Microsoft Azure Reviews

I have been using Microsoft Azure for a few years now and I must say, I am absolutely in love with it. It’s user-friendly and provides a wide range of services to help me develop a variety of applications and accelerate my business. What I like most about Microsoft Azure is the scalability that it provides. It’s easy to scale up or down depending on the needs of your application or business and the pricing is flexible and cost-effective. Its ability to quickly and easily create virtual machines, develop web apps, and deploy and manage databases makes it very attractive.Another great thing I like about Microsoft Azure is its security. It offers advanced security features such as multi-factor authentication and encryption to protect my data and applications. Moreover, the use of AI and machine learning models helps to keep the system secure.The range of services provided by Microsoft Azure is also impressive. It’s easy to develop APIs, deploy and manage databases like MongoDB, VMs for development. It also offers features such as auto-scaling and load balancing, which helps to ensure that my application is always running optimally.I am also a fan of the DevOps tools that Microsoft Azure provides. It makes it very easy to set up continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines, which helps me to quickly and easily update my applications.Overall, Microsoft Azure is an amazing platform for developing applications.

The one thing I don’t like about Microsoft Azure is that it can be difficult to find the exact resources or tutorials I need to get started with a particular task. I’ve had to spend a lot of time researching and experimenting to find the right solution for my needs. It would be great if the documentation was more complete and up to date.

If you're a developer who loves all things Microsoft, Azure feels familiar and much easier to start working on projects. It's secure, has everything you need to build, and lets you grow your projects as big (or small) as you need.

Azure's range of services can feel overwhelming for beginners, with a bit of a learning curve to navigate all the features and their pricing structures.

As a Visual Studio developer it easy to create a service or project from visual studio and deploy to azure.
It offers a free tier to test the best option to implement a service or application.
We have access to detailed management cost analysis tool that includes budget alerts as a way to monitor the cost of the services.
For a beginner I think that is easier to use than AWS or Google. Experts can customize all features of each service and follow service recommendations.
Azure has an exceptional service called Application Insights which brings all information about performance, errors and use.
Related services are fully integrated and ready to use as soon is deployed. i.e. A SQL Azure database from a web application.
High availability, we have never had an issue related to the service.

Azure requires at least a basic management for each service. For basic users that are starting to use it there could be an even simple service configuration and options available UI. Something like Basic or Experts configuration. Because of the huge list of available settings and options sometimes it is hard to find what the user wants. Basic and free tiers could have some limitations with the access to some specific functionalities like for instance GDI to create reports.

The best thing about Azure is flexibility, you can put a lot of projects there, in different languages and technologies. If you use .NET it becomes even easier, as it has several integrations in native components, including the development IDE.

Mainly the price. In Brazil, being charged on a dollar basis is very expensive, it is difficult to pass this on to the customer. The recent 21% readjustment was abusive. It also fails to deliver simple ways to perform trivial tasks: you suffer if you want to create a simple backup of your website or database. Leaving the trivial, the technical bureaucracy is enormous.

Once you have learned how to use Azure, the amount of services available is large and customizable (although only for the core services they offer, other services are more cumbersome to configure).

The cost control is excellent, allowing you to clearly see where the expenses are coming from, allowing you to filter by tags assigned to resources.

Virtual machines and storage accounts are very easy to deploy and offer good performance in relation to their cost.

Azure has a slightly steep learning curve. It is sometimes too inflexible when it comes to deploying infrastructure or cloud services, limiting you to the deployment defaults and having you configure the rest by hand. For example, deploying auto-start and auto-stop for VMs does not work as expected in the Portal and it is difficult and cumbersome to configure.

Documentation is sometimes vague and error messages not very descriptive.

For me, the most important features are the VMs, network access control, security features (like storage encryption) and the logging/monitoring. I use these on a weekly basis to support my work on offensive client engagments (Red Team exercises).

I dislike the cost as this is marginally higher than other cloud providers but since I use this in a professional context, the cost is not relevant to me. I understant that for all the functionality and Quality of Life features, the general cost of the platform will be higher. Additionally, I dislike that the are planning to discontinue the possibility for Domain Fronting. Lastly, Azure limits SMTP outgoing traffic behind an enterprise license subscription and strictly monitors it, which is why we are forced to look elsewhere to host mail relays/servers when used for offensice engagements.

Microsoft Azure is an incredibly powerful and versatile cloud computing solution. It's easy to use, highly available, and has a wide range of features and services that make it a great choice for businesses of all sizes. The scalability and automated resource management make it easy to scale up and down as needed, and the advanced security features provide peace of mind.

