6 Key Advantages of Microsoft Azure Cloud Services
The six major advantages of Microsoft Azure Cloud Services are: improved data security, scalability, simple disaster and recovery services, stronger analytics, integration compatibility, and compliance-oriented frameworks that adhere to major regulations.
Blog Post
7 minute read
Feb 22, 2024
Cloud services are a standard aspect of operations today.
Businesses can easily scale their computing resources without having to invest in additional hardware or worry about systems crashing. This scalability enables companies to adapt quickly to changing business needs and handle fluctuations in workload.
Additionally, the cost-effective nature of cloud services is extremely appealing. Instead of making large upfront investments in hardware and software licenses, organizations pay for cloud services on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis, often based on usage.
This pay-per-use model can significantly reduce expenditure, making it more accessible for businesses of all sizes to leverage advanced computing capabilities.
Moreover, cloud services promote collaboration and flexibility by providing access to resources from anywhere with a stable internet connection. This enables remote work, facilitates global teamwork, and fosters innovation by allowing development teams to experiment, iterate, and deploy applications rapidly.
If you’re not sure where or how to improve your current IT infrastructure, you may want to consider a strategic partner who can modernize your systems and bring you into the digital era. Sound like you? Read Impact’s eBook, Does Your Business Need a Managed IT Service Provider? to learn more.
How Cloud Computing With Azure Can Benefit Your Business
The technological revolutions just keep coming, and modern organizations need to adapt to new ways of doing business to remain competitive.
One of the primary changes to the operational models a company needs to consider when it comes to managing information is whether to move to a cloud service provider.
Microsoft Azure Cloud Services delivers a comprehensive suite of solutions for companies to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives, and leverage new technologies for the business’ benefit.
Specifically, the Microsoft Azure stack of technologies arrived in 2014 and has since outpaced competitors like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Oracle, and IBM, as they’ve reported $28.5 billion in cloud services revenue.
Specifically, the Microsoft Azure stack of technologies only arrived in 2014 but has since started outpacing competitors like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Oracle, and IBM.
In fact, since 2018 Microsoft Azure’s reported revenue overtook all other public cloud service providers. While Microsoft also includes other cloud-based software services (Dynamics 365 Business Central) as part of their reported revenue, it’s only slightly behind AWS in providing hosted infrastructure for enterprise applications.
Six of the key benefits of Microsoft Azure Cloud services are:
Microsoft leverages decades of being a primary enterprise operating system and productivity solution provider to secure all information hosted in their Azure cloud products and services.
An enormous amount of resources and effort go into securing an organization’s on-site data centers, where the slightest erroneous configuration can expose the company to advanced threats and exploits.
With Microsoft Azure, all elements related to information security come included with the service, and customers gain access to the latest in threat prevention and detection technologies.
1. Microsoft Azure Cloud Security Center
As part of the Microsoft Azure Cloud Security Center, a range of security solutions and architecture implementations ensure all business data remains protected.
These include Advanced Threat Protection and Threat Intelligence reports using Windows Defender analytics, and Information Protection that classifies and protects specific information from unauthorized disclosure by applying labels to documents and emails.
Similarly, with network segmentation and encryption, every transmitted byte of data remains secure from any outside threat. Microsoft Azure Cloud Services uses threat monitoring agents that generate real-time security alerts and threat intelligence reports. They provide insights into attackers, their objectives, and the tactics employed.
2. Improved Scalability and Business Sustainability
One of the best advantages of Microsoft Azure Cloud Services comes from the scalability that the platform provides businesses.
Traditionally, as companies grew, provisioning new infrastructure would be both a lengthy and a costly process for the organization.
With a strategically deployed set of cloud-centers that span the globe, the Microsoft Azure Stack guarantees availability for services 24/7/365.
Currently, Azure Cloud Services use physical infrastructure distributed over every continent. This improves access times while also allowing for replication in cases where companies want to expand their business operations to outside the US.
