Top reasons to move to Azure

The cloud is one of the fastest-growing enterprise IT segments. Analysts forecast the global cloud computing market to reach $1.25 trillion by 2028, registering a whopping 19.1 CAGR between 2021 and 2028. More and more businesses, learning institutions, government agencies, and even non-profits are moving their digital workloads to the cloud. This migration is fueled by the need for low-cost, versatile, powerful, and convenient computing capabilities. The cloud is an ideal solution for information management in a data-centric business world and keeping up with new trends such as remote and hybrid work.

Microsoft Azure is the go-to cloud solution for many organizations. Ninety-five percent of Fortune 500 companies use and trust Azure. In fact, Microsoft Azure is among the leading cloud infrastructure services with a 21 percent share of the global cloud market.

Let’s discuss the main reasons Azure is so popular and how a move to Azure could benefit your business:

More than just storage

Many people think of the cloud as an online data storage solution. And this is not entirely wrong since some cloud services are centred only around data storage, but Azure offers so much more.

Azure is an all-rounded, one-stop cloud platform offering all the different types of cloud computing models: Software as a Service (SaaS), Function as a Service (FaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Microsoft Azure houses over 600 services that support a myriad of digital operations, including software development, AI analytics, data management, web/app hosting, and networking.

Gartner recently named Azure a leader in the 2021 Magic Quadrant for Cloud DBMS. This further cemented Azure’s place as Magic Quadrant Leader in all the major cloud service categories.

Scalability

Cloud scalability is essential for developing business agility. Microsoft understands the importance of scalability and builds it into Azure’s core. From SMBs with only a few employees to multinational conglomerates, any organization can comfortably utilize Azure—it’s all about the deployment scale. You can choose an Azure package that perfectly fits your organization’s size, digital needs, and IT budget.

More importantly, you can scale the Azure capabilities up or down depending on varying computing demands. For instance, you can add new users, expand data storage capacities, or dial up the processing performance of VMs at any time. This gives your business more flexibility and control when tackling new challenges or leveraging new opportunities.

Cost savings

One of the main reasons businesses move to Azure is to cut IT costs. The only alternative to cloud computing is setting up and running all the computing infrastructure (servers, workstations, and networks) in-house. This can be prohibitively expensive, especially for small businesses. With Azure, you never have to worry about the physical infrastructure because it’s already provided and taken care of.

On top of competitive pricing, another thing that sets Azure apart cost-wise is that the platform helps you pay for only what you need. Azure has several in-built cost optimization features that allow you to combine different Azure solutions into an ideal package with the best possible value for your money. These features include the Pricing Calculator, Azure RI, Hybrid Benefit, and Azure Cost Management.

Data safety and compliance

Data security, privacy, and compliance are the hallmarks of a safe cloud system—Azure excels on all three fronts. The Azure platform is founded and structured around the most advanced cloud security system. It employs robust intelligent analytics, security governance policies, and multi-layered security protocols to ensure data and user safety. Using Azure actually strengthens your entire organization’s security posture.

Also, Azure has over 90 compliance offerings to ensure that your business meets data protection and privacy standards such as PIPEDA, CPPA, HIPAA, and The Privacy Act. So, you can rest assured that Azure has your back regardless of the industrial or legal data safety regulations your organization abides by.

Disaster recovery and business continuity

The COVID-19 pandemic taught entrepreneurs the importance of business continuity. Everyday business processes can get disrupted at any time without a moment’s notice. For instance, employees could suddenly fail to report to work, business data could get deleted, or a cyberattack could take your entire business offline. When such disruptions occur, it helps to have a fallback plan that at least keeps the core business processes running.

Azure would be an excellent addition to your disaster recovery or business continuity strategy. Since everything runs on the cloud, your data, apps, and services will remain intact, even if the on-prem workplace or IT infrastructures fail. Plus, Azure is immune to natural disasters, power and internet outages, and physical damage, making it a dependable backup and disaster recovery solution.

Easy migration

Microsoft has made a lot of effort to make Azure migration as easy as possible for those shifting from on-prem IT or other cloud platforms. Azure supports both full cloud integration and hybrid cloud models. Meaning you can run Azure alongside on-prem hardware, private clouds, and other third-party cloud services.

Moreover, Azure has several internal tools to facilitate smooth transitions to the cloud with every migration stage. Azure Migrate, an integrated cloud migration hub, includes the following tools and services:

• Server Migration
• Azure Data Migration Services
• SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA)
• Server Assessment Service (Movere)
• Azure Data Box
• Web App Migration Assistant
• Azure Synapse Pathway

Conclusion

Microsoft Azure is a full-stack cloud solution for any industry and organization. It goes well beyond checking all the right boxes of a modern enterprise cloud computing solution. Azure dominates the IT market by being affordable, secure, reliable, versatile, scalable, and intuitive. And it doesn’t stop there. Microsoft constantly finds new ways to improve the platform, update it to meet new technical demands, enhance customer experience, and keep up with the evolving tech landscape. That’s the Microsoft way; you get a lot more than what you pay for.

Team up with Softlanding’s Azure consultants and take advantage of the many benefits Azure offers. Softlanding is a Microsoft Gold-Certified Partner guiding Canadian businesses to reach their digital potential with managed Azure services. We do it all, from Azure migration and Microsoft 365 integration to IT advisory. Reach out to get started.