Artificial intelligence has completely changed the landscape of many industries, and the financial services sector is no exception. In recent years, AI has played a significant role in reshaping the way financial institutions operate, making them more efficient, customer-centric, and competitive. Microsoft is making it easier than ever before for ambitious businesses in the finance industry to leverage its AI solutions, in turn unlocking success with an array of applications, benefits, and prospects.

Enhancing Customer Experience with Microsoft AI

In today’s digital age, customer experience is a top priority in financial services. By utilising your business’ data, Microsoft’s AI chatbots and digital assistants can be trained to provide personalised and responsive customer support around the clock. These AI systems can answer common queries, assist with transactions, and even offer financial advice based on customer data analysis. This level of service not only improves customer satisfaction but can also reduce operational costs for banks.

Risk Management and Fraud Detection with Azure Machine Learning

One of the critical challenges in finance is risk management. Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning platform is instrumental in analysing vast amounts of data to detect potential risks and fraudulent activities. Machine learning models built on Azure can identify unusual patterns and anomalies in real-time, significantly reducing the risk of financial fraud. Moreover, AI algorithms running on Azure can provide more accurate credit risk assessments, helping financial institutions make better lending decisions.

Investment and Portfolio Management with Microsoft Power BI

AI-driven algorithms are transforming the investment and asset management landscape. Microsoft’s Power BI platform, coupled with AI integrations, can help finance professionals create diversified portfolios that match individual investors’ goals and risk tolerance. These digital advisors continuously monitor market conditions, making adjustments as needed. This automated approach lowers management fees and improves returns, making investing more accessible to a broader audience.

Automation of Back-Office Functions with Microsoft RPA

Microsoft’s Robotic Process Automation solutions, including Power Automate, are streamlining back-office operations within the finance sector. Tasks such as data entry, reconciliation, and compliance checks are being automated, reducing the risk of human error, and saving valuable time. RPA powered by Microsoft can handle repetitive, rule-based tasks, allowing employees to focus on more strategic and value-added activities.

Predictive Analytics with Azure AI

Microsoft’s Azure AI services are invaluable in making informed business decisions. By analysing historical and real-time data, financial institutions can forecast market trends, customer behaviour, and even internal processes. Azure AI enables proactive decision-making, helping businesses stay ahead of their competition.

Regulatory Compliance with Azure AI

Compliance with ever-evolving financial regulations is a complex challenge. Microsoft’s Azure AI can assist in monitoring and ensuring compliance by automatically reviewing transactions and flagging potential breaches. This not only saves time but also reduces the risk of non-compliance, which can lead to hefty fines and reputational damage.

Benefits of Microsoft AI in finance

Microsoft’s AI solutions offer a comprehensive and integrated ecosystem, making it easier for financial institutions to adopt AI across various functions.

Efficiency: Reduce operational costs and improve efficiency thanks to seamless AI integration with existing Microsoft tools and platforms.

Accuracy: Microsoft’s AI systems can process vast amounts of data with minimal errors, ensuring reliable results.

Personalisation: Comprehensive data allows the creation of customised services and recommendations for customers, enhancing their overall experience.

Competitive Advantage: Financial institutions that leverage Microsoft’s AI solutions gain a competitive edge in the finance sector due to their enhanced capabilities.

Future

The use of Microsoft’s AI solutions in the financial services sector is expected to continue evolving. As Microsoft continues investing in AI research and development, we will consistently see new, cutting-edge applications and features being realised.

Leveraging these solutions for business success in financial services is not just a trend; it’s a necessity. Financial institutions that embrace Microsoft’s AI solutions are better positioned to provide superior customer experiences, manage risks, automate operations, and make better-informed decisions.

As Microsoft continues to advance its AI offering, it will be exciting to witness how these technologies further transform the financial services industry. Ensure your organisation keeps pace, and get in touch to start your AI journey.

If you’re a lawyer, you might think that artificial intelligence has nothing to do with your profession. After all, you deal with complex legal issues that require human judgment, critical thinking and creativity, not algorithms and data.

But what if we told you that AI can, and will, help you become a better lawyer, saving you time and money, and improve your level of client satisfaction? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it’s not – but you’re not alone in thinking that, with only half of lawyers believing that their practice will be significantly transformed by AI.

It’s time to introduce Harvey.

What is Harvey?

Microsoft has invested more than $10 Billion in Open.AI as this is part of a long-term partnership aimed at advancing AI research. This has led to the development of some market leading products, such as Microsoft Copilot, but part of Open.AI’s mission statement is to invest $100 million into small, early-stage AI startups. This is where Harvey comes in.

Harvey AI, a legal-focussed artificial intelligence model, received $5 million funding from Open.AI and, by mid-2023, had raised over $21 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital.

This sector-specific AI-powered platform helps lawyers with various tasks such as research, drafting, analysis, and document reviews. It uses natural language processing and machine learning to understand legal documents, find relevant information, generate summaries, suggest edits, and more, capabilities that have all been trained and developed specifically within legal contexts.

Harvey AI can also integrate with other software and databases, such as LexisNexis, Westlaw, and Google Scholar, to provide you with comprehensive and accurate results.

How can Harvey AI help your legal work?

Increased productivity

You can save time and effort by letting Harvey do the tedious and repetitive tasks for you. For example, it could scan thousands of documents in minutes, extract key facts and arguments, and create a concise report for your case, cutting out hours of reading time. You can also use Harvey to draft contracts, motions, briefs, and other documents based on templates and best practices from past examples. This way, you can focus on the strategic and creative aspects of your work.

