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Azure ML: Most user friendly and the cheapest!
May 21, 2018

Azure ML: Most user friendly and the cheapest!

Gabriel Chiararia | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Workbench

I was the president of an MBA class that used Azure ML to run analytics models. The tool was used by 40 students. We analyzed a few datasets to understand the tools, and afterward, we were able to create a few analytics products based on Azure ML.
  • User friendliness: This is by far the most user friendly tool I've seen in analytics. You don't need to know how to code at all! Just create a few blocks, connect a few lines and you are capable of running a boosted decision tree with a very high R squared!
  • Speed: Azure ML is a cloud based tool, so processing is not made with your computer, making the reliability and speed top notch!
  • Cost: If you don't know how to code, this is by far the cheapest machine learning tool out there. I believe it costs less than $15/month. If you know how to code, then R is free.
  • Connectivity: It is super easy to embed R or Python codes on Azure ML. So if you want to do more advanced stuff, or use a model that is not yet available on Azure ML, you can simply paste the code on R or Python there!
  • Microsoft environment: Many many companies rely on the Microsoft suite. And Azure ML connects perfectly with Excel, CSV and Access files.
  • Few models: Even though it has a lot of Machine Learning models, it is quite limited when compared to R. Most Data Scientists still use and prefer R, so the newest models tend to release as R libraries. With Azure ML, we need to wait for Microsoft to evaluate and decide if including a new model is a good idea or not
  • Tableau interface: last time I checked there was no easy way to connect with Tableau.
  • Cloud based: You always need a good internet connection to use it.
  • Productivity: Instead of coding and recoding, Azure ML helped my organization to get to meaningful results faster;
  • Cost: Azure ML can save hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars for an organization, since the license costs around $15/month per seat.
  • Focus on insights and not on statistics: Since running a model is so easy, analysts can focus more on recommendations and insights, rather than statistical details
The answer is quite simple: Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Workbench is the cheapest and most user friendly analytics tool I have ever seen! Unless you are running a team of data scientists, this is the tool to go. Most functions (marketing, sales, finance, supply chain, logistics, HR, R&D, etc.) could easily integrate Azure ML in its day to day activity.
Well suited:
- Run a machine learning model the fastest and easiest way;
- Working with an organization with no coding background;
- Trying to get the most of data the cheapest and easiest way possible;
- Introducing analytics and machine learning concepts to an organization or class;

Less appropriate:
- Running complex Machine Learning models;
- Visualizing data more deeply;
- Running new analytics models;
- Running heavy statistical models;