Azure Easy to Use
June 27, 2014

Azure Easy to Use

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Windows Azure

We currently use Windows Azure to support a client's new business intake and support infrastructure. Right now, just the development team is directly working with Azure, but many members of the client are using the products we've developed in Azure. The new system we have developed is replacing a VB6 legacy app that will eventually be phased out.

Pros

  • Up time. We have experienced little to no down time while using Azure. It's been very reliable.
  • The user experience in the Azure portal is very easy to understand and use. I had never used it before this project, and now i consider myself almost an expert.
  • The API. We've been able to seamlessly integrate our application into the Azure storage API with the help of great documentation.

Cons

  • The big thing for us was a Database Backup service, which is now in Beta. We've been using redgate cloud services, which is an extra price.
  • Trying to use SSRS with an SSL cert on a virtual machine was nearly impossible. We have to install custom certs on each machine that accesses the SSRS VM, which is a pain point.
  • We've taken the burden off of our client's IT department by creating a web app to mange business rather than a Windows app. This is much easier to push mass application releases.
  • The users love the new system because of how fast things operate.
I've used Amazon Web Services in the past and Azure's API is much better documented. Since its better documented, it was much easier to integrate a custom application into Azure than it was AWS. I also had many more issues with AWS in terms of outages than I have with Azure. I also found that spinning up a new instance of Azure was a much easier process than AWS.
To be honest, it's worked well for what we've needed and it would be a huge pain to convert everything over to another cloud service. Unless the price becomes too obtrusive, there really isnt any reason we'd want to move our product off of Azure.
If you're building or hosting a Microsoft product, there is really no reason to choose anything else. The price is more than fair compared to things such as Amazon Web Services.

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