Success stories

Our customers come in all shapes and sizes.

We work with organisations from all walks of life, with different ambitions and requirements. Explore how we’ve helped them reimagine everyday, and align technology with their culture and business goals.

Person on mountain

Cloud migration – understand the process, benefits and challenges before migrating to Azure

Are you considering cloud migration? If migrating to Azure is on your IT roadmap, we can help you understand more about the process, the benefits and the challenges you might face along the way. Making the move to cloud? What to expect What is Cloud Migration? Benefits of cloud migration Cloud Migration Process Key Challenges Author: Russell McKee, Senior Consultant & Azure Architect An experienced Azure Architect and Senior M365 Consultant with over 20 years in the IT industry covering several sectors including Healthcare Government, Blue Light and Private enterprises. Highly focused on delivering change, innovation and exceptional end user experience by working with customers to get the best solution to the challenges they have. Russell has impeccable attention to detail and a genuine passion for innovation and technology. Russell’s specialisms include Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Exchange, Identity & Access Management, Modern Desktop with Microsoft Endpoint Manager, Telecoms, Networking, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and Virtualisation technologies. Cloud migration: What to expect when migrating to Azure  Many businesses rely on some form of legacy on-premises infrastructure that they own, host or manage. These systems or servers may have been introduced recently, or over a decade ago, and likely were effective in getting the job done for a period of time. However, technology has changed rapidly, and businesses need flexibility and modern technology to have sustainable long-term growth. Moving workloads, applications and processes to the cloud helps businesses to take advantage of the many benefits of cloud technology and can accelerate innovation to help businesses stand out from their competitors. In this article I’ll discuss the ins and outs of cloud migration, and what businesses can expect when migrating to Azure.  What is Cloud Migration?  A cloud migration is the process of moving legacy assets, such as applications, data, servers or processes, to a public or private cloud, in this case, migrating to Azure. It also includes the ongoing process of maintaining and optimising the cloud once the migration is complete.  Benefits of making the move to cloud Cost Efficiency and Scalability  Cloud technology allows business to only pay for the resources they use. With legacy on-premises infrastructure, business have a significant upfront investment for the technology, the installation, as well as the costs involved with maintenance, electricity and sufficient cooling. If the business needs to upgrade, it involves upgrading all the hardware, and the process would potentially take months. Similarly, there is no easy way for businesses to downgrade if their needs change over time. In comparison, with the cloud, it’s simple to increase or decrease resources as needed with no significant upfront costs involved. Once the technology is set up, the business only pays for what they use, and nothing more.  Performance and Reliability  The Azure cloud has a 99.9% uptime and is one of the most powerful clouds available. It keeps network latency low and provides an end-user experience that is significantly faster and more powerful than high-end on-premises infrastructure.  Security  Microsoft has over 3,500 cybersecurity professionals working 24/7, along with advanced AI, working to keep all processes, applications, and data in the cloud safe. This ensures that businesses can feel safe knowing that their precious data and applications will not fall into the hands of a cybercriminal. Similarly, there are many security features built into the Azure cloud to help IT professionals run cloud processes safely and effectively.  Cloud migration process The process of migrating to Azure requires expertise and a thorough understanding of a business and its goals. It includes the initial planning and assessment of legacy systems, including applications, databases and servers. That’s where we can help. From here the cloud migration strategy is designed with contingency plans and roll-back plans to answer worst case scenarios. A pilot migration is then completed to resolve any issues and ensure that all requirements will be met. Finally, the migration will be run, typically over a weekend, or throughout the night, to limit the amount of disruption for the business and its employees. This process of migration is typically undertaken and managed by experienced consultants, as businesses can rely on their previous experience and expertise.  Key challenges Lack of strategy and planning  If businesses rush this process of migration, they will likely have a poor final outcome, which can negate the benefits of moving the cloud and hurt the growth of a business. Each business has different requirements and goals, and the right IT provider will be able to design a migration strategy that sets them up for success and longevity of cloud systems.  Poor cost optimisation  Although one of the key benefits of moving to the cloud is cost savings, as costs are based off resource consumption, if a business does not optimise their usage and costs, they may be surprised by a high bill. Thankfully, Azure has free built-in functionality to predict usage and the associated costs, and the tools available to optimise usage to decrease overall costs whilst increasing efficiency.  Ready to move to cloud?  Moving to the cloud can help your business grow, while increasing profitability, productivity and accelerating digital transformation. However, in order to realise these benefits, the migration process must be carefully designed and monitored by a team of professionals. If you want to find out more about how we can help you migrate to Azure, get in contact with us today.  You can find out more about Azure cloud platform on the Microsoft website, or read about how we can support you here.
View case study >

