One of the most pressing concerns regarding Azure cloud migration has always been learning more about Microsoft Azure and its value to their businesses. Beyond the fact that everyone knows that Azure is Microsoft's public cloud, most people barely know the services, features, or benefits of using Azure. Inspired by this knowledge gap, we decided to draft a comprehensive explainer on the Azure benefits every business needs to leverage. To that end, let's kick off by defining Azure and the services it offers.
As we've alluded to above, Azure is Microsoft's public cloud computing platform that provides tons of business capabilities. The platform offers four diverse cloud computing solutions: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (PaaS), and Serverless. Some of the most sought-after Azure benefits in cloud services include storage, networking, analytics, and virtual computing. Thanks to these awe-inspiring services, you can develop, run, and manage applications across multiple clouds hassle-free. Plus, the best part is that Azure offers countless tools and technologies you can choose from. With Azure, you can build and manage customized apps for diverse industries like fortune 500 companies, finance, and e-commerce. You will also love Microsoft's flexible pricing models for Azure, such as Pay-as-you-go, where you are billed based on what you use, or if you are committed to Azure, you can take advantage of Azure reservations.
The fast-paced digital transformation experienced in the past decade has birthed tons of cloud platforms, which all claim to take businesses to the next level. But why should you settle for Microsoft Azure instead? Below are the top five Azure benefits and capabilities that make it rank above other platforms.
Azure is the cloud computing hub that your business needs to build, run, access, and manage virtually every function that suits your specific needs. Its IaaS capabilities are second to none because they help you eliminate the hassle of purchasing and managing infrastructure and hardware in-house. The cloud service makes the delivery and management of data storage, load balancers, network connections, and firewalls a breeze. With that, businesses can effortlessly and securely reduce their overall TCO while increasing availability and security. And if your business goal is to deploy and develop customized applications, Azure's PaaS has got you covered. It offers businesses a development framework and business intelligence to help accelerate coding, increase scalability across platforms and efficiently manage the application lifecycle.
Making a decision between IaaS vs. PaaS requires strategy, forecasting, and planning. By partnering with top Azure consultants, you can accelerate your Azure migration and development journey.
The ability to scale according to market trends is a powerful tool for creating a competitive edge. And Azure is the missing piece that you need to complete this capability. For example - At early stages, a business that provides subscription-based application serve about 1000 users; once the word gets out, the demand spikes to 5000.It would need additional coding, database changes, and infrastructure to accommodate the new numbers. One of the great features of Azure services is its ability to auto-scale according to the infrastructure and market demands of the application usage. All metrics can be configured and tweaked in Azure monitor.
Over the years, Microsoft has consistently invested in security frameworks for all its products and solutions to keep customers safe from diverse cyber-attacks. In particular, Azure has been designed on the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) - a software development process that places security at the front and center of the app or product development process. This ensures that it's overly reliable and free of bugs. Microsoft Azure also meets over 50 compliance requirements, booking its place as the most trusted cloud platform by government institutions and federal bodies. What's more, Azure is one of the first platforms to adopt the newly established International Standard for Cloud Privacy, ISO 27018.This shows Microsoft's commitment to providing the best and most secure platform for all operations supported and data stored on the Azure Cloud.
Azure is all about cost efficiency and business value. It fits businesses of all sizes. Thanks to its pricing tiers, Azure has become the go-to cloud solutions provider for SMB and enterprises.Engaging with a managed cloud provider can help rightsize and manage azure resources to control your overall costs.
Microsoft has invested in partners and their partnership programs to help streamline Azure cloud support.Azure cloud engineers and support teams are offered through Microsoft directly or easily accessible via Microsoft cloud partners.
Having understood the Azure benefits and capabilities for your business, what next? It's time to tap into this transformative technology for a chance to create business-specific apps & services, save on costs, scale on-demand, create databases, enhance security, and more.GOBI Technologies is a Gold Microsoft partner and an Azure consulting company. We help businesses navigate this cloud platform with our assessment and readiness workshops and Azure migration services. Schedule a consultation with one of our Azure experts to learn more about our azure capabilities.