall network infrastructure is and will be Windows Server for the foreseeable future.
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Usability
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Anyone new to IT could easily use the familiar Desktop Experience (GUI) version because we all know how to use Windows, whether a client or server version. Once an IT user is more comfortable with the operating system, they can move on to the Core version, which is the way to go in almost all situations.
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Reliability and Availability
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
some times server hungs and user sessions were busy to connect
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Performance
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
need to improve the performance more
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Support Rating
Discontinued Products
The support team of A Cloud Guru is quite quick. There are scenarios where A Cloud Guru was not working in my organization. We reached out to their support team and they quickly resolved the issue. Also, if any individual is facing issues accessing A Cloud Guru, their support team is quick to resolve the issue.
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Microsoft
Microsoft's support is hugely wide-ranging from articles online to having to contact them directly for the more serious issues. In recent years when I have contacted them directly, I have found the support o be excellent as I have found myself connected to very knowledgeable people in the field in which I needed the support. The online support available is vast and I tend to find most of the time that there is always someone out there who has had the same issue as me in the past and knows something about how to resolve it! This is the advantage of using industry standard and long-established systems such as Windows Server.
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In-Person Training
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
it was my senior who trained Windows Server features and i was satisfied
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Online Training
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
it was recorded session and useful
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Implementation Rating
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Make sure that you have detailed processes in place for every server instance you plan to install/upgrade, if possible get the base OS loaded and Windows Updates applied ahead of time, and if using a VM take a snapshot prior to installing each role, as well as along the way.
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Alternatives Considered
Discontinued Products
The main differentiator was the contents as we were interested in a cloud platform other similar platforms did not have the below: it is very good to establish cloud learning development plans and then track them and manage them for the team. The platform supports learning tracks, exams, and sandboxes with all major cloud providers guarantees that you don't get an accidental charge as a result of [the] testing and exploring the cloud
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Microsoft
They are different experiences, and while the other solutions offer enterprise-grade stability and, in some cases, address Windows server shortcomings (such as patching), they all do the trick, but the other solutions require a deeper technical background/configuration of items at the command line, which some people are not fully comfortable with.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
need to reduce a lot
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Scalability
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
yes i completely agree multi deployment
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Professional Services
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
i like the professional service but need to improve
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Return on Investment
Discontinued Products
  • Engagement scores around investment in L&D have increased.
  • There's excitement around upcoming changes to our technology instead of fear we have seen in the past.
  • We feel confident we will be able to deliver these new technologies - although we are at the start of our journey.
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Microsoft
  • Ability to keep all files in one place and give access to users makes file management easy to control.
  • VPN Access to off-site users is a plus.
  • Secure access to on-site SQL data from our accounting and estimating data is a plus.
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ScreenShots