How the Microsoft Azure cloud platform turns IT vision into reality

The Microsoft Azure cloud platform has over 200 products and services, including everything from databases, to virtual desktops, to quantum computing applications. Making the move to Azure can save your business time and money, read our blog to find out more.
View case study >
Person on mountain

Cloud migration – understand the process, benefits and challenges before migrating to Azure

Are you considering cloud migration? If migrating to Azure is on your IT roadmap, we can help you understand more about the process, the benefits and the challenges you might face along the way.

Author: Russell McKee, Senior Consultant & Azure Architect

Russell McKee from Cloud Business talking about migrating to Azure, migrating to the cloud, microsoft cloud migration

An experienced Azure Architect and Senior M365 Consultant with over 20 years in the IT industry covering several sectors including Healthcare Government, Blue Light and Private enterprises. Highly focused on delivering change, innovation and exceptional end user experience by working with customers to get the best solution to the challenges they have. Russell has impeccable attention to detail and a genuine passion for innovation and technology.

Russell’s specialisms include Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Exchange, Identity & Access Management, Modern Desktop with Microsoft Endpoint Manager, Telecoms, Networking, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and Virtualisation technologies.


Cloud migration: What to expect when migrating to Azure 

Many businesses rely on some form of legacy on-premises infrastructure that they own, host or manage. These systems or servers may have been introduced recently, or over a decade ago, and likely were effective in getting the job done for a period of time. However, technology has changed rapidly, and businesses need flexibility and modern technology to have sustainable long-term growth.

Moving workloads, applications and processes to the cloud helps businesses to take advantage of the many benefits of cloud technology and can accelerate innovation to help businesses stand out from their competitors. In this article I’ll discuss the ins and outs of cloud migration, and what businesses can expect when migrating to Azure. 

What is Cloud Migration? 

A cloud migration is the process of moving legacy assets, such as applications, data, servers or processes, to a public or private cloud, in this case, migrating to Azure. It also includes the ongoing process of maintaining and optimising the cloud once the migration is complete. 

Benefits of making the move to cloud

Cost Efficiency and Scalability 

Cloud technology allows business to only pay for the resources they use. With legacy on-premises infrastructure, business have a significant upfront investment for the technology, the installation, as well as the costs involved with maintenance, electricity and sufficient cooling. If the business needs to upgrade, it involves upgrading all the hardware, and the process would potentially take months. Similarly, there is no easy way for businesses to downgrade if their needs change over time.

In comparison, with the cloud, it’s simple to increase or decrease resources as needed with no significant upfront costs involved. Once the technology is set up, the business only pays for what they use, and nothing more. 

Performance and Reliability 

The Azure cloud has a 99.9% uptime and is one of the most powerful clouds available. It keeps network latency low and provides an end-user experience that is significantly faster and more powerful than high-end on-premises infrastructure. 

Security 

Microsoft has over 3,500 cybersecurity professionals working 24/7, along with advanced AI, working to keep all processes, applications, and data in the cloud safe. This ensures that businesses can feel safe knowing that their precious data and applications will not fall into the hands of a cybercriminal. Similarly, there are many security features built into the Azure cloud to help IT professionals run cloud processes safely and effectively. 

Cloud migration process

The process of migrating to Azure requires expertise and a thorough understanding of a business and its goals. It includes the initial planning and assessment of legacy systems, including applications, databases and servers. That’s where we can help.

From here the cloud migration strategy is designed with contingency plans and roll-back plans to answer worst case scenarios. A pilot migration is then completed to resolve any issues and ensure that all requirements will be met. Finally, the migration will be run, typically over a weekend, or throughout the night, to limit the amount of disruption for the business and its employees. This process of migration is typically undertaken and managed by experienced consultants, as businesses can rely on their previous experience and expertise. 

Key challenges

Lack of strategy and planning 

If businesses rush this process of migration, they will likely have a poor final outcome, which can negate the benefits of moving the cloud and hurt the growth of a business. Each business has different requirements and goals, and the right IT provider will be able to design a migration strategy that sets them up for success and longevity of cloud systems. 

