When you commit to Microsoft Azure, you’re launching into a world of potential. It’s a platform where you can innovate and scale with a purpose.
However, after the initial excitement of this journey, a feeling of uncertainty naturally creeps in as you find yourself sitting in the pilot’s seat, looking at an array of unfamiliar controls and realising that flying this thing is far more complex than you first thought. From well-established tools like Azure DevOps and Microsoft Sentinel, to newer innovations such as Azure AI Foundry and Microsoft Fabric, the sheer breadth of options can feel overwhelming. Without a clear path, you might quickly find yourself navigating the cloud without a map.
This is a common experience. In fact, a staggering 84% of organisations struggle to manage their cloud spend, with cloud budgets typically being exceeded by 17 per cent. This alone tells us that many are struggling when it comes to financial control.
Many organisations find themselves at this exact crossroads, asking themselves, “How can we maximise our cloud resources and Azure potential?” One path is to go it alone, learning the ropes through trial and error, hoping you can avoid the multitude of expensive mistakes that are often made when using your own organisation as guinea pigs. However, there is a better option. What if you could stay in control and have an experienced co-pilot expert alongside you, helping you read the maps, avoid the storms, and plot the best possible course to your destination? This is exactly why we are reimagining traditional cloud support models to offer you a smarter alternative.
The challenges of flexibility and control
Managing your Azure environment with sub-par support can come with a range of challenges, which you might be familiar with.
First, there is the issue of cost. It’s the Monday morning meeting where leadership holds up an Azure invoice that is higher than expected and asks a simple question: “What are we actually paying for?” This is the dreaded bill shock, and it comes from a lack of clear visibility and control over cloud spending. It is a problem compounded by the fact that more than 80 per cent of container spend is reportedly wasted on idle resources. Without an expert eye, costs can spiral, and it can feel almost impossible to track down which services are consuming your budget.
Then there is the expertise gap. Azure is a universe in itself, and Microsoft is adding new features and making changes at a breathtaking pace. Your internal IT team may be brilliant, but expecting them to be world-class experts in Azure security, performance tuning, cost management, and every other part of their day job is a huge ask. It often leads to teams feeling overwhelmed, and technical roadblocks slowing down genuine innovation.
Finally, you are faced with an inflexible, all-or-nothing choice for support. You either have basic support, where you log a ticket and hope for the best, or you pay a premium for a managed service that might be overkill for your needs. It leaves you wishing for a middle ground, a flexible partnership that provides expertise and guidance without taking away your autonomy.
Take control of Azure – introducing Cloud Direct CSP+
We have had countless conversations with businesses facing these exact issues. They love the power of Azure, and their teams are eager to drive it, but too often, other CSP models force them into a choice between basic ticket-logging support and costly, fully managed services.
Cloud Direct CSP+ takes a different approach. Rather than just a product or toolkit, it offers a more cost-effective way to transact your Azure spend, built around a flexible support service. It’s designed for organisations that want to manage their own environments while having the reassurance of a trusted expert on hand. At its core, CSP+ is built on complete transparency and genuine partnership.
At its core are three simple principles:
- Transparent cost-plus pricing: We do not believe in hiding costs behind complex calculations. Our CSP+ service uses a simple and clear pricing model. You see what you are paying for, allowing you to choose a service level that fits your budget perfectly.
- Smarter management: Every CSP+ customer gets access to our exclusive Provide™ portal. This is your centralised platform to monitor your security posture, track costs and carbon emissions, and automate resource deployment.
- Expertise on demand: Tools are great, but nothing replaces human experience and expertise. CSP+ allows you to tap into our Azure-certified engineers, cloud consultants and solution architects whenever you need them.
Finding the perfect plan for you
Every organisation’s journey is different, so we designed CSP+ with three flexible tiers:
- Essential: The most cost-effective way to transact your Azure spend with business hours support for any platform issues, in addition to full Provide™ Portal access and reassurance from a trusted Azure Expert MSP partner.
- Enhanced: For organisations where performance and cost are top priorities, this tier provides access to 24×7 support, on top of proactive quarterly optimisation reviews to keep your environment in peak condition.
- Enterprise: This is our top-tier service for organisations looking to utilise Azure to build strategic advantage. You get everything in the Enhanced tier, plus monthly optimisation reviews and direct access to our senior Tier 4 engineers and Cloud Architects. This gives you rapid problem-solving for complex issues in addition to strategic guidance on architecture and innovation to help you stay ahead.
The result is a partnership that empowers you. Instead of unpredictable bills, you get financial clarity. Instead of hitting technical roadblocks, you accelerate issue resolution and innovation. Free up your talented team to focus on the strategic projects that drive your business forward.
