The benefits of migrating to Azure
If you’re considering migrating to the cloud and adopting virtual computing, the chances are you’ve heard of some of the leading service providers, including Microsoft Azure. However, you also need to be confident that it’s a good fit for your business.
With that in mind, to help you make an informed choice, in this article, we’ve explored the key benefits of Azure, including reviewing how easy it is to migrate and identifying the ways you can pay for the service.
Is Azure the right cloud provider for me?
If you’re wondering ‘why move to Azure cloud’, the obvious, immediate answer is that it’s the complete cloud solution! Offering a largely unrivalled suite of services – perhaps matched only by Google Cloud or AWS (you can find out more about the differences in our guide: Azure vs AWS) – including storage, security, AI and machine learning, and data analytics to name a few, Azure is integrated alongside current infrastructure to complement your business model and simplify everything from everyday processes to growth projects.
In short, Microsoft’s platform takes the complexity out of cloud computing, and reduces the need to work alongside multiple vendors.
Is it easy to migrate to Azure?
Azure’s comprehensive range of tools and capabilities (including Migrate) helps to simplify the overall cloud migration experience – whether you’re adopting specific services or undertaking a full-scale transition. This allows for seamless integration alongside existing projects and workflows, to minimise disruption and maintain normal business operations.
To provide the best possible service, before starting the migration process, Azure will assess your current cloud infrastructure and provide bespoke recommendations. From here, you can adopt the services of an accredited Azure partner to manage the move and absorb any complexity and complications that may arise.
Azure offers flexible pricing structures
A strong advantage of moving to Azure for cloud is its flexible pricing models, with options available to suit pretty much any business of any size. For instance, a couple of choices you’re presented with include:
- Pay-as-you-go: This pricing structure is as it suggests – a pay per use solution that gives you the flexibility to consume as much or as little resource as required. This is the most flexible option offered by Azure, and is available without upfront cost or long-term commitment, making it popular among businesses who need to scale up and down depending on demand.
- Reserved Instances: While pay-as-you-go offers ultimate flexibility, Azure’s Reserved Instances delivers cut-price consumption. Effectively, you commit to using specific Azure resources for a set period of time, and in return you receive a significant discount on the cost (up to 72% vs on-demand). This is suitable for businesses with stable, predicable, long-term workloads.
When opting for Azure, you’re able to choose the pricing model that best-works for your business circumstances.
Does Azure have any limitations?
Before we delve into the rest of the benefits of migrating to Azure, it’s important to first be aware of the complexities you may encounter, and the ways you can mitigate complication.
- Requires platform expertise: Because Azure is so comprehensive, it can be overwhelming if you’re not used to the platform. To get full value from your cloud environment, it’s helpful to understand how to efficiently navigate and combine services.
- Requires cloud management: As with any cloud environment, when working across Azure, you’ll need to allocate resource for ongoing maintenance and management.
Fortunately, while perhaps initially daunting, both challenges are surmountable, with the helping hand of an experienced cloud consultant. For example, our experts have relevant Azure experience across the full suite of services, and can be on hand to offer continued support, maintenance, and management. So, without further ado, lets take a look at why you might choose to migrate to Azure…
Why move to Azure cloud?
We’ve already recognised that Azure offers comprehensive capabilities across a range of services, as well as flexible pricing to suit your business model. But why else should you consider moving to Azure and the Microsoft ecosystem?
1. Simplified cloud management
With Azure services and solutions, cloud management is made simple through intuitive, centralised points of control and effective automation capabilities. This ensures even the most complex cloud infrastructures are easily navigable and maintained, often in real-time using intelligent technology, which allows your IT team to instead focus on strategic and value-add activities.
2. A global reach
It’s no secret that Microsoft has a global presence and touchpoints all around the world, so a popular advantage of moving to Azure is the opportunity to capitalise on the international network of data centres. Leveraging Azure’s globality offers the opportunity to expand into new markets and deploy services worldwide, with low latency and relative ease.
3. Reliable performance
With a global presence and data centres around every corner, one of the great benefits of Azure is that it offers high availability, and in turn reliable performance across its suite of services; while effective back up and recovery tools minimise downtime. Combined, you can expect a consistent user experience, no matter your network complexity.
4. Adjustability and scalability
One of the key reasons users choose to adopt Azure’s range of services is the on-demand scalability on offer – notably, especially when choosing pay-as-you-go pricing – which allows you to quickly and dynamically adjust resource allocation depending on varying or fluctuating workflows. These could be expected seasonal spikes or ad hoc peaks in demand.
This elasticity means your cloud network remains cost-effective, and applications remain available and responsive, even during busy periods. In many cases, you’re even able to set predefined rules that automate the scaling process based on important metrics.
5. Robust security measures
As a leading cloud provider, Azure prioritises data security, with your sensitive user and business information protected and encrypted by services such as Security Center and Sentinel.
For example, among other features, Azure offers advanced protection against malicious threat, by regularly monitoring your environment for irregularities; delivering comprehensive identity management to prohibit unwanted users from accessing your network; and ensuring full compliance with wider industry standards.
6. Integration with existing solutions
One of the great benefits of moving to Azure is the platform’s ability to be seamlessly integrated alongside your existing, on-premises infrastructure – deployed as hybrid cloud. This is a convenient approach that allows you to leverage the benefits of cloud computing, while maintaining current processes. Often, businesses will adopt this flexible, integrated approach during a phased migration to fully cloud-native architecture.
7. Disaster recovery and continuity
Should disaster strike, and you experience periods of downtime or outage elsewhere in the business, having a cloud network that can maintain virtual operations is essential – so consider a service provider that offers robust continuity solutions.
For instance, tools like Site Recovery and Backup from Azure work to minimise downtime and data loss, by creating easily-recoverable duplicate copies of data and workloads, to ensure projects can continue uninterrupted.
8. Speedy processing and actionable insights
Another benefit of moving to Azure is that it offers a combination of high-performance data processing and powerful analytics (including machine learning and predictive modelling), which help you make actually-actionable business decisions with speed and clarity. What’s more, real-time insights let you respond effectively, which improves business efficiency.
9. Agility and innovation
Accelerated data processing, flexible resource allocation, and effective scaling help enable rapid application development, testing, and deployment – which allows you to innovate with confidence, and gain a business edge. Just another benefit of Microsoft Azure, this agility and streamlined delivery process can significantly reduce your time to market, to keep you ahead of the competition.
10. Integration with the Microsoft ecosystem
Microsoft is a computing powerhouse, offering services far beyond virtual infrastructure and the cloud. When adopting Azure, you’re able to seamlessly integrate your new tools alongside other Microsoft products and technology, such as Windows, to streamline processes, simplify management, and enhance user productivity and experience.
11. Deliver business growth
Finally, streamlined management, dynamic resource allocation, and scalable infrastructure all combine to offer an enviable cloud-native network, where innovation is inevitable. With a wide range of virtual services, to complement just about any task or project, Azure are expertly placed to help drive growth for your business.
Whether growth is measured by delivering speedier application deployment to get the edge over competitors, capitalising on Microsoft’s global presence and expanding into new markets, or providing an enhanced customer experience, partnering with Azure is likely to boost your business.
So, with that final point in mind, you might be feeling convinced to consider Azure as your chosen cloud provider. If this is the case, get in touch with our team of experts, who’ll offer bespoke advice and put you in the right direction; or if you’re interested in learning more about our wider cloud offering, including how to get more from Azure, discover even more information over on our blog.
