The ScanSource Digital guide to Microsoft Azure success
Why you should be selling the cloud to your customers
Introduction
Contents
The Microsoft Azure opportunity
An overview of Microsoft Azure
Understanding the benefits of Azure
Choosing the right Azure billing model
Five top tips for Azure success
Advanced, cost-management support from the ScanSource Digital Azure practice team
Make the most of the Azure opportunity
ScanSource Digital Azure practice offering
At ScanSource Digital, we’re here to support you every step of the way-whether you’ve just started exploring your cloud offering or have already built a cloud practice. Our established Azure practice can support you through your Azure readiness:
ScanSource Azure practice offering
Training and enablement
Environment optimization
Go-to-market strategy and execution
Azure Virtual Desktop
Building repeatable solutions
Pre-sale and solution development
Commercialization of Azure solutions
Access to Microsoft Solutions programs
Microsoft’s public cloud offering, Microsoft Azure, is today’s key business enabler. The cloud platform is comprised of more than 600 products and cloud services designed to help solve problems for end customers of all sizes. Azure allows you to evolve their businesses in line with modern work environments, and to future proof with greater efficiency and security enhancements.
According to Gartner, the research company, public cloud services saw a modest growth of 8.1 percent in 2020.
However, from 2021 through to 2024, organizations looking to support digital business are set to increase investment in the cloud. This will see the market excel with a four-year compound annual growth rate of 24.6 percent.
24.6%
8.1%
ScanSource Digital Azure Practice guide covers
An overview of Microsoft Azure; the benefits and opportunities
A brief overview of Azure billing models and cost management
Fundamental assessment for repeatable and scalable solution development
Five top tips for Microsoft Azure success
At ScanSource Digital, we have seen a significant shift in this approach, with MSPs (managed service providers) now proactively building repeatable and scalable cloud offerings to take to their customers, and not surprisingly, moving into high-growth and hyper-growth revenue categories. In some cases, we have seen MSPs growing triple digits year over year. This is a guide for MSPs to help you understand Microsoft Azure fundamentals regarding solution development and pricing models and take the first simple steps towards building a successful Azure practice.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Microsoft Azure offers organizations IT options with more flexibility and less complexity and cost than traditional, on-premises technologies. Azure services are scalable and can be consumed through a pay-as-you-go model, with an industry-leading commitment to data protection and privacy. Microsoft built Azure to be the enterprise data center of the future, comprised of the three main pillars of cloud computing:
servers and storage
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
a framework for developing apps and services
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
software delivered via the internet
End-user benefits
Reduce technology overheads and overall business expenditures
Scale their IT infrastructures in line with demand while still controlling costs
Support intelligent applications to get work done more efficiently
Work from anywhere, on any device, securely with Azure Virtual Desktop
By selling Azure, managed service providers can deliver these pillars of cloud services to their customers, allowing these businesses to:
Ensure business continuity in unforeseen circumstances
And much more
Microsoft Cloud adoption framework
Define strategy
Plan
Ready
Adopt
Understand motivations Business outcomes Business justification First adoption project
Rationalize digital estate Initial organization alignment Skills-readiness plan Cloud-adoption plan
Azure readiness guide First landing zone Expand the blueprint Best-practice validation
First workload migration Expanded scenarios Best practice Process improvements
Migrate
Innovate
Innovation guide Expanded scenarios Best-practice validation Process improvements
Govern
Manage
Methodology Benchmark Initial best practice Governance maturity
Business commitments Operations baseline Operations maturity
One of the primary differences between an on-premises and cloud infrastructure is the actual cost model. The traditional on-premises server, as a permanent fixture, is classified as capital expenditure (CAPEX), an upfront investment which depreciates over time both in value and viability. It cannot be scaled to meet exact requirements to save costs. Microsoft Azure, on the other hand, is a monthly subscription service, which is classified as operational expenditure (OPEX). This shifts IT spending to a pay-as-you-go model, meaning companies only pay for what they use. It is also continually updated with new features and services and can be scaled up and down to meet the customers’ exact requirements. This means cost-saving and cost-control opportunities.
