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Microsoft Azure review

Our Verdict

Though not perfect, Microsoft Azure is a solid competitor to Amazon Spider web Services - it'due south cheaper and easier to use, and has a bigger network of data centers.

For

  • Large server network
  • Huge range of useful products

Confronting

  • Expensive support
  • Complex pricing

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

Though not perfect, Microsoft Azure is a solid competitor to Amazon Web Services - information technology'southward cheaper and easier to use, and has a bigger network of data centers.

Pros

  • +

    Large server network

  • +

    Huge range of useful products

Cons

  • -

    Expensive support

  • -

    Complex pricing

Microsoft Azure is a gear up of over 200 Infrastructure-equally-a-Service (IaaS) products. From machine learning and AI to databases and mixed reality, Azure has everything that Microsoft offers on the cloud. For our Azure review, nosotros'll mainly focus on only i part of the Azure picture: cloud storage. Nosotros'll help you determine whether it could be the best cloud storage solution for your business organization needs.

Microsoft Azure: Plans and pricing

Microsoft Azure's global data center network mapped

With over 30 regions, Microsoft Azure is 1 of the largest data eye networks in the world (Epitome credit: Microsoft Azure)

Azure has a complicated pricing structure. Offset, you pay different prices based on where your data is stored. Microsoft has over 30 regions from which to choose, including Central United states and South Africa Westward.

Side by side, you must determine between at least four levels of back-up. The cheapest selection is locally redundant storage, which keeps multiple copies of your information in a single data middle. Zone redundant storage, on the other hand, copies your data to multiple data centers or regions.

The price also varies on how much you shop each calendar month, whether you need frequent access to your data, and how much you transfer in and out of your storage. In that location are other small additional costs.

What does this hateful for the average SME? Every bit an example, backing up 1TB will cost around $20 a month if you need frequent access to your data. This makes Azure quite cheap compared to competitors like Google Cloud and Amazon S3.

Features

Microsoft Azure's features

Azure has storage solutions for a range of business needs (Image credit: Microsoft Azure)

The major benefits of choosing large-calibration IaaS deject hosting for your business from Azure are scalability, flexibility, and lower costs. As a pay-what-y'all-employ system, you can starting time pocket-sized and but begin paying more for your storage equally your needs expand. You lot can save a great bargain of money if you carefully configure your storage. For example, you can archive old files that you lot only need to keep for compliance reasons on super-cheap, infrequent admission storage.

Another reason to choose Azure is if you lot plan to build applications effectually your data, or use tools to perform analytics on information technology. There is a wealth of tools built into Azure for analyzing your data and building powerful deject-native applications.

Interface and in use

Microsoft Azure's user interface

Despite the huge number of features bachelor, Azure does a proficient job of keeping the interface uncluttered (Image credit: Microsoft Azure)

Yous tin can employ your Microsoft login to become started with Azure. A complimentary trial gets you $200 of credit to exist used on Azure products, and you lot get 12 months of access to many of the features for gratis. Just hitting "Become Started", choose "Storage Account", and gear up options for your new storage.

These options are relatively complicated and will require a bit of reading. Do you lot need a general-purpose account or a binary large object (blob) account, for instance? Locally-redundant storage (LRS) or geo-redundant storage (GRS)? The price of using such a powerful, versatile arrangement is the time spent learning almost the unlike cloud storage options available, and then you tin choose correctly for your needs.

Back up

Microsoft Azure's support options

Azure has three paid levels of support (Image credit: Microsoft Azure)

Microsoft has laid out excellent documentation and support for Azure on its website. There are multiple training paths, modules, and teacher-led courses available.

You tin send support tickets without paying extra, but there are three paid support plans on offer. Developer ($29 a month) adds business-hour email and phone support; Standard ($100 a calendar month) adds 24/7 support; and Professional Direct ($1,000 a month) aims to respond to all queries in the fastest fourth dimension possible, minimizing business organisation disruption.

Security

Microsoft Azure's data security features

Azure has several features for keeping your data secure (Image credit: Microsoft Azure)

When you lot transfer files to Azure, everything is AES 256-bit encrypted. Microsoft manages the encryption keys, which is the norm for cloud storage, but some competitors - like AWS - offer the power to fix end-to-end encryption, which essentially means no i tin decrypt your information, even the provider. If you desire this encryption with Azure, you lot'll demand to employ third-party customer-side tools.

Azure does requite you the pick of server-side at-rest encryption, meaning it will encrypt all your files on the server, greatly minimizing the risks of a breach. The information centers are highly monitored, with 24/7 guards and cameras on every server.

The contest

The clearest competitor to Azure is Amazon Web Services (AWS), which has been the market leader in the manufacture since 2006. It arguably beats Azure in the breadth and depth of its services. Regarding deject storage in particular, AWS offers even more varied storage options and configurability, only information technology's tougher to set up up.

For a simpler setup, consider a standard deject storage provider such as IDrive, pCloud, or Zoolz BigMIND. These services typically use Azure or AWS equally their backbone, but take simpler interfaces and flat-charge per unit pricing structures.

Final verdict

Microsoft Azure's homepage

Microsoft Azure is an entire suite of cloud software solutions, including deject storage (Prototype credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft Azure is a height choice for larger businesses that need more from their deject backup and cloud storage solutions. It has an enormous network of data centers effectually the globe and information technology'due south highly scalable. Nosotros notice that it's easier to employ than AWS, and storage costs are cheaper.

That said, it's non for anybody. It takes more than time to ready up than a standard cloud storage provider, the pricing plans are complicated, and technical back up is pricey. But Microsoft Azure gives AWS more a run for its coin as the best large-scale IaaS platform available today.

Richard brings over 20 years of website development, SEO, and marketing to the tabular array. A graduate in Information science, Richard has lectured in Coffee programming and has congenital software for companies including Samsung and ASDA. At present, he writes for TechRadar, Tom's Guide, PC Gamer, and Artistic Bloq.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/microsoft-azure-review

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