For data management systems, Microsoft Azure Cloud Services use elastic pools to ensure the same database performance levels that companies expect from their locally hosted systems. With elastic SQL database pools, organizations gain the best price-per-performance benefits while staying within their prescribed budgets.
3. Simple and Effective Disaster Recovery
Data loss presents a serious risk to any organization. The impact of both lost revenue during the downtime, as well as the effort required to reconstitute the information can cost a company hundreds of thousands, if not millions, if a suitable, business continuity solution procedure isn’t already in place.
A disaster recovery plan requires multiple built-in redundancies while achieving an acceptable time-to-recovery objective.
With Microsoft Azure, companies can enforce specific recovery criteria for different BUs (Business Units) and types of data. Businesses can test their plans for efficacy as frequently as required, and find the perfect balance between the cost and control of their data recovery processes.
Running backups and advanced replication of applications in a cloud environment will reduce the time required to recover from any type of outage, while also limiting the risk of becoming a victim of a ransomware attack.
The Azure Site Recovery tool allows companies to create recovery plans that include replication, failover, and failback procedures from a single location. Azure Site Recovery also enables companies to reserve IP addresses for applications, establish and configure load-balancers, and integrate Azure Traffic Manager for seamless network switchovers.
4. Advanced Data Analytics and Business Insights
The Microsoft Azure stack of technologies comes with built-in analytical solutions to shape and visualize data for improved decision making.
With real-time dashboards that cover customer response times, data and information flow and processing, and the ability to analyze big data, companies can improve workflows more frequently and accurately.
Advanced analytics can assist companies with segmenting customers based on behavior and ensure a personalized experience, improving their satisfaction.
Microsoft Azure Cloud Services include machine learning utilities with adaptable models to proof new approaches and analyze initiatives before releasing them to the market.
5. Integration Capabilities and Mobile Workforce Management
Apart from the Azure Active Directory (AD) as an access management system, the platform also provides advanced integrations with third-party solutions via an API (application programming interface) and direct integration with Office365.
Additional solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central delivers a complete enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to improve business workflows and increase oversight. As the Microsoft Azure platform is available from connected mobile devices, SMBs are able to use IoT technology and improve productivity.
As most companies already rely on Windows-based software to execute their daily tasks, the Microsoft Azure Cloud Services platform makes sense when moving to a digital-first business model.
Compared to other cloud solutions such as AWS, an Azure implementation is easier and causes less disruption for most businesses. Making the transition to Microsoft cloud services is an easy and natural fit for businesses which have been familiar with their technology for decades.
6. Regulatory and Legislative Compliance Frameworks
A cloud implementation does require considerations relating to regulatory and legislative requirements.
One of the advantages of Microsoft Azure Cloud Services is a shared responsibility relating to the information security policies and compliance frameworks. As Microsoft provides the data security tools, the only responsibility that resides with the company is to classify and control specific types of data.
Moving to a cloud-based digital technology stack will require companies to evaluate the solutions against their in-house information security policies.
Azure maintains a compliance portfolio to ease the burden of regulatory requirements for their customers. With the Microsoft Trust Center, companies can access compliance guides and set up audit reports for their data, ensuring they remain within the frameworks regulating their daily business activities.
Wrapping Up on the Advantages of Microsoft Azure Cloud Services
Bringing your business data to the cloud is almost inevitable these days. So, the question isn’t whether or not you should migrate to the cloud, but rather, whose cloud services are you going to trust with your data?
With Microsoft Azure Cloud Services, you’re choosing a partner at the top of their game, with decades of proven capability and a history of top-tier performance in the cloud services space.
From scalability, to powerful data analytics, and integration compatibility, Microsoft Azure Cloud Services will put the future of your business in your hands.
If you’ve been putting off a cloud migration due to a lack of bandwidth, expertise, or resources, download Impact’s eBook, Does Your Business Need a Managed IT Service Provider? to find out if a strategic partnership with an IT service provider would make sense for you.
