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The realities of the digital economy have put businesses at the crossroads of influential megatrends. Today, changing customer expectations, hawkish regulatory oversight, low entry barriers for disruptive new entrants, and continuous evolution of technology demand that you cannot continue to operate the old ways as an organization.
The need to be lean, cost-efficient, customer-centric, and drive non-linear growth are the strategic imperatives for corporations. Consequently, with its undeniable scalability and cost advantages, the Cloud has evolved as the next frontier of innovation. But how can you choose the right cloud solution that is comprehensive, future-focused, and agile to lay the foundation of your digital enterprise?
Microsoft Azure as a Cloud Leader
While more than a few cloud providers are there in the market, Microsoft Azure leads the pack by a wide margin. According to the 2022 State of the Cloud Report by Flexera, Microsoft Azure has charged ahead of its competitors with 80% adoption in public and private cloud segments, respectively. Further, it is a cloud platformtrusted by 95% of the Fortune 500 organizations across industries. Microsoft Azure aids in building an internet of things (IoT) ecosystem or running a Big Data workload using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning. But what makes Microsoft Azure so competent to meet the demands of the digital era?
A Dependable Platform for the Cloud-First World
Microsoft Azure ecosystem offers more than 200 products and over 1,000 technical capabilities for orchestrating data-driven, futuristic enterprises from the cloud. Currently, it is available as –
» Platform as a Service (PaaS) covers the development, testing, and deployment of business applications in the cloud
» Software as a Service (SaaS) allows you to access non-Microsoft applications like the Salesforce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Microsoft Office 365 through a web browser, without any local installation
» Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) enables you to store, manage, process, and analyze data using virtual machines
Alongside this flexibility, Microsoft Azure also relies on open source standards, allowing your developers the flexibility to use the existing code base in a variety of languages. It offers the convenience of a subscription-based, pay-per-usage model, allowing you to pay only for the services consumed and bypass hefty capital outlays and recurring maintenance. It is especially beneficial for the small and mid-scale players that are targeting to affordably migrate their workloads to the cloud and compete at scale with their larger enterprise counterparts. Similarly, Microsoft Azure is ideal if you want to retain your mission- critical processes on-premise and offload the rest on the cloud using a hybrid approach. Presently, retail, healthcare, and financial services industries rely on Microsoft Azure Cloud transformation. Here are a few reasons why your business, irrespective of its domain, should do the same to reinvent IT and maximize its bottom-line performance.
Benefits of Azure Cloud Transformation
Robust Access Management
Microsoft Azure offers powerful Identity Access Management (IAM) with Microsoft Active Directory services to ensure that only authorized users can access your business information. With IAM available in Azure, you can implement agile access control and ensure the confidentiality of your business data.
Easy Adoption
Microsoft Azure has provisions for using user-friendly frameworks like ASP.NET and popular languages like C++ and C# in developing your cloud applications. It is easy for developers to leverage their experience and past knowledge to work on the platform rather than lengthy reskilling.
High Scalability
Microsoft Azure is a highly scalable cloud platform, allowing you to develop, test and deploy applications and services for as little as 10 to millions of users worldwide. Azure Storage offers a secure and performance-oriented database for your applications in the cloud. Further, you can change the configurations on-demand to avail more computing power for your cloud applications.
Business Intelligence
Microsoft Azure supports NoSQL and SQL data services with an unmatched capability to deep dive into your business data and harness insights for your key decision-makers. While considering Azure’s role in building an enabling business intelligence culture for your organization, it is also a leading cloud provider in offering data-driven capabilities like Blockchain as a Service (BaaS), Machine Learning, and Cognitive Computing.
Maximum Security
Azure is designed with Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) and best practices that support security assurance and compliance requirements developed in-house by Microsoft. It consists of the philosophy of protecting the confidentiality of your data, processes, and services in the cloud. Microsoft Azure comes with comprehensive coverage of over 50 compliance offerings and is used extensively by the United States (US) government agencies for delivering services. Further, Azure has been the first to embrace the International] Organization for Standardization/ International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 27018:2019 standards for Cloud Security. Microsoft is currently spending $1 billion on protecting your data in Azure speaks volumes about its commitment to safety.
Hybrid Capabilities
Microsoft Azure comes packed with unmatched hybrid capabilities allowing you to transition smoothly between the on-prime and a cloud environment. With Azure, you can leverage a broad array of hybrid connections between domains, including Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), Memory Caches, and ExpressRoute connections, to ensure maximum availability of your applications and services.
System Integration
Organizations use a broad array of virtual tools and third-party applications in their day-to-day operations. Therefore, it is likely that most of them are operating in silos compelling the employees to access multiple system domains for a single task repeatedly. Microsoft Azure simplifies this by integrating all tools and digital resources around a cloud-native platform.
Compatibility
Microsoft Azure can be used as a cloud database for your on-premise applications. It supports open standards like HTTP, XML, and REST. Also, Microsoft Azure provides SDKs for Java, Ruby, and PHP for your applications written in those languages.
Why Outsource Azure Cloud Transformation?
While the cloud is a buzzword today, many want to achieve it, primarily out of hype. However, for you, moving to the cloud should be a conscious decision that will enable you to further your institutional goals and own your target market. Instead of improvising by using your in-house resources, you can consider outsourcing the job to a competent Azure Cloud transformation partner with the required experience, perspective, and skillsets to maximize your cloud dividends.
As an Azure Cloud transformation partner, Xebia has been moving its customers to the Cloud since 2014. We offer a broad array of services, including Assessments & Audits, Cloud Readiness Scans, Cloud Accelerator Program, Cloud Control, and so on, to ensure that you are secured and compliant in all phases of your journey to Azure. Connect with our consultants to find out how they can help you unlock the outstanding benefits that Microsoft Azure offers.