Currently we have started migrating some of our aging in-house servers to being hosted in Azure. This allows us to save on the cost of new hardware, licenses, and maintenance of having these servers physically hosted on site. With Windows Server 2003 going end of life this past year we realized we needed to upgrade or replace a bunch of our servers and we were looking at a substantial investment in new hardware and licenses. Azure allowed us to get around a lot of those issues, plus allowed us to gain some cloud replication for DR purposes.
Pros
Allows us to replicate our active directory to the cloud, giving us the ability to recover in the event of an issue with our local AD server.
Allows us to quickly spin up new servers to test software and get projects moving.
Has all the licenses and tools needed built right in so there are no extra fees... and you only pay for what you use so we can spin up a new server and grow it as needed.
Cons
There is a lot of constant change with the interfaces and not all of the features are always available in the newest iteration of the portals. For some things we still need to log in to the old portal. Change is good and it's great to see it continually evolving but it's sometimes hard to keep up with all the changes and to know which version of the portal you need to be working in.
It is dependent on your internet connection so if your current connection isn't fast, you could notice some lag and/or performance issues.
Documentation is sometimes lacking.
Likelihood to Recommend
For us it has been well suited for moving single use servers to the cloud. We were able to quickly replicate some in-house servers and move their functionality to the new Azure hosted servers.
We have some servers that we haven't moved as of yet though because of concerns over the speed of the connection (i.e. opening large CAD files over the connection).
Windows Azure is a product that helps us quickly and easily deploy various products. Anything from IaaS to SaaS to PaaS products are all used and Azure is always in the mix as it provides a secure and effective way of provisioning the necessary technology. Whenever we think of a new project we think of Azure in the realm of possibilities.
Pros
Security - As a company we are being constantly bombarded from foreign targets trying to compromise our systems. Putting Azure in place allows for us to put another layer between us and the 'bad guys'.
Offloading - Being able to offload our workload from our Internet connections at the main office allows for us to not worry about the bandwidth constraints but rather the strategic use of whatever project is being deployed.
Development - Our developers use Azure to do test/dev because of the ease of use as well as the sandboxing experience it provides.
Cons
Portal - There are times where the portal isn't as intuitive as one might expect, have a searchable area for what you are looking for would be helpful.
Licensing - Azure has a lot of value but by comparison to other Microsoft products it is still in its infancy and as such its cost should be reflective as such.
Likelihood to Recommend
Azure is suited to many different circumstances from IaaS to PaaS to SaaS. This is because of the robust development ecosystem that Microsoft has built in comparison to its competitors.