Microsoft Azure can be expensive for smaller businesses, and the interface can be confusing for those who are not familiar with cloud computing. Additionally, the learning curve for cloud computing can be steep, so small businesses may need to invest in additional support or training.

I like the deployment manager and the integration tools. This allows to help secure and work with outside software products and keep source code / security tools in one place.

The collaboration tools are not user friendly. A lot more thought should go into a better atmosphere to allow all users of Azure to work together. This includes technical and non-technical.

Azure totally bests onsite solutions when it comes to deployment speed and speed of scalability. This is what motivated my companies decision to move from onsite to cloud. The most powerful feature that has been a game changer for my company is Azure VM(Virtual Machines). My team and I were able to create our own customised virtual machines very easily and in a matter of minutes. All we had to do was define an operating system, language, workload and almost instantly we had our virtual machine up and running ready for use. A process that would have taken at least a week with on-site solutions was done in minutes. This has greatly improved my team's productivity as we now have the ability to switch between Linux/Windows on the same machine, with a different set of tools and apps. We can now experiment, develop, test and get feedback much faster than before. Also, with services like Azure Autoscale we are able to dynamically scale applications to meed changing demand based on certain metrics. My team forecasted that traffic was going to increase exponentially in the following week and we were able to easily add 5 more virtual machines to handle the load.

I don't have any complaints about Azure's functionality performance or reliability it has been excellent. However I do have a problem with Azures somewhat clunky and chaotic interface. I would prefer a more refined and easy to navigate interface. Also a clear and transparent pricing system is needed to enable us users determine how much a particular addition will cost instead of having to "guess" a little.

What I like most about the platform is its broad range of cloud services, offering scalability, flexibility, and integration with other Microsoft apps and services. Its hybrid capabilities enable seamless integration between on-premises infrastructure and the cloud. Azure's strong security measures and global infrastructure provide me with peace of mind and the ability to deploy resources closer to their target audience. While desired features may vary, Azure offers enhanced monitoring, AI and machine learning services, serverless computing options, and industry-specific solutions which is basically a good idea for me.

There are areas that I have identified as potential areas for improvement. I have found Azure's complexity challenging, particularly for newcomers to cloud platforms, and cost management can be a concern due to the pricing structure and the need for careful monitoring. I will also mention the responsiveness and effectiveness of technical support as a potential area for improvement. Desired features vary depending on specific use cases, but users may desire enhancements in areas like advanced analytics, automation, monitoring, and seamless integration with third-party services. I still find certain aspects complex.

I've noticed that Microsoft invests heavily in security and innovating new ways to use the cloud. In fact, they come up with so many new features that sometimes it's hard for users to keep up. Nevertheless, I see this as a positive thing because it shows their commitment to improving their product and providing the best possible experience for their users.

In my experience, debugging apps can be challenging as it's not always a straightforward process. I wish there were more readily available dashboards and graphs that could provide insights into how the app is performing. Unfortunately, the current process often involves setting up multiple queries and instrumentation, which can be time-consuming and tedious. Improved accessibility to detailed performance metrics would greatly benefit developers, allowing for a more streamlined and efficient debugging process.

Microsoft Azure provides reliable cloud storage, computing, networking, infrastructure, resources, and tools for solution development and deployment. The analytical services and SQL solutions are fast and integrate seamlessly with on-premises SQL Server systems. The platform is secure, easy to implement, and continuously adds new features and advanced AI capabilities. The customer support is friendly and responsive. Also, Azure has an extensive learning platform and solution architecture center to help developers design and optimize better cloud solutions.

Azure continuously adding new features is critical for success, but it is a bit overwhelming and requires continuous learning to keep up with the latest updates.

Wide range of services: Microsoft Azure offers a comprehensive suite of cloud services for various use cases, including infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).Scalability: Azure allows customers to easily scale their resources up or down as their needs change.Global presence: Azure has a global network of data centers, allowing customers to deploy applications close to their users for improved performance and compliance with local data regulations.Strong security: Microsoft places a strong emphasis on security and compliance, and offers various security features and certifications to help customers protect their data.

Complexity: Azure can be complex to navigate, especially for customers new to cloud computing.Cost: While Azure is competitively priced, some customers may find that the cost of certain services adds up quickly.Limited ecosystem: While Azure has a growing ecosystem of third-party tools and services, it is still not as mature as the ecosystems offered by AWS and GCP.Vendor lock-in: As with any cloud computing platform, customers may face challenges if they want to move their workloads to another provider.