How an Azure consultant saves your business headaches

With so many organisations wanting to improve IT performance and reduce costs, maximising operational use of the cloud has become a key priority for internal teams. Solutions like Microsoft Azure can provide a business with an almost limitless set of possibilities from just moving infrastructure through to delivering software and services in the cloud to end users.

Planning, architecting and deploying the right solution can be a real challenge as Azure needs to be tailored around the specific needs of an application and the objectives of a business.  With limited availability of specialist cloud knowledge within businesses, external consultants provide the support needed to help an organisation get the most from their cloud deployment.

IG CloudOps regularly work with companies who have started their journey into the cloud without specialist support and have had issues so the following article looks at why having a specialist Azure consultant can save your business headaches.

Azure is not just plug and play

Microsoft Azure is one of the most well-known and well-regarded names in cloud computing. It offers a range of services that allows your business to innovate and meet any number of business challenges. Choosing Azure gives a number of benefits including:

• Compatibility with Microsoft and open source applications
• Flexibility to scale as your needs change
• Data security and reliability

At first glance, Azure appears straightforward to configure thanks to the simple dashboards offered by Microsoft and this can lull users into a false sense of security, however the reality is that without expert support things can easily go wrong – either in terms of functionality or cost.

Experienced Azure consultants can advise on the optimum configuration for your application and set up for your business which will reduce wastage and provide better overall performance.

Experts bring advice and guidance on all aspects of Azure

The right consultant will provide impartial advice and assistance. They will help your organisation in understanding and gaining the most benefit out of Azure services and offer a practical approach to implementing and migrating to Azure services.

An experienced consultant will able to offer organisations considering Azure adoption advice and support across a wide range of services including:

• Cloud strategy
• Business analysis
• Project scoping and definition
• Design authority
• Azure deployment and service integration
• Programme and project management
• Design, implementation and migration services

Because consultants understand all aspects of Azure, they will be able to steer your business towards the solution which is likely to work best and meet your objectives.

Time is critical

In business, time is precious. Moving your IT infrastructure onto a new platform can, therefore, be daunting, as it will inevitably lead to at least some downtime. However, the right Azure consultant can help to minimize this transition period and offer maximum benefits once your infrastructure is up and running.

With the right Azure consultant, you can successfully migrate your business assets on-time and within budget and will consider the following factors:

IT Audit – A consultant will complete an in-depth audit of your existing IT infrastructure before presenting you with a detailed report. The breakdown will show how your IT could be improved with the migration and also clarify the migration process, cost and time.

Design – Azure specialists work with you and your team to create the right cloud infrastructure for your business. This is designed to meet your key business needs and objectives, improving the previous IT infrastructure.

Pre-Migration Planning – Meticulous preparation and planning are essential when it comes to ensuring your move to the cloud is completed smoothly and successfully. An Azure consultant can deliver a detailed plan of action which will include a list of tasks that must be completed before the migration takes place.

Migration – A consultant will run a series of pre-migration tests to ensure that the deployment is properly configured and that application upgrades and migrations have been done, allowing your company data to be effectively transferred.

Experience is the key to success

One of the main ways an Azure consultant will save your business resources is that they will have the experience and knowledge of doing a similar deployment before. This means that they will have seen similar issues and also already found solutions to problems that an in-house team probably don’t even know existed.

An Azure consultant will help you through the process of planning and deploying your application in Azure seamlessly. They understand the solution and how it works already so this means that they are well placed to design, build and manage your IT environment, providing the reliable performance you need to make the switch. The right Azure consultants will ensure that they remove the headaches before they even become an issue.

You can speak to a member of our UK team today about your Azure issues.

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