Microsoft Azure Cloud

Microsoft Azure is a growing collection of integrated cloud services that developers and IT professionals use to build, deploy, and manage applications through global network of datacenters, using the tools, applications, and frameworks of your choice.

Microsoft Inspire: Daily Rundown

Ajith George

Microsoft Inspire 2018, formerly called Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), continues in Las Vegas. Check this ongoing blog for live Azure Cloud and Dynamics 365 partner news updates, and perspectives throughout the day.

19/07/2018: Day 3: After a full three days of action, Microsoft’s annual partner-focused Inspire conference is finally set to wrap up tomorrow. We’ve seen tons of Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Cloud news throughout the week

Yesterday Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the center stage at Inspire 2018 with an extended round of standing ovation, before he’d even said a word. In case if you  missed the keynote, you can always watch it here.

microsoft inspire 2018- Satya Nadella keynote

Here are few of the updates from Day 3

  • Microsoft Teams Monitoring: GSX solutions has come up with Microsoft teams monitoring and performance reporting capabilities
  • Automation capabilities on Microsoft Azure Managed service
  • Azure Cloud Security: Customers can now gain modern vulnerability management, analytics-driven incident detection for hybrid environments, and simplified agent deployment within the Azure infrastructure
  • Azure reserved instances will available across all Azure workloads
  • Azure information protection – unification of data loss prevention in the ‘search and compliance center’ labels and AIP

“Day 3 – Keynote”

 

18/07/2018: Day 2: Watch the Day 2 Keynote here 

Day 2 of Microsoft’s biggest event for Partners, Microsoft Inspire 2018,  featured Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President, One Commercial Partner; Jason Zander, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Azure Team in the Cloud and AI group; Ron Markezich, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft 365; Alysa Taylor, Corporate Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise Business Applications and Global Industry; and Anand Eswaran, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Digital, Services, and Success

“Day 2 – Highlights”

 

Here are few of the updates from Day 2

  • Walmart-Microsoft Azure Partnership 
  • Azure for MSPs: Cloud distributor Pax8 unveiled a Wingman Professional Services Program. The offering allows MSPs to leverage customized IaaS solutions built by Pax8 cloud architects and engineers
  • ClearDATA has launched “healthcare compliant” cloud services for Microsoft Azure.
  • Dell EMC Cloud for Microsoft Azure Stack announced that the on-premises extension to Microsoft’s public cloud supports a variety of file formats now
  • Workspace as a Service: CloudJumper has unveiled Cloud Workspace for Azure

 

17/07/2018: Day 1 – Watch the Day 1 keynote here

“Day 1 – Highlights”

 

Here are few of the updates from Day 1:

  • Office 365 Accelerator: Office 365 accelerator reduces latency, packet loss and network congestion experienced by branch office and mobile users when accessing Office 365 cloud applications via the public Internet
  • GE and Microsoft: Expanded partnership will help industrial companies capture greater intelligence from IoT and asset data, boosts GE innovation across its business

 

microsoft Inspire

 

Got news to share from the conference? Email me the details (evelyn.dennis@sysfore.com).

Cloud Migration: Choosing a Cloud Service Partner

Bobby Varghese

Cloud computing is changing how IT service is developed, deployed, scaled, maintained and paid for. Synergy research declared 2015 as “the year when cloud became mainstream” According to a research report by Synergy, from Q4 2014 to Q3 2015 cloud revenue has increased exponentially. Despite the proliferation of cloud usage, its full potential still remains relatively unexplored.

Part 1: Are You Cloud Ready?

A cloud service partner can guide you through the limitless possibilities with cloud and can help you achieve the guaranteed efficiency effectively. Your cloud partner must be able to support you meticulously, following the SLAs from sales through service, which is not something every vendor can achieve. The right choice will mean a mutually beneficial partnership, while the wrong choice could mean a disaster.

Choosing a cloud service partner involves deeper considerations than selecting a standard vendor, as you will be putting entire aspects of your cloud business model in their hands. The inundation of new entrants in the market means that service partner has little to no experience in hosting or application delivery, thus raising concerns not only about their current service performance but also the ability to evolve their services to meet future needs.

 

What to look for in a Cloud Service Partner?

The primary challenge for the enterprise is to identify a cloud service partner with a portfolio that includes expertise in a full range of environments for its workloads. Also, the portfolio should extend beyond today’s vision and offer a foundation for your future cloud strategy. Specifically, look for the following characteristics:

    • Interoperability: To make the most out of cloud services, enterprises should select a partner that enables workloads to span across multiple environments.