Quality and consistency

You can improve the quality and consistency of your work by using Harvey’s feedback and suggestions, check your documents for errors, inconsistencies and ambiguities, and ensure that you are using the appropriate terminology and tone of voice. You can also use Harvey to compare your documents with similar ones from other sources, such as previous cases, statutes, regulations, and precedents. This way, you can ensure that your work meets the highest standards of professionalism and accuracy.

Knowledge and skills

You can enhance your knowledge and skills by using the platform’s learning resources. For example, you can use Harvey to access a vast library of legal content such as articles, books, podcasts, videos, and courses, or test your knowledge and get personalised feedback and recommendations. It provides everything you need to stay updated on the latest developments and trends in your field and expand your expertise.

Harvey in action

On November 2022, Allen & Overy, one of the UK’s largest law firms, started the trial phase with Harvey, with more than 3,500 of their lawyers testing it with some 40,000 questions during their working day.

“I have been at the forefront of legal tech for 15 years but I have never seen anything like Harvey,” said David Wakeling, Head of the Markets Innovation Group at Allen & Overy. “It is a game-changer that unleashes the power of generative AI into the legal industry. Harvey can work in multiple languages and across diverse practice areas, delivering unprecedented efficiency and intelligence. In our trial, we saw some amazing results.”

PwC then announced a strategic partnership with Harvey on March 2023. The aim is for Harvey to help provide PwC clients with enhanced insights, transparency and quality. Harvey has been trained on UK tax riles, law, legislation and PwC’s intellectual property.

Carol Stubbings, PwC Global Tax & Legal Services Leader, PwC UK, said: “Harvey’s AI solution marks a huge shift in the way that tax and legal services will be delivered and consumed across the industry. Access to Harvey will be a game-changer for our people and for our clients, and I’m incredibly excited about the problem-solving capability that will be generated by combining PwC’s technical capabilities and deep market insights.”

AI Risks

It’s impossible not to feel even the slightest bit of excitement with the new innovations like Harvey – after all, they’re here to make our lives easier. However, it’s crucial to recognise that AI isn’t going to replace lawyers. It’s important to note that platforms such as ChatGPT are still known to provide incorrect information, and while Harvey AI is an exciting, sector-specific model, it remains in beta and it will need to continue its rigorous testing process before reaching general availability.

If your law firm is thinking about adopting AI in the future, you need to make sure that you have the right foundations in place. Our Cloud Evangelist, Leon Godwin is running an interactive workshop for law firms looking to understand how to adopt Data and AI and apply it to their specific business case. Sign-up to our Data and AI Innovation Workshop to learn more.

We know that law firms are turning to technology to streamline their operations, handle cases more efficiencly and effectively, and provide excellent client experience. Some have even begun adopting artificial intelligence.

As we increase our reliance on technology, the importance of cybersecurity and risk management escalates. Implementing robust risk management strategies is therefore vital, which adds complexity to the skillset required to effectively manage your tech stack. That’s where Managed Service Providers (MSPs) come in.

Let’s explore why law firms should consider partnering with an MSP to safeguard their sensitive data and maintain a robust digital infrastructure.

Threats in today’s environment

Law firms are a particular target for cybercriminals and cyberattacks because of the nature of the sector. They handle vast amounts of sensitive data and confidential information. When those threats recently became a reality for CTS, a legal-focussed MSP, in an attack that affected approximately 80 firms, everything from emails and digital paperwork to contractual agreements and property deal completion documents were compromised.

It’s a growing issue, too. A recent report from Chaucer Group found that nearly three-quarters of the UK’s top 100 law firms have been affected by cyberattacks, with incidents rising from 166 in 2022 to 226 in 2023.

A data breach can have severe impacts, including financial loss, the tarnishing or loss of reputation, and the inevitably of lengthy, convoluted legal processes, so addressing the root of the problem, before it becomes a problem in the first place, is critical – and that’s where MSPs come in.

What an MSP does

What are you getting in return for your investment in a reliable, experienced and expert managed service provider?

Risk Assessment and planning

Conducting a risk assessment is critical for understanding a law firm’s needs. Your MSP wil identify compliance gaps, potential points of failure and vulnerabilities, and create action plans to help you address critical issues quickly.

A good MSP will operate with a collaborative approach, working closely with you to understand your unique security requirements and designing tailored strategies that align with your firm’s goals. This will ensure that you receive the most effective and efficient solutions for your firm, to safeguard its future.

Real-time security monitoring and reporting

Understanding the importance of active surveillance on a law firm’s IT infrastructure is crucial. By identifying and resolving issues early, you prevent them from becoming significant disruptions a little further down the line.

With applications such as Azure Defender, an MSP will continuously watch over your environment, promptly detecting and addressing any potential threats, before analysing the event and creating a workflow to stop similar incidents from reoccurring.

Baking in compliance

Law firms are ambitious businesses. They are constantly striving for growth and innovation, while trying to remain within the remit of strict regulation. Regulatory compliance doesn’t have to be an obstacle in their journey, however. An established MSP will not only bring their previous experience to the table, but collaborate with your in-house experts to understand your firm’s bespoke compliance needs.

Disaster recovery

If the worst does happen, then being able to keep your firm running in any given circumstance is one of the most important things you will ever do. You must have a disaster recovery plan in place that has been planned, developed and tested before the event so that it’s ready for action. There’s a lot that goes into an effective disaster recovery plan, which an MSP will guide you through.