Here we have highlighted the benefits about which your customers will want to know:
Operational expenditure vs. capital expenditure (OPEX vs. CAPEX)
Improved infrastructure
Adopting Microsoft Azure means a reduction in IT maintenance. Time spent maintaining hardware and upgrading software is significantly reduced, eliminating headaches with it. An IT team can focus on advancing an organization’s technology road map, rather than spending time on maintenance and repairs. For a managed service provider, this means adding significant value through demonstrating the use of the latest technologies available, and playing a critical role in the technological future proofing of the customer's business. In simple terms, less time on outages and downtime, and more time on cutting-edge innovation.
When using Microsoft Azure applications, you’re always working with the most-up-to-date and powerful features of that application. Microsoft continuously monitors and improves all its applications to make sure the customer gets the best experience possible, every time.
Here we have highlighted the benefits your customers will want to know about:
Mobile ready
Cloud-based applications provide employees with access to their workloads anywhere and on any devices. This promotes enhanced flexibility, enabling remote working and business continuity.
A consumption billing model is essentially a monthly pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model where customers pay based on the utilization of their workloads. This is a simple model, and with the Azure Modern Commerce platform by Microsoft, managed service providers always have complete visibility of their most-up-to-date usage and cost information.
Adopting Microsoft Azure means flexibility when it comes to billing models, and this means there are options for you and your customers:
Consumption (PAYG)
Reserved Instances
Microsoft Azure Reserved Instances are virtual machines reserved for dedicated use on Azure. They come with the benefit of cost savings, as they are typically a one- or three-year commitment. One of the key benefits of using a Reserved Instance virtual machine is the significant cost savings versus the PAYG model. Utilizing Azure Reserved Instances also allows managed service providers the ability to offer an almost-fixed-cost solution to their customers. We understand that navigating the Microsoft Azure pricing models and calculators can be challenging. If you need help creating a quote or understanding best practices, our ScanSource Digital Azure practice has experts on hand who specialize in all Azure pricing models.
Become a specialist
Build a scalable solution
Build solutions that solve a specific, but common, business problem
Build a solution with a predictable cost model
The key to building a successful Azure practice is planning. Here are our five top tips to follow while planning and building your Azure solutions:
Build a repeatable solution
Focus on specific areas of Microsoft Azure, and become an expert at them. Then scale your team and level of expertise as you scale your business.
A scalable solution is one which is still viable and robust when there is a significant increase or decrease on load. This could be from a user, data, or any other load factor.
A common business problem is not customer specific, rather it is a problem often experienced by many businesses within a particular segment or size.
A cost that scales directly in line with increase or decrease in load that can be presented as a fixed, per-user, or per-GB cost.
A repeatable solution is one which can be deployed across multiple customers with or without minimal customization.
Advanced cost- management support
An in-depth look at what you’re spending money on and how you can optimize that spend. This value can be passed on to your cloud customer.
Cost optimization
Governance planning
A governance plan helps you better understand, browse, and interact with your resources and estimate their cost. Make inventories of your subscriptions, resource groups, and resources, and shows you how to use tags to manage cost.
Cost-management portal training
We provide comprehensive training about the Azure cost-management portal. This gives you advanced visibility into consumption and pricing. It also demonstrates how to set sort orders, so you can fully understand how workloads are used in customer environments.
Fixed-cost modelling
Offering your customers fixed-price models helps them overcome the common objection of cost uncertainty.
As you’ve seen, the opportunity presented by Microsoft Azure is significant. We hope this eBook has helped you understand the fundamentals of Azure solution development and pricing models, so you can take the first steps towards building a successful Azure practice. And remember, we’re here to help you with every step. To get started on your Azure Journey, get in touch with our team today.
MAKE THE MOST OF THE AZURE OPPORTUNITY
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