Azure Answered – Azure Discover | Azure Optimise: A year in review
I’m very proud to say we’ve had a strong first FY – and it’s not over yet! While we’ve been running as a focussed Azure business since the start of last year, we launched formally in February of this year in line with both Microsoft Ignite (that we co-sponsored) and the announcement of our unique & strategic agreement with Microsoft see:
Macquarie Cloud Services launches Azure business with strategic Microsoft Agreement
So what’s been working for us? What have we learnt?
Once qualified, we generally come across two types of customer:
- Already on Azure in full, or for specific workloads or services
- Planning a move to Azure, again either in full or for specific reasons
What we don’t find are customers who need convincing one way or the other. The many people that I speak to in a given month have largely made their mind up; they understand the value of the Azure platform and what it can very likely do for them. For those yet to migrate, the decision on platform of choice has been made, and it’s just a question of how and at what cost. For those already on Azure, it’s more a conversation of ‘what now’? What can you do for me? – and let’s not forget, Azure is the software-defined platform that promises self-administration and independence from those nasty vendors <coughs> ?
Azure Discover – supporting a planned migration to Azure
This little 2 – 3 week engagement has been working famously well for us! When Azure Migrate was announced in Las Vegas @ Inspire 2019 (see: Introducing the new Azure migrate a hub for your migration needs) we jumped right in and the platform has gained cool new features ever since #loveit.
Our Azure Discover engagement leverages ‘Azure Migrate’ and seeks to answer all those questions you might be pondering:
- What does my current footprint look like on Azure?
- What’s compatible vs. not?
- What’s it all going to cost? Now and ongoing?
- Can I take advantage of PaaS offerings like Managed SQL instance?
- Are there specific dependencies I should be more aware of?
- How exactly will I migrate, and how long will it take? Risks?
- And what about all that networking stuff? Egress charges? IP address changes?
There’s plenty in there, and my team always enjoy the exercise. As mentioned, it’s a 2 – 3 week engagement and one that we don’t typically charge anything for. To be transparent, our goal is to show value early – if we do a good enough job, maybe you’ll be keen to work with us on the migration & ongoing.
Not limiting, outputs for a typical Discover engagement include:
- A detailed report
- A best practice Azure landing zone design – reach out for a sample if keen btw
- Full cost analysis
- And more…
Azure Optimise – showing value on existing Azure footprints
At Macquarie Cloud Services, we’re proud supporters of all things VMware. When CloudHealth was acquired in 2018 it served our Azure purposes beautifully – and CloudHealth just so happened to be our Cloud Service Management platform of choice following an extensive review of the field; lucky huh ?
This 3 – 4 week engagement is about showing you the art-of-the-possible on Azure. Leveraging the CloudHealth platform, our skills, and without making any changes we go deep with:
- Cost analysis & Resource optimisation
- Governance
- Compliance
- Security
- And more…
Managed entirely remotely as with Azure Discover above, this engagement hasn’t disappointed yet. Over the past year we’ve worked with everything from highly skilled & competent teams to businesses relatively new to Azure that are keen to learn – plus everything in between.
Azure’s a journey, it’s a new way of life and one that’s never static. My team take great pleasure in being able to present alternative architectures and service mixes, presenting considerable cost savings, or perhaps showing you what next generation Azure Operations looks like.
At the end of the CloudHealth analysis period we’ll produce a detailed report covering all findings and our recommendations. These sessions are always very well received!
Check out:
We can’t wait for FY21 as this first year has been a blast!
The Discover & Optimise engagements have definitely been our best throughout FY20, and they’ll continue to evolve as we do – and as the Azure service ecosystem evolves.
Thanks guys!