Teaming up with an MSP that emphasises clear risk mitigation practices is a smart move for law firms in today’s digital world. With cyber threats always looming and the increasing importance of data security and compliance, having experts by your side is crucial.

This allows law firms to concentrate on their core competency – delivering legal services – while entrusting the intricate task of risk management to specialists who excel in protecting their digital assets and reputation.

 

If your law firm is ready to partner with an MSP who specialises in security, contact one of our security experts today, or discover how to leverage Microsoft to help better secure your firm with our dedicated 1:1 security workshop.

Paul Sells, CTO of Cloud Direct, shares his insight and experience on what it really means to partner with a cloud managed service provider.

Cloud computing has become an integral cog in the machine of many businesses, but managing cloud infrastructure and applications can be a complex and time-consuming task, especially for businesses that lack the necessary skills and resources. That’s why many businesses choose to partner with a cloud managed service provider (CMSP), who can take care of cloud operations and maintenance, freeing the business to focus on its core competencies and to drive innovation. 

Many of the benefits of partnering with a CMSP are well-known, such as round the clock support and assistance, access to additional skills/resources, to help deliver cost savings, scalability, security, compliance, and reliability. However, there are also some benefits that don’t steal the headlines, ones that can really add value to your business and give you a competitive edge. We think it’s high time we shout about them.

Insights into new technologies

Cloud technology is constantly evolving and introducing new features and capabilities. A good CMSP will help you stay updated and informed about the latest trends and innovations in the cloud market; a great CMSP will have forged close ties with cloud providers such as Microsoft. Through them, you will then have early access to new features and insights into upcoming changes, and the chance to evaluate and adopt the ones that are relevant and beneficial for your business. This can help you improve your products and services, enhance your customer experience, and gain a competitive advantage.

Cross-industry experience

Your chosen provider will typically work with clients from different industries and sectors and have exposure to various use cases and scenarios. This can give them a broader and deeper perspective on how to leverage cloud solutions for different business challenges and opportunities. By partnering with a CMSP, you can benefit from their cross-industry experience and insights and apply them to your own business context. 

An expansive network

A CMSP can help you connect with a diverse range of cloud partners and vendors that can offer you specialised solutions and services that complement your cloud strategy. For example, they can help you find the best managed security provider for your security & compliance needs, or the best networking provider for your connectivity requirements. A CMSP can also help you negotiate better deals and discounts with these partners and vendors, as they have established relationships and leverage in the cloud market. Often, they will have integrated their ITSM platforms and operations with that of the partner and be act as a single point of contact streamlining support and reducing vendor complexity. Remember, it’s often about who you know.

Targeted outcomes

A provider is not just a vendor who sells you cloud services and products – they are a partner who works with you to understand your business objectives and challenges, and design and deliver cloud solutions that are tailored to your specific needs and expectations. A CMSP is focused on delivering outcomes that matter to your business, such as improving efficiency, productivity, quality, customer satisfaction, and revenue.

An outside perspective

Sometimes, internal stakeholders may have conflicting interests and agendas when it comes to cloud decisions, such as which cloud provider to use, which services to adopt, and how to allocate the budget. This can lead to delays, inefficiencies, and suboptimal outcomes. By partnering with a CMSP, you can leverage their impartial and objective advice, based on their experience and best practices, and make decisions that are aligned with your business goals and needs, bypassing the hurdles of internal politics.

Upskilling

By working with a CMSP, your internal IT staff can learn from the experts and gain new skills and knowledge in cloud technologies to further improve their performance, satisfaction and, ultimately, retention. With these new skills, internal IT staff can start to deliver more value to the business. Upskilling could happen either formally or informally during the initial cloud adoption phase, during delivery of a specific project or organically during BAU operations. 

Shared learning

As Cloud Direct’s CTO, I regularly communicate with other CTOs within the customer base to exchange insights, understand goals, challenges and issues, and offer advice and knowledge based on my own experiences. Based on the feedback received, I can ensure our products and services match customers need and align with their strategy resulting in better overall outcomes. When customers and CMSP staff connect at all levels, they build mutual trust, close knowledge and lasting relationships that make the CMSP an extension to the business, all of which can, in turn, benefit your business.

Written by

Paul Sells
Chief Technology Officer, Cloud Direct
LinkedIn

 

You can level up your cloud strategy by partnering with a successful, experience cloud managed service provider like Cloud Direct. To find out more about how we can help you, let’s talk.

The cloud is not just a technology trend. It’s a total paradigm shift that impacts each and every aspect of your business. It enables you to access countless resources, to scale on demand, to innovate faster, and to deliver better customer experiences. But to realise these benefits, you need more than just a cloud strategy… you need a Cloud Operating Model.

Wait, what’s a Cloud Operating Model?

A Cloud Operating Model is a set of principles, practices, and processes that guide how you design, build, run, and govern your cloud-based applications and services. It covers everything from security, compliance and reliability, to performance, cost management, and automation. It also defines the roles, responsibilities, and required skills of your teams, and how they collaborate and communicate across the organisation.

Why is a Cloud Operating Model important to my business?

What makes a Cloud Operating Model so impactful is the alignment it enforces between your cloud adoption and your business objectives and outcomes. It helps you avoid common pitfalls such as silos, unnecessary complexity, damaging inefficiencies, and security risks. It also helps you leverage the full potential of the cloud, such as agility, scalability, innovation, and resilience.

Okay, so how do I create a Cloud Operating Model?

