Major companies, including online retailer ASOS and insurance behemoth Geico, are flocking to Microsoft Azure for essential cloud-based infrastructure, but one doesn’t need to be a Fortune 500 company to take advantage of Microsoft Azure’s features and experience the “wow” factor.
Whether you’re a small or medium-sized business and growing, or a large and stable company, at some point you begin to question if it’s time to migrate to the cloud and if a platform like Microsoft Azure is right for you.
You may be staring a hardware upgrade in the face, or considering a move from another cloud services provider. Loyal Microsoft Azure customers like British Airways and Rockwell Automation will sing its praises, regarding how Azure’s platform has helped their respective businesses excel.
Most cloud services providers offer similar features, like on-demand capability and scalability, but it’s the applications that make Microsoft Azure truly shine. Storing data in the cloud is one thing, but manipulating the data in a way that allows you to get meaning from your data is another entirely. In the words of Rockwell Automation’s President and CEO Blake Moret, the power of PowerBI has enabled their teams to visualize data in a way that has never been easier, allowing them to put a data scientist in a box.
What Can Microsoft Azure Do For Us?
- IoT Central and IoT Hub
“Connecting, monitoring, and managing billions of IoT assets” – made simple with notifications for authenticated devices and message delivery tracking. Given the explosion of the “smart” device industry, Microsoft’s IoT Hub is the best friend you didn’t know you needed. Go further using Azure’s IoT Central, a scaled solution for connected devices that allows users to build production-grade applications in a matter of hours without extensive development experience.
- Windows Virtual Machines
Creating Windows Virtual Machines with on-demand capacity in seconds, as opposed to the decades-old process of onboarding a new physical machine in a day (or more), disintegrates the notion of experiencing any issues in a capacity perspective – which is an added bonus if you’re one of those organizations mentioned earlier that’s growing in a high-performance environment.
- AI + Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence capabilities are just a few clicks away for your next-generation applications, like server-less bot services (think chatbots).
- Microsoft Azure knows SQL
Azure Database for MySQL, SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, SQL Server on Virtual Machines – the list feels endless. To top things off, you can migrate your data from your existing location using the built-in Azure Database Migration Service.
- Developer Tools
A plethora of tools are available for developers to build, edit, test, diagnose, and deploy code in a variety of environments.
- Security
Azure Active Directory for on-site directories and authentication, secure VPN connectivity, scalable and secure Application Gateway, DDoS Protection, Advanced Threat Protection, and much more are available in the Azure Security Center.
- Web
One of the most popular platforms within Microsoft Azure is the group of Web solutions, including the Content Delivery Network which focuses on the user experience and reduces load times. For gaming software and distributed streaming media, this is an especially critical tool. Microsoft Azure guarantees massive capacity with a scalable interface while avoiding new infrastructure costs.
- The Extras
Google Analytics is a great product, but Google’s user-base enjoys a great deal of privacy that hides reporting metrics from you, minimizing the usefulness of the data collected. Since Google Analytics offers a no-cost base product, it’s a popular choice for websites, but Microsoft Azure’s Content Delivery Network provides advanced analytics about customer workflows by tracking content engagement in real time.
The E-commerce platform offers the ability to give customers what they want with a personalized and secure shopping experience.
Industry regulations vary but compliance is never in question with governance capabilities built into Microsoft Azure.
Migrating can seem like an insurmountable task, but there are several steps you can take to simplify the process:
- Plan for a brief period of downtime, and schedule migration accordingly for minimal impact
- Consider dependencies and plan configurations so data and programs are not compromised
- Migrate entire databases to Azure rather than running Azure functions within an internal database to avoid data loss.
- Include remote and virtual machines in scheduled migrations so connectivity is maintained.
Consider a migration consultation to avoid many of these headaches and deploy quickly and painlessly. No matter how advanced – or simplistic – your needs are, Microsoft Azure has a solution for you, and can help you grow your business, protect your data, and increase your efficiency. From reliable and secure data storage to flexible environments, Microsoft Azure has the solution for your future.
If you liked this article, here are more you’ll enjoy:
- 8 Ways A Vancouver IT Company Can Help With Your Azure Migrations
- How Is Using Artificial Intelligence Helping The Legal Profession?
- Are Microsoft’s New Artificial Intelligence And Mixed Reality Applications Redefining Business?
Schedule a Microsoft Azure migration consultation by calling (604) 986-8170 today.