Poor cost optimisation 

Although one of the key benefits of moving to the cloud is cost savings, as costs are based off resource consumption, if a business does not optimise their usage and costs, they may be surprised by a high bill. Thankfully, Azure has free built-in functionality to predict usage and the associated costs, and the tools available to optimise usage to decrease overall costs whilst increasing efficiency. 

Ready to move to cloud? 

Moving to the cloud can help your business grow, while increasing profitability, productivity and accelerating digital transformation. However, in order to realise these benefits, the migration process must be carefully designed and monitored by a team of professionals.

If you want to find out more about how we can help you migrate to Azure, get in contact with us today. 

You can find out more about Azure cloud platform on the Microsoft website, or read about how we can support you here.

How the Microsoft Azure cloud platform turns IT vision into reality

The Azure cloud platform contains more than 200 products and cloud services. These products and services range from databases to virtual desktops, to quantum computing and machine learning applications. With such a vast product ecosystem it can be difficult to understand where Azure can fit into your IT infrastructure. To simplify things, Azure is designed to solve IT challenges, drive innovation and support businesses.

One of the key benefits of using the Azure cloud platform is that it can save your business time and money so you can focus less on IT and more on building your business.

Want to migrate to Azure? Explore our Azure Migrate service here >

We’ve compiled a list of 5 ways Azure can save you time and money. 

5 ways the Azure cloud platform can help you become the business you want to be

1: Simplify access management with Azure Active Directory

Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is a cloud-based identity and access management solution. It is an effective tool to increase security through enabling conditional access and offers six methods multifactor authentication deployment. One of the key ways that Azure AD can save time is through its single sign on features. Azure AD supports thousands of SaaS applications, allowing users to sign in to all their necessary applications with a single login both saving time and increasing security.

2: Work anywhere with Azure Virtual Desktop

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is a virtual desktop solution that allows users to access Windows 10 desktops and applications from anywhere, on any device. Moving desktops to the Azure cloud saves money as it allows businesses to spend less on powerful desktops and laptops, as the computing power is no longer needed on the individual device. This also allows the possibility of a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programme to be introduced, further reducing costs associated with hardware.

One of the other key cost benefits to deploying AVD is that session hosts can be scaled automatically to balance loads. This increases the user experience for those using more computing power, whilst optimising the cost of each virtual machine.

Using AVD also bring a host of other benefits including increased security, centralised management and increased flexibility of working location and device.

3: Manage and reduce cloud spending with Azure Cost Management and Billing

Azure Cost Management and Billing is a product in the Azure suite that is designed to optimise cloud efficiency and decrease overall spending within your Azure subscription. Through Azure Cost Management and Billing this allows organisations to analyse their previous and current month’s Azure spending in detail to check for correct invoice amounts, estimates for upcoming months and whether different cost entities are within budget.

In the Budget feature, organisations can set a budget and if the budget may be exceeded it will automatically shut down or change service tiers to ensure bills bill not be higher than expected. Finally, the Azure Advisor can give recommendations on how to decrease overall costs and optimise usage by changing product tiers or through optimisation of database usage.

4: Centralise management with the Azure Portal

One of the key benefits of moving workloads to the Azure cloud, is it enables IT Admins the ability to manage all services from one portal. Within the Azure Portal it is possible to manage an organisations’ Azure subscription, including everything from simple web apps to complex cloud deployments. Having these centralised management capabilities greatly decreases the time involved in troubleshooting issues, deploying new products and services, and it supports the move to a hybrid workplace as IT Admins can manage the services from anywhere, on any device. 

5: Secure workloads with Azure Security Centre

The Azure cloud platform was built from the ground up with security in mind. Microsoft provides multi-layered security with over 200 physical data centres, and a team of more than 3,500 cybersecurity experts working together to safeguard your business assets and data. Azure also includes threat detection and centralised workload protection within the Azure Security Center. Having this visibility of all threats decreases the risk of a costly cyberattack and secures both your network and your data.

The Azure ecosystem is packed full of functionality to keep your business ahead of the game whilst saving you time and money. If you want to find out more how Azure can benefit your business, contact us today.

Cloud Business Logo - white
Microsoft Gold Partner Logo - Cloud Business
Cloud Business Limited
5 Elmwood
Chineham Business Park
Basingstoke
RG24 8WG
Microsoft Gold Partner Logo - Cloud Business

2023 © Cloud Business Limited
Registered Company in England and Wales 06798438