1. Home
  2. Infrastructure-as-a-Service Solutions
  3. Microsoft Azure Reviews
  4. User Review of Microsoft Azure
Very versatile, but also complex
October 22, 2020

Very versatile, but also complex

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Azure

We're using Microsft Azure services on multiple regions from our organization and for several types of workloads. It is our current Global standard for Cloud usage, following a global contract with Microsoft. In my region, we're using Computing services (running some Dev/PreProd environments on Azure). We also recently migrated Windows 2008 servers from legacy applications to Azure, in order to keep extended support. We're also using Storage Accounts both for Data archiving (through 3rd party Archiving tools) and Backup to Cloud.

As with many companies, it is addressing the 'elastic' demands, specially for Dev/PreProd environments... Many times we need to deploy temporary environments for some applications and we don't have enough time to purchase an expansion on our OnPrem environment. Cloud is a great escape for this situation.
Also, It addresses the need of retaining Archived files and Backups for long term. We were able to bring great savings with Data Archiving solution in place today.
  • Elasticity - the ability to expand and reduce in a few clicks.
  • The huge variety of services it delivers (from VMs, to Containers, Storage, etc.)
  • Reliability - if it is properly built, it is highly available.
  • Complexity - due to its huge variety of services, it may be complex to implement and manage.
  • Latency (performance) - if you don't have good connectivity (MS Express Route recommended for medium/large companies) you can have latency between your on-prem and cloud environments, which makes it not so interesting for some use cases.
  • Huge savings on Data Archiving, using 3rd party tools and Azure Storage Accounts.
  • Significant savings deploying temporary applications to Azure, instead of expanding the OnPrem environment.
  • Compliance/Security improvements, moving Windows 2008 R2 legacy servers to Azure and keeping extended support.
We have Premiere Support from Microsoft, and we had very good experiences when we needed their support.
They're pretty efficient! Tickets resolutions are fast and we always had product Experts/Engineers to work with us on the cases.

Do you think Microsoft Azure delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Azure's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Azure live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Microsoft Azure go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Azure again?

Yes

I would rate it an eight, only because of its complexity. We needed to participate in Official MS Azure trainings in order to understand better and be able to navigate easily on the platform. It could be more intuitive.
For 'new-era' companies, relying most part on Web applications (like B2C) it may be a perfect solution. The ability to expand your environment both manually (with few clicks) or automatically (scheduled or triggered) during special dates, like BlackFriday, Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc. Use cases with more variety of applications, especially 'not-Web' applications (Engineering, licensing, Calculation/Analysis applications, etc) needs to be evaluated individually. It may fit for some applications, but not for others.
For example, in our company, we have a lot of Calculation/Analysis systems, that have significant impacts if running through WAN (due to network latency), as they have millions of interactions between the Workstations and the App Server. In these cases, Cloud is not a good solution for us.

Using Microsoft Azure

Evaluating Microsoft Azure and Competitors

Although some regions have dedicated workflows running on AWS, Microsoft Azure was chosen our Global Standard due to contract negotiation with Microsoft. It is also available in more regions than AWS, and we found its services and integrations more interesting for our use cases. Azure is more present 'outside-US' regions.