As I work on pre-sales across all Microsoft Azure Infrastructure services, I often have many POC discussions with customers, partners, and various stakeholders within Microsoft.
There is a huge difference between a customer (with or without support from partners) doing a POC in a completely isolated environment, compared to doing a POC that touches production components (Production Pilots). I’ve tried to list some of my perspectives here on the differences between each approach, as sometimes some stakeholders don’t look at this holistically but focus on only one/few area and make decisions based on that. Obviously, the approach a customer chooses depends on a variety of factors and the inclinations of various stakeholders.
I hope this provides a perspective and holistic view, or at least clear documentation on what we all already know. Enjoy reading, and feel free to leave comments if you believe there are more areas to consider, or if you agree or have a different perspective.