In the cloud computing landscape, businesses are constantly seeking ways to maximise their return on investment and drive sustainable growth. In this blog, Damian Reffin, Azure Service Architect, brings his wealth of experience and keen insight into how Managed Azure services have helped organisations effectively harness the power of Azure.
As the Azure Service Architect for a Microsoft accredited Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (MSP), I’ve seen first hand how organisations can unlock the full potential of their Azure investments. One of the most important ways to achieve this is through iterative and comprehensive reviews coupled with regular engagement that aligns your cloud adoption strategy with your business strategy.
Let’s explore a few key areas where the scale and technology investments of an Azure managed service partner can deliver sustainable business value in your Azure cloud – and how we’ve delivered that for our clients at Advania.
Expertise and specialisation
Managed service providers, especially those accredited as Azure Experts, bring a wealth of specialised knowledge and experience to the table. Our teams are composed of certified professionals who stay up to date with the latest developments in Azure, including best practices for security and financial operations. This expertise allows us to conduct thorough assessments that identify vulnerabilities and inefficiencies that an internal team may overlook.
In practice: identifying improvements with the Well Architected Framework
How has our Azure expertise impact the work we’ve delivered for clients? We’ve driven a powerful feedback loop by executing Well Architected Framework (WAF) reviews against our clients’ applications to identify improvement opportunities across the cloud environment.
This means our clients have seen improved performance, enhanced security, cost efficiency, increased reliability, compliance adherence, and greater alignment with business goals. These outcomes not only enhance the operational effectiveness of your cloud environment but also contribute to long-term business success by enabling organisations to leverage the full potential of Azure.
Proactive monitoring and management
One of the hallmarks of a managed service is the ability to provide continuous and service evolving monitoring. By leveraging advanced tools and technologies, we can proactively identify potential security risks and cost anomalies before they escalate into significant issues. This proactive approach ensures that services are not only reacting to problems but also preventing them.
In practice: real-time monitoring for fast response
The real-time proactive monitoring that we deliver for clients is invaluable for enhancing operational efficiency, improving security, optimising resource utilisation and ensuring a positive user experience.Â
We can help you adopt a proactive approach to monitoring, which means you can respond quickly to emerging issues, make data-driven decisions and continually improve your cloud environments – ultimately maximising the value of your Azure investments.
Our teams are in place 24/7 to ensure your business continues to run around the clock. While outages are a rarity, early identification allows us to deal with the issue rapidly and bring you back online quickly.
Tailored strategies and actionable insights
When you engage with Advania as an Azure MSP, you receive customised strategies tailored to your specific business needs and cloud environments. Our reviews are not one-size-fits-all; we analyse each customer’s unique situation to provide actionable insights that drive tangible results. Whether it’s enhancing security measures or implementing cost-saving FinOps practices, our recommendations are designed to align with the organisation’s goals.
In practice: the ‘Iron Triangle’ approach
We know that migrating to the cloud is a significant undertaking that can be overwhelming for many organisations and their IT departments. Whether you are a greenfield or brownfield adopter of Azure, Advania prioritises the understanding of your current cloud adoption strategy. We engage with you through an iterative process based on the Microsoft Cloud Adoption and FinOps Foundation Frameworks.
Our approach utilises the ‘Iron Triangle’, which focuses on low-effort, high-return activities that maximise the time to value of actionable insights. This ensures that you quickly achieve tangible benefits from your cloud investments. As we progress, we shift our focus to activities that require a greater time investment, aligning with your priorities regarding risk and business impact.
By tailoring strategies and actionable insights to your specific needs, we can help you adopt best practices and enhance your cloud maturity over time. This approach is essential for navigating the complexities of cloud migration and optimising your Azure environment for sustained success.
Streamlined processes and efficiency
Managing Azure environments efficiently requires a clear understanding of both technology and business processes. As an MSP, we streamline these processes, allowing for quicker implementation of changes and improvements. Our structured approach ensures that security policies are enforced consistently and that financial operations are optimised without disrupting business operations.
In practice: ITIL-aligned processes
Being an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) aligned managed service provider is essential for delivering streamlined processes and efficiency when supporting your Azure environment. ITIL’s best practices provide a structured framework that ensures consistency and quality in service delivery, which is crucial in managing complex cloud infrastructures.
Our integration with ServiceNow enhances this capability by facilitating seamless ticketing, incident management and service requests, allowing for quick resolution of issues. Additionally, we leverage automation to minimise manual tasks, reduce errors and accelerate response times.
By implementing ITIL processes such as change management, we ensure that changes to the Azure environment are carried out systematically with minimal disruption, enhancing overall service reliability and customer satisfaction. This combination of ITIL alignment, robust tools, and automated workflows enables us to provide a proactive and efficient support experience that aligns with our customers’ evolving business needs.
Collaboration and continuous improvement
Working with an MSP fosters a culture of collaboration between our experts and the customer’s internal teams. We believe in continuous improvement, regularly revisiting strategies and practices to adapt to changing business needs and emerging threats. By engaging in ongoing dialogue, we ensure that our clients are not only compliant today but also prepared for tomorrow’s challenges.
In practice: how we work with you
As an Azure Expert MSP, we deliver managed service outcomes that emphasise collaboration and continuous improvement. Our partnership fosters a culture where our experts work closely with your internal teams, creating a synergistic approach to managing your Azure environment. This collaboration allows us to share insights and best practices, ensuring that both parties are aligned in addressing current challenges and preparing for future demands.
We engage in regular strategy and insights reviews enabling us to adapt to changing business needs and emerging threats proactively. By maintaining open lines of communication, we not only ensure compliance with current regulations but also equip your organisation with the agility and resilience needed to navigate tomorrow’s complexities confidently. This commitment to continuous improvement empowers our clients to optimise their cloud investments while driving innovation and achieving long-term success.
Cost-effectiveness
Engaging an MSP can also lead to significant cost savings. By implementing FinOps practices as part of our Azure managed services, we help organisations avoid overspending while maximising the business value of Azure. Our ability to analyse usage patterns and recommend optimisations means that customers can allocate their resources more effectively, ensuring they only pay for what they need at the competitive cloud rates. Engaging an Azure MSP is crucial for organisations looking to transform their traditional data centres into cloud-native environments that maximise business value.
In practice: optimising your cloud spend
We know that many organisations struggle to capitalise on the full potential of Azure, often resulting in overspending and underutilisation of resources. Our managed services focus on implementing FinOps practices that enable significant cost savings while optimising cloud expenditure.
Furthermore, as your trusted Azure MSP, we’re well-positioned to support the next phase of your cloud adoption journey, driving ongoing modernisation and innovation. This proactive approach not only enhances cost-effectiveness but also empowers you to leverage the full capabilities of Azure, ultimately leading to higher returns on your cloud investments and increased operational agility.
Work with an Azure Expert MSP on your cloud operations
As organisations navigate the complexities of cloud operations, partnering with an accredited Azure Expert MSP like Advania can be a game-changer. With our scale and expertise, we can enhance your operating model, engaging across key aspects of cloud management such security posture and governance, optimising cloud financial management, and driving greater business value from your Azure environment through modernisation and innovation.
Want to take your Azure journey to the next level?
Speak to our experts today to find out how our Managed Azure services can support your goals.
