If you’ve been following our blog series on cloud services, you’ll know that the cloud can offer several benefits to small- and medium-sized businesses, including flexibility and cost-effectiveness. In our opinion, one of the best platforms available for cloud services is Microsoft Azure.
What is Microsoft Azure? It’s a cloud computing platform from Microsoft that has different cloud service components for a business to choose from, depending on its needs and budget. Services on the platform can also be scaled up or down based on a business’s requirements. Azure’s solution works for all of the three main types of cloud services: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Advantages
Microsoft Azure is one of the few widely available cloud computing platforms that has a data centre in South Africa. This makes Azure a great choice for businesses based in the country because having a local data centre can have a positive impact on the speed of access to your cloud services. It also has data centres in the United Kingdom and Ireland, catering to all the regions in which our clients are based.
Beyond this, Azure has a robust, built-in set up for backups and disaster recovery, much of which is linked to the flexibility and advanced site recovery that Microsoft has included in the platform’s design. It is a reliable option for those looking to migrate their business to the cloud and Microsoft offers 24-hour tech support.
Some of the other notable benefits of Azure are:
- Azure's Active Directory provides a centralised way to manage your services if your company works across several different locations, and uses on-premise apps or subscriptions to cloud-based applications like Microsoft 365.
- You can manage both web and mobile applications with Azure.
- It is considered a very flexible system, so you only pay for what you need.
- It offers remote monitoring and predictive maintenance and analytics.
Security
If cloud security is a concern, Azure is also a good platform choice as Microsoft has included enhanced security in its design. This is especially useful for businesses working with the Internet of things (IoT) as there are often security gaps in IoT solutions that can be hacked.
As an added benefit to those considering cloud migration, Microsoft has put together a migration cost estimate tool that will help potential clients plan for a cloud transition to Azure.
If you’d like to find out more about switching to a cloud platform like Microsoft Azure, Contact our cloud services team.
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