    • Security: When a cloud service partner enters the cloud, you are entrusting the information with them. Businesses should make sure that the cloud service partner keeps security as a priority.  Ensure that they build the cloud architecture for optimal protection, including measures to isolate enterprise workloads on physical servers, protections against Internet-borne attacks, and clear administrative access controls.

    • Cohesive and Dynamics Migration strategy: Is the cloud service partner’s cloud offering a hastily launched effort to survive the current momentum, or is it a diligently built foundation for future services? Cloud service partner that is committed to the transformational potential of the cloud will be able to articulate a clear vision of the future and will invest development resources to ensure they are leading—not following—the trends.

    • Experience: The cloud service partner should have a track record in managing enterprise data centers, providing secure hosting, and delivering mission-critical applications.

    • Flexibility: Just as different workloads are suitable for different environments, they also require different configuration and delivery parameters. As such, the cloud service partner should offer a menu or range of options related to performance, security, and resiliency, enabling the enterprise to select—and pay for—just the settings it requires for each workload.

    • Technical Expertise: Make sure your cloud solution partner offers a range of managed and professional services to help you develop a cloud strategy, migrate to the cloud, and maintain optimal cloud performance

The key to making this decision work is to forge effective partnerships.

Sysfore, a Microsoft Gold partner, uses leading network, technology, and service expertise to deliver our service anytime, virtually anywhere, quickly and efficiently. Contact one of our experts today and we will help you find the perfect solution for your business. Write to us at info@sysfore.com or give us a call at +91 (80) 4110 5555.

Cloud Migration: Are You Cloud Ready?

Bobby Varghese

A cloud adoption assessment will help your enterprise determine whether the organization is ready for cloud, type of cloud, cost estimate and the areas that need the most attention to successfully adopt cloud.

The result of the assessment will provide your organization with pros and cons to support a business case – cloud migration.

are you cloud ready?
 

Cultural readiness

An important measure while considering a migration to the cloud is the acceptance of cloud among your organization’s staff. Due to the proliferation of cloud use in our everyday lives, personally and in business, acceptance generally has increased.

‘Cloud’ and ‘digital’ have become widely used words, but mean different things to different people. Do your stakeholder priorities align with the benefits your project should bring?
 

Needs assessment

Mapping the needs and wants of directors, heads of service and other stakeholders into an assessment (in relation to cloud) enables you to plan exemplars and use cases that are the best fit for cloud. Showing value early is a great way for organizations to buy into the benefits and so identifying services which are ‘quick wins’ will certainly help your cause.

This process also identifies the areas of the organization that don’t see the relevance of cloud.

Disseminate the digital vision clearly to heads of service and other stakeholders. In parallel, seek to understand their goals and priorities and relate those to characteristics of cloud
 

Technical readiness

A detailed assessment of the business’ ICT landscape should be carried out because your ICT landscape would be a mix of applications, operating systems and hardware versions. A methodical approach and a mix of the right tools and expertise is required to assess the ICT estate

The assessment should look into the networks, servers and applications against a range of cloud options to identify incompatibilities and other gaps which will need to be remedied if the systems are migration candidates

Before thinking about adopting cloud, legacy systems should also be checked to ensure they will work effectively with your chosen cloud provider. If it is discovered too late that they are not compatible, the implications on cost and time could be dramatic.
 

Budgetary readiness

Cloud is a rental model. This could be a change in the way your organization funds projects, these rental commitments must be understood by finance directors. For cloud adoption to succeed long term, it must be able to demonstrate an improvement in cost control and financial forecasting.

A comparison of the enterprise’s current ICT spending alongside the projected cloud deployment and service expense can give the business insights on the most cost-beneficial plan.

Transformational projects are investments, there must be acceptance of the necessity for investing to save and investing to focus on the organizational mission.
 

Resource readiness

Can you realistically achieve your goals on time, using your existing resources?

Understanding your current commitments is key to knowing if you can also balance the demands of cloud migration project. If there is a time pressure it is unlikely that internal teams will succeed in balancing business-as-usual commitments against the burden of cloud-related training, planning and execution.  

Choosing a credible and reliable service provider can help you in this situation and add value to the organization.

The cloud readiness assessment is as much about philosophical readiness as much as system readiness. Open minds to cloud technology, and you open up possibilities.

Sysfore, a Microsoft Gold partner, uses leading network, technology, and service expertise to deliver our service anytime, virtually anywhere, quickly and efficiently. Contact one of our experts today and we will help you find the perfect solution for your business. Write to us at info@sysfore.com or give us a call at +91 (80) 4110 5555.