Creating a Cloud Operating Model is not a one-time project. It’s a continuous journey that requires a culture of learning and adaptation. As a starting point, you will need to tick off each of the following…

• Assess your current cloud maturity state and identify gaps and opportunities
• Define your vision and goals for your cloud adoption and how you will measure success
• Establish your cloud governance framework and policies to ensure compliance, security, and accountability
• Design your cloud architecture and infrastructure to support your applications and services
• Implement your cloud automation and DevOps practices to enable faster delivery and feedback
• Train and empower your teams with the skills and tools they need to work in the cloud
• Monitor and optimise your cloud performance, reliability, and costs
• Review and iterate your cloud operating model based on your feedback and learnings

Where can I find out more?

Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework documentation: This is the official Microsoft guide to help plan, implement, and govern your cloud journey. It covers all the domains and disciplines of the CAF framework, with best practices, tools, and templates.

Microsoft’s article on defining your Cloud Operating Model: The CAF framework breaks down each aspect of the operating model into methodologies and provides guidance on how to design and implement your future state operations.

Microsoft’s Cloud Operating Model assessment: This is an online tool that helps assess current cloud readiness and maturity, and provides recommendations and guidance based on the CAF framework. It also generates a personalised report and action plan to help you achieve your cloud goals.

So I need a Cloud Operating Model to make my cloud adoption a success?

In short, yes. A Cloud Operating Model is a key enabler for successful cloud adoption. By aligning your cloud strategy directly with your business outcomes, you will set yourself and your business up to unlock the transformative, innovative opportunities that the cloud presents.

Written by

Paul Sells
Chief Technology Officer, Cloud Direct
LinkedIn

 

For more content on Cloud Operating Models, visit the sub-section of our Learning Hub. If you’re looking to get started, then get in touch with one of our experts who can help you understand how to get started.

In November, Broadcom’s $69 billion acquisition of VMware raised eyebrows. In January, the announcement that 56 of VMware’s products and services would be axed raised alarm bells.

As part of a wider strategic shift away from end-user computing, which includes a move from component sales to subscription-based bundles, VMware will no longer offer Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) under Broadcom’s ownership. Thousands of organisations are set to be impacted by the termination of products such as VMware Horizon, which will reach end-of-life in January 2025.

The clock is ticking…

The countdown is on, and organisations have little choice but to act swiftly and smartly. Failure to do so will leave your business running on outdated, unsupported software platforms, posing enormous security risks yourself, your users and your customers.

Inaction could also see you lose any competitive or operational advantages you may have on others in your market. Business change takes time. Waiting until January 2025 to think you can quickly migrate your VDI is a surefire way to bring your business to its knees – your business continuity will be hampered, your performance will falter, and your reputation will be damaged.

To successfully transition from VMware Horizon to another VDI product, you have to start the ball rolling sooner rather than later.

What now?

As a Microsoft specialist and an Azure Expert Managed Service Provider, it won’t surprise you to hear us telling you that Azure Virtual Desktop is the logical replacement for VMware Horizon. But those are claims are not rooted in bias – we’ve got plenty of evidence to support them.

In Gartner’s most recent magic quadrant report assessing the Desktop-as-a-Service market, there was clear daylight between market-leading Microsoft its competitors, with Citrix and the ill-fated VMware the only other providers to place in the top-right quadrant.

What’s more is the simplicity of migrating your infrastructure to AVD, which makes integrating your existing VDI image into its new platform straightforward. The tools and processes that you are used to in Horizon all have adequate and, in most cases, improved replacements in AVD.

Your VMWare Horizon Connection Server will become the AVD Management Plane, for example, which facilitates the management, deployment and brokering of virtual desktops and applications. You’ll swap Horizon Composer for Image Management, which allows you to create custom images with the necessary configurations and applications as opposed to managing linked, cloned images. Instant Clones makes way for AVD Scaling, which enables you to dynamically adjust your number of virtual machines on demand, reducing or increasing them whenever you need to.

AVD will also allow your organisation to focus almost solely on Operational Expenditure, rather than having to balance it alongside Capital Expenditure. Not only is Microsoft’s offering much more cost effective, with its flexible pricing model allowing you to scale your VDI estate up and down as required, it can also be packaged within your existing Microsoft 365 Enterprise licenses. No server costs, no additional licensing, just an initial piece of hardware for the user, an internet connection, and an M365 license.

What are you waiting for?

The use cases of a cloud-based VDI like Microsoft Azure form an almost endless list. From hosting legacy applications and supporting temporary workloads, to remote work enablement, Bring Your Own Device support and disaster recovery functionality, AVD provides the tools your business needs to maintain, and grow, its competitive and operational advantages. With the clock counting down to January 2025, action must be taken now to ensure that business continuity is not impacted.

The news surrounding VMware Horizon has created stormy seas for businesses to try and navigate, but AVD can provide the safety of the shore on which you can build your new-and-improved virtual desktop infrastructure.

If you need a helping hand, think of Cloud Direct as your lighthouse. We’ll show you the way to a better, brighter business future in Microsoft Azure, and our experts can help make for a smooth, seamless transition.

 

To find out more about migrating from VMware Horizon to Azure Virtual Desktop, join Cloud Direct’s Principal Cloud Evangelist, Leon Godwin, in our free webinar on Thursday 29^th February. Click the link or the image to sign up.

 

 

In November, Broadcom’s $69 billion acquisition of VMWare raised eyebrows. In January, the announcement that 56 of VMWare’s products and services would be axed raised alarm bells. That long list of offerings included VMWare Horizon, a popular product among many law firms that will now no longer be available to provide them with virtual desktop infrastructure.

