Item: Azure Cosmos DB
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Azure Cosmos is used in a department that does a lot of analytics work and deals with big data. Typically we have systems hosted in AWS or Azure. The ones hosted in Azure datacenters rely on Azure Cosmos databases. That being said, the downstream users are scattered globally. Azure Cosmos DB is fast and reliable.

Pros and Cons

Highly available
Seamless service with low latency
Can be accessed through API

Expensive, so be careful of the use case.
We had a thought time migrating from traditional DBs to Cosmos. Azure should provide a seamless platform for the migration of data from on-premises to cloud.

Return on Investment

Expensive but works if your infra is on Azure data center.
No latency and nearly no downtime.
Takes time for end users to adapt.

Alternatives Considered

We evaluated Mongo DB and Amazon Redshift. In the end, we decided to have both Redshift and Cosmos but for different app stacks. For apps hosted on Azure, Cosmos plays a very important role. Also from a support standpoint, Microsoft offers very good service and an equally good knowledge base and community.

Key Insights

Do you think Azure Cosmos DB delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Azure Cosmos DB's feature set?

Yes

Did Azure Cosmos DB live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Azure Cosmos DB go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Azure Cosmos DB again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Amazon Redshift, MongoDB, Teradata Aster Database

Usability

Like I said, Cosmos is the way to go. From all of the services that Azure has, Cosmos is very robust in terms of usability. It's ever-evolving and integrates with other applications seamlessly. The interface is pretty easy to understand. I implemented various solutions for my company and Cosmos was one of them.

Support Rating

Microsoft is the best when it comes to after-sales support. They have a well-structured training and knowledge base portal that anyone can use. They are usually quick to respond to cases and are on point for on-call support. I have no complaints from a support standpoint. Pretty happy with the support.

Likelihood to Recommend

Cosmos DB is fast, reliable, and highly available. We use it mostly in analytics and applications that leverage big data hosted on the Azure Datacenter. If you have a virtual private cloud in one of Azure sites, then you would definitely need Cosmos. It works well with on-premises applications and offers little to no latency.

Azure Cosmos is the way to go for cloud based data warehousing solutions

Overall Satisfaction with Azure Cosmos DB