Why working with a certified AWS and Azure partner protects your cloud investment

It has long been recognised that moving infrastructure and applications to the AWS & Azure cloud can give a multitude of both tangible and intangible benefits. However, many companies fail to protect their investment and do not seek the support of a certified expert. Both Microsoft and Amazon have stringent accreditation programmes that upskill specialists in the relevant platform and validate their knowledge through qualifications.

The certification programmes are for partner companies as well as their staff. They cover qualifications for the full lifecycle of cloud operations from migration to ongoing maintenance so companies looking for cloud support know their partner has the relevant knowledge. 

In the last ten years, an increasing number of enterprises have put their resources into deploying cloud-based infrastructure. While some businesses quickly experienced the advantages of transitioning to the cloud, others faced challenges when attempting to implement solutions either with their internal teams or through unsuitable support partners, resulting in the failure to realise the anticipated benefits of cloud migration.

There are straightforward benefits to choosing to work with an established and accredited cloud partner whether you are planning your cloud migration or already have virtualised infrastructure and need to improve how it is delivered.

Access to Specialist Knowledge and Experience

Both Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS provide a series of certification courses that are designed to test the platform knowledge of the consultants as well as their experience of planning and deploying solutions for customers in the field.

These certifications are not just a matter of filling in a few forms to achieve accreditation but require a great deal of financial and time investment by the cloud services provider. They need to demonstrate experience of Azure or AWS, solve problems and also be able to add value to the solution.

These qualifications demonstrate that a specialist has the skillset to ensure that a move to the cloud is implemented correctly, follows a specified plan, causes the minimum of business disruption, and is completed on time and to budget.

Scalability

Migrating to AWS or Azure can be very disruptive to a business and even when planned correctly there will always be things that have been missed. When moving to the cloud, having additional experienced resources available quickly can ensure that your project stays on budget.

Certified partners will have team members with specific skills that address different aspects of your cloud migration allowing them to quickly identify and resolve problems and protect your investment.

Support 24/7 tailored to your requirements

A certified partner for your cloud projects will offer an ongoing support package that can be managed to dovetail with your internal team and avoid skills gaps that are detrimental to performance.

Depending on your requirements, this can be proactive or reactive support but will be there to resolve problems before they become a major issue. Having this resource available 24/7 reduces downtime and end-users will experience fewer access issues.

Proactive cloud management and consultancy

As certified partners for Amazon and a Microsoft gold partner for Azure, we are required to keep our skills up to date to maintain our certification and ensure that we provide the best possible advice to our clients. To be able to provide the professional services our customers need our team keeps up to date with the latest changes to cloud services, savings plans and general news about the main cloud providers. This allows us to provide the advise that you need as part of our support and advisory services. 

Proactive AWS support means that your own in-house IT team can focus on your applications and do not need to worry about infrastructure.  Our team are available to provide advice about compatibility and how application architecture can be optimised for the cloud.

Optimisation and cost management

The ease with which new virtual machines can be provisioned means that infrastructure costs can quickly rise, and you end up paying for resources that are significantly underused.

CloudOps our cloud management platform brings together the core functions you need to manage your cloud deployments. It does this using leading open-source and commercial software tools and providing easy-to-use and understand dashboards so you can see what you need in one place. 

CloudOps has been specifically developed to:

• Support the delivery of business critical services and applications in the cloud
• Enhance your own services and teams with additional resources and skills
• Maximise the performance and manage costs of cloud operations
• Provide proactive support and management of your cloud

If you would like to find out more then speak to a member of our cloud team. 

Or book a test drive of CloudOps and let us show you how we can help.

You might also be interested in:

• Is the Security of Your Cloud Management Service Doing Enough to Protect Your Business? 
• Is the Security of Your Cloud Management Service Doing Enough to Protect Your Business? 
• How do I Gain a Clear View of Costs in AWS and Azure & Stop Getting Surprises?