Law firms must act now to avoid being caught short when Horizon is terminated in January 2025. The logical solution is undergoing a migration to Microsoft Azure, which many organisations turned to as the call for remote work gained momentum during the Covid-19 pandemic. This provided them access to Azure Virtual Desktop, giving lawyers the opportunity to embrace a hybrid working model.

However, a survey by The Law Society Gazette found that only 17 per cent of in-house lawyers work under a hybrid model,  and there is a continued appetite amongst in-house lawyers in the UK to be able to work from home. A Microsoft Azure migration, and subsequently Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), is the stone to take care of both birds.

AVD is suitable for law firms of all sizes, and comes with a wide range of benefits from better cost efficiencies and improved collaboration, to greater agility and increased data security amongst many others. Let’s explore them each in a bit more detail.

Data security

Transferring your law firm’s data into Azure Virtual Desktop eliminates the potential risks associated with hardware tampering, loss, or theft.

AVD is built on the same security framework as Microsoft Azure, ensuring that you can fully leverage the advantages of identity management, backup, database security and more.

It’s important to highlight that Microsoft commits more than $1 billion each year to reinforce its security measures, supported by a team of over 3,500 security experts that are dedicated to enhancing your law firm’s security. Azure has more compliance certifications than any over cloud service provider, meaning you have access to the latest and greatest security tools available.

Access from anywhere

Enhanced collaboration, productivity and flexibility are among the most requested job factors from lawyers.

The challenge of allowing employees to work from any device is now a thing of the past. With AVD, employees can work from anywhere – whether that’s at a café, office, or home – because they can power up and log in to their desktop, gaining access to crucial business applications regardless of the device, as long as there’s an internet connection.

AVD empowers you to select the ideal Azure Virtual Machine (VM) that aligns with your firm’s requirements and to take advantage of Windows 11 multi-session, an exclusive feature in Azure. This capability allows you to efficiently run multiple concurrent interactive user sessions within the same deployment for increased cost-effectiveness.

Improved business resilience

If there’s one takeaway from the recent global pandemic, it’s that the future can be difficult to predict. Should the business landscape change so drastically again, AVD will enable business continuity. Law firm employees will be able to connect remotely and securely access data as everything will be available on the VM in the cloud.

Lower hardware costs

Virtual Desktops can slash expenses from the get-go with minimal costs, if the server is already up and running. You can also forget about any expensive hardware that requires specific software and licences, but it doesn’t stop there. There’s additional savings to be made later down the line too, when you’ll be able to streamline any upgrades, reducing the time IT spend repeating the same upgrade across different devices. Plus, you’ll have the ability to use existing Windows and Microsoft 365 licences to access AVD.

With the money saved from implementing AVD, your business will be able to reinvest in improving business operations and your future IT strategy.

Streamlined user administration

Administration becomes more efficient and time effective with AVD when introducing new software or allocating laptops to new employees. All tasks are conveniently managed through a unified administrative console.

With AVD, handling employee departures also becomes more efficient – their account is deleted following the transfer of data to another user, and the same physical machine can then be assigned to any new employee, delivering access to a virtual desktop pre-set with the correct apps and access rights.

Simpler licensing model

The licensing process for cloud-based desktop used to a challenge, needing at least three different types of licences, but AVD has simplified this process significantly. Now, you’ll just require a single license for each virtual machine, and if you’re already part of the Microsoft 365 subscription, chances are you’re covered. This not only simplifies the licensing process but also brings down costs.

Scaling up and down has never been easier

AVD’s cost savings go beyond licensing, offering the ability to scale your infrastructure rapidly based on business needs. This ensures efficiency not only in resource utilisation but also in cost management. The centralised AVD portal facilitates tasks like configuring networks, deploying desktops, and fortifying security for employees, all achievable with just a few clicks. A solution that’s simpler, safer, and cheaper – can you see where this is going?

The advantages of adopting Azure Virtual Desktop are countless. Implementation of AVD offers you the flexibility that is essential for continuing to grow your business and set yourself apart from your competitors. Ready to dive in? Get in contact with our experts to discover more about the power of Azure Virtual Desktop.

In an era marked by technological advancement, AI has emerged as a powerful tool that takes us beyond our everyday ways of working. Quite often when we think of AI, its associated with big-budget corporations that are throwing enormous resources into innovation and improved efficiencies.

But the impact of AI has been making waves elsewhere – and for good reason.

In the nonprofit sector, which is often tasked with making the biggest impact with limited resources, AI is quickly gaining momentum as a force for good, and is starting to play a pivotal role in helping nonprofits achieve their mission and address pressing global challenges.

AI for Optimisation and Efficiency

One of the first things you might think about when it comes to AI is ‘how can I use it in my job role to make it easier’. There’s no harm in thinking about how AI can make your job easier,  but it’s also important to look at the bigger picture for your nonprofit, and consider how it can be used to streamline processes and make them more efficient – so there’s more time for everyone to focus on the mission.

There are a few different ways in which AI can help optimise your processes:

• AI-driven chatbots can help with internal queries, routine questions and support requests, which will free up teams to focus on more strategic tasks that align with their mission.
• Internal time-consuming and repetitive tasks can be moved into automated workflows with AI – so the team have more time to focus on more impactful tasks.
• Automated expense tracking and budgeting processes will allow your finance team to analyse spending patterns, identify cost-savings, and better adhere to budgets.
• Using AI to analyse document content will make it easier for your team to find relevant information quickly.
• For your volunteer teams, AI can be used to analyse their schedules to automatically coordinate internal meetings and their volunteer activities.

…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

AI in Data Analytics and Insights

As a nonprofit, your data can be your biggest asset. Knowing how to leverage this data with AI is essential to ensuring that you can evaluate the great work that you are doing in your communities – and do more of it. From improved decision-making to impact measurement and donor engagement, your data’s power is far-reaching.

By using AI for data analytics and insights, you can…

• Track progress data on your programs, so that you can monitor their performance and outcomes to adjust the programs for better results.
• Assess historical data and identify areas where resources are most needed, ensuring sufficient use of your funds and volunteers.
• Forecast future needs in their communities with predictive analytics, helping in proactive decision-making and resource allocation.
• Assess the societal impact of nonprofit initiatives by measuring efforts and outcomes to ensure continued success in their programs.

Using AI-driven data analytics is a robust way for nonprofits to reinforce the good work that they are doing, and to continue making a positive impact on the communities they serve. By better understanding where your team’s time is making the biggest difference, what services are under-resourced or which sections of your community aren’t being served adequately, you will only become a better, more impactful, nonprofit.

AI in Fundraising and Donor Engagement

Nonprofits rely on donors to ensure that they have the funds to continue the great work that they are doing – but now, more than ever before, funds are limited. Nonprofits need to find ways of using technology to enhance their donor stewardship.

There are plenty of ways in which AI can help with donor engagement and fundraising:

• AI enables nonprofits to analyse donor behaviour, preferences and giving patterns. With this information, organisations can optimise fundraising strategies, improve donor engagement, and enhance the overall donor experience.
• Nonprofits can use AI and data tools to identify specific target donor groups and create more tailored services and communications, such as personalised thank you messages and acknowledgements.
• In combination with technologies like blockchain, AI can allow for transparent and secure donation transactions which ensure that donors can track how their contributions are being used and reinforces trust in the fundraising process.
• AI can be employed to analyse your data and create dynamic pricing models. By analysing historical data and donor behaviour, AI can suggest personalised donor amounts, increasing the likelihood of your donor commitments.

Improvements in donor stewardship are quite often top of the list of areas that nonprofits want to focus on. AI, used in the right way, can be instrumental in ensuring that nonprofits have an effective donor stewardship program – one that is not only more efficient, but also drives greater levels of donation.

Ethical Considerations for Responsible AI Adoption

The ethical considerations surrounding AI in this sector differ significantly from those in the for-profit space. Stakeholders have different motivations in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors and while both face common challenges, the former operates within a unique landscape that requires some extra consideration.

• AI systems are only as fair as the data they use. Nonprofits should ensure that their data is inclusive and representative to avoid bias, inequality, and discrimination.
• As many nonprofits will be dealing with sensitive personal data from their communities, it’s critical that data protection controls are documented and followed meticulously. They must also ensure that they are operating in a safe, secure and enclosed environment that does not share their data with third-party platforms.
• AI is fast-changing, and nonprofits should ensure that they are staying informed with the evolving regulatory landscape. Have conversations with experts, attend events and communicate changes internally to help you stay compliant.
• Address the common fears that AI and automation can replace jobs by offering staff upskilling and retraining opportunities, as well as being clear and forthcoming in your internal communications concerning the changes.

There are a multitude of ways in which nonprofits can start to use AI technology as a force for good – from optimising processes by tapping into data analytics and insights,  to enhancing fundraising drives and donor engagement levels. The possibilities are endless with data and AI tools, and they aren’t reserved for those big-budget corporations. These opportunities are well within reach for your nonprofit, and we can help you on your way.

Are you ready to start adopting AI for your nonprofit?

At Cloud Direct, we understand that using data and AI can be crucial to the success of your nonprofit’s mission. As a leading UK Microsoft Solutions Partner and Azure Expert Managed Service Provider, we can assist you in your digital transformation journey and provide access to Microsoft nonprofit resources and funding.

From Azure migration to building a sound data strategy and implementing key Microsoft AI services such as OpenAI, Copilot, Power BI and more, our experts can help kickstart your data and AI journey in the cloud. Get in touch today to find out more, or book a free 1:1 Data and AI Innovation Workshop for a tailored assessment of your AI potential.

Many industries fall under the retail umbrella, from consumer goods and manufacturing to travel and tourism and automotive, but they all have something in common – wanting to provide a seamless customer experience. With stiff competition across all sectors, the customer experience you provide stands out as a crucial differentiator for success.

As technology continues to shape the industry, retail businesses find themselves at a crossroads of delivering high-end customer satisfaction while adopting new and innovative technologies. Those retailers that embrace the power of data and AI in their digital transformation journeys are discovering new ways to elevate their customer experiences.

There are a whole host of reasons as to why you should start leveraging your data and the capabilities of artificial intelligence to revolutionise the way you engage with customers. We’ve picked out five key considerations.

Customer Personalisation

Data and AI can play a crucial role in helping retailers to personalise their offerings and enhance the overall customer experience. By analysing customer data, including past purchases, preferences, and online behaviours, retailers can tailor recommendations and promotions to individual shoppers. With AI, algorithms can use this data to suggest relevant products to customers which can increase the likelihood of cross-selling or upselling.

With the same data, personalised loyalty programmes can be created. You can analyse customer behaviour to offer personal rewards, discounts, or incentives to customers based on their preferences and habits. By leveraging AI and data, you can start to rise above the competition by creating personalised and targeted experiences, which leads to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and improved business outcomes.

Inventory Management

To maintain a positive customer experience, a retailer needs to ensure that its inventory and offerings are well-managed and meet customer demand. The data you have, combined with artificial intelligence, can help ensure sure you always meet these demands. For an online fashion retailer, for example, an automated platform could analyse historical sales data, seasonality patterns and shopping trends to accurately forecast demand. This can help prevent low stock and also reduce excess inventory, minimising waste and improving efficiency.

Another example would be supply chain optimisation.  Wholesalers can use real-time data, customer demand patterns and inventory levels to help to optimise their supply chains by identifying any issues, predicting delivery times, and streamlining logistics. This ensures wholesale inventory is on time and always in stock.

Omnichannel Experience

Most consumers come to expect a consistent experience across the various channels of interaction within a retailer. With AI, you can start to create a pivotal omnichannel experience for their customers. By using data from different touchpoints, retailers can start to gain a comprehensive understanding of the journey that a customer takes, which allows them to then provide consistent and personalised interactions across the various channels – offering targeted promotions in an email based on their in-store sales history, for example.

By leveraging AI and data, retailers can break down the silos between different channels and start to deliver an improved and more personalised omnichannel customer experience, with a journey that meets customer expectations and promotes brand loyalty.

Cybersecurity

Retail organisations often hold vast amounts customer data on record, which can make them prime candidates for cyber-attacks and security breaches. Like at many other types of businesses that are already benefitting from  it, data and AI can play a key role in enhancing the security of transactions.

AI systems can analyse patterns of customer behavior which can help to identify potentially fraudulent activity in real-time. This approach helps both protect customers and the retailer from the financial and reputational damage associated with fraud. For example, in automotive retailers, who process large payments, AI can help to detect and prevent fraudulent activity during the transaction process, ensuring secure and trustworthy payments.

Chatbots for Enhanced Customer Support

Many large consumer goods retailers are already using chatbots to provide instant support, so customer support teams have more time for other, more labour intensive work. With the  creation chatbots now more accessible than ever before, smaller retailers need to realise their benefit to the customer experience.

Chatbots can provide around-the-clock assistance, resolving simple queries and questions at any time of day. These chatbots can be programmed to handle routine tasks, answer frequently asked questions, and guide customers through common issues – all powered by historical data that it is given access to. They can help to improve response time and also free up human resources to focus on more complex and personalised customer interactions, leading to a more satisfied customer service experience.

Whether you are a consumer goods retailer, wholesaler, travel and tourism business or any other type of retail and goods business, the benefit of artificial intelligence on the customer experience is plain to see. From creating new chatbots to personalised customer offers and promotions, AI is leading the way in ensuring that your business is fostering an excellent customer experience.

Are you ready to take this next step in your digital transformation journey?

What can you do next?

At Cloud Direct, we know that using data and AI will be crucial to the long-term success of your retail organisation. As a leading UK Microsoft Solutions Partner and Azure Expert Managed Service Provider, we can assist you in your digital transformation journey.

Whether you’re at the forefront of innovation or just starting out on your digital transformation journey, our experts are here to help you make the most of technology – so let’s talk.

For many local and regional governments in the UK, the ‘do more with less’ slogan is becoming more and more pertinent. Many councils are being told to limit their spending but still achieve high levels of satisfaction with the public services that they offer. One key element of spending that is being impacted is IT and its infrastructure, which forms the backbone of many public services.

The advances in cloud technology mean that council IT leaders can begin to explore alternative cost-effective solutions to counteract the cost and inefficiency of on-premise systems. Cloud technology is often less costly, more secure, offers greater scalability and, for councils, can help to streamline and join up public services that are rooted in innovative data and AI systems.

To reach this end goal, councils need to embrace a digital-first approach and start to break away from legacy systems, taking a cloud-first approach and embracing data and AI. But how do you get started?

The Digital-First Approach

A digital-first approach is not just a technological shift; it’s a strategic mindset that puts local and regional councils in a position to thrive in the digital landscape. As stewards of public services, they are increasingly recognising the importance of embracing digital transformation, particularly through the use of cloud technology and new data and AI systems. A digital-first approach not only recognises the importance of such technology but also the encompassing impact that this new tech can have on all areas of the council. A digital-first approach is a strategic imperative that can enhance efficiency, improve public services, and help foster innovation across the whole organisation.

• With this new approach, a council can start to streamline internal processes, reduce paperwork and manual interventions, and give more time back to its teams. Automated workflows, digital communication channels and data-driven decision-making contribute to operational efficiency, allowing public resources to be allocated more effectively.
• Prioritising digital channels for public services leads to improved delivery. Online platforms, mobile applications, and other digital communication tools provide people with convenient and accessible ways to get information, engage with council services and provide feedback.
• Leveraging the power of data and AI empowers councils to make more informed decisions. By analysing vast amounts of data, a council can identify trends, anticipate the public’s needs, and optimise its services.

Cloud technology can act as a key catalyst to embracing this digital-first approach. For example, Microsoft Azure integration can offer complete flexibility, be cost-effective, has robust security and has a comprehensive set of AI and data tools at your fingertips, such as Copilot, Power BI, and much, much more.

Key Considerations

Embracing digital transformation and making the most of their vast quantities of data  holds great potential for local and regional councils. By prioritising data governance and security, investing in infrastructure, fostering upskilling programmes and engaging effectively with stakeholders, councils can pave the way for smarter and more efficient public services.

Data governance

Robust data governance underlines any successful data and AI initiative. Councils must establish clear policies for data collection, storing and sharing to make sure they meet all regulatory requirements. Maintaining high standards of data quality will enhance the accuracy and reliability of insights from AI, leading to improved public service offerings.

Infrastructure

Taking the time to invest in modern and flexible cloud infrastructure is essential for councils to get the most from their data. Cloud solutions, which include secure data warehouses, can help with creating a seamless integration between different public services. A well-built infrastructure allows for the efficient use of data for AI and analytics tools.

Upskilling

For a successful digital-first approach, local councils will need to consider upskilling their workforce to  help overcome anxiety and job insecurity amongst their staff. Investing in team training in data analytics, AI and related technologies will ensure that a council has the necessary skillsets to get meaningful insights from their data. Upskilling is key to fostering a culture of innovation within your teams.

Stakeholder engagement

Good communication with council stakeholders is important when implementing new digital solutions. Engaging with internal stakeholders creates a sense of inclusion and transparency, and being able to demonstrate the benefits of data and AI as part of your business case helps to improve stakeholder support and adoption.

Ethics of AI

As a council IT leader, it’s important to consider the ethical implications of using data and AI systems. As part of your business case, make sure to create ethical guidelines for data usage and storage, ensuring fairness in AI and avoiding bias in these processes. Sticking to these ethical standards not only safeguards your information and the reputation of your council, but also promotes responsible data and AI usage.

A digital-first approach is not just a technology shift, it’s a change of strategic mindset that can help local and regional councils thrive in the new digital landscape. By prioritising infrastructure, public services and embracing new data and AI solutions, councils can pave the way for better and more cohesive public services. These key considerations outline a roadmap for councils that are looking to embark on this transformation journey – and we can help you get started.

Want to join other councils on this journey?

At Cloud Direct, we understand that using data and AI can be crucial to the success of public services in your council. As a leading UK Microsoft Solutions Partner and Azure Expert Managed Service Provider, we can assist you in your digital transformation journey and provide access to Microsoft nonprofit resources.

From your initial Azure migration to building a sound data strategy and implementing key Microsoft AI services such as OpenAI, Copilot, Power BI and more, our experts can help you kickstart your data and AI journey in the cloud. Get in touch today and find out more or book a free 1:1 Data and AI Innovation Workshop.

The legal sector is historically known for its cautious approach to implementing new technology. However, at Cloud Direct we’ve seen this industry fuelling the demand for Desktop as a Service products, signalling a balancing act between maintaining core legacy systems, whilst embracing some of the advantages of cloud-based solutions.

Cloud migrations can be expensive, and aren’t necessarily a viable solution for all law firms – but that doesn’t mean they’re forced to stick with the status quo. Microsoft’s solution is Azure Virtual Desktops, which enables firms to enhance security, scalability, integration and innovation, all in a cost-effective and accessible manner.

What are legacy applications?

A legacy application refers to a piece of software or a system that was created using older programming languages and technologies and may no longer be actively maintained or supported by the original developers.

Traditionally, legacy applications are installed on a single device and store the data on that computer, meaning devices will need to be manually backed up, encrypted and password protected by IT Teams, taking time and consuming internal resources, while also being a single point of failure.

Despite this issue, law firms continue to rely on legacy applications because they are essential for their day-to-day operations and migrating to newer systems can often seem equally time consuming, complex, and expensive.

What is Azure Virtual Desktop?

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is a complete desktop and application virtualisation solution that runs on the cloud. In the past, virtual desktop solutions have been complex and expensive to set up and manage, making them inaccessible to most small and medium-sized businesses.

By using Microsoft’s extensive cloud platform, AVD changes that. Instead, it’s a cost-effective solution that is easy to deploy, configure and scale. Like all Microsoft Cloud Services, it’s completely flexible to your specific business needs, making it the perfect solution for your firm.

Modernising legacy applications with AVD

Through a virtualised, cloud-based desktop environment, AVD offers secure access to legacy applications. It provides the capability to manage and control access to these applications from any location, device or platform while ensuring the continuous security of your firm’s data.

Applications can be deployed in the cloud, eliminating the burden of managing physical hardware. This enables lawyers to have the freedom to access applications from any location, neglecting the need for additional investment in hardware.

A virtual machine is needed to run legacy applications but, as soon as this is complete, the application can be deployed in the cloud and lawyers can access it from any device or platform.

Ultimately, it’s crucial to configure AVD to ensure the safety of the data. This involves setting up user authentication, authorisation policies and implementing encryption protocols. These security measures facilitates law firms in keeping legacy applications secure and up-to-date.

The benefits of application modernisation

Security

Security stands as a top priority for law firms as they manage clients’ confidential information and personal data. Enhancing security protocols during the application modernisation process, with tools such as multi-factor authentication, can elevate the level of difficulty for bad actors attempting to infiltrate and access sensitive information.

Modernisation

Modernisation not only revitalises the application but also amplifies its agility. This ensures greater responsiveness and adaptability to changing circumstances, making it effortless to introduce new features and functionalities, as well as implement reactive changes and necessary improvements swiftly and seamlessly.

Reliability

The reliability of the application sees improvement through modernisation as it facilitates the quick identification and resolution of bugs or glitches. It also ensures there is no single point of failure – a fault  with a single server will no longer bring the firm to a complete standstill. This, in turn, minimises downtimes and ensures a smooth and efficient operation of the application.

Want to find out more about Azure Virtual Desktop? Talk to the experts.

The benefits of Azure Virtual Desktop are endless – especially when it comes to modernising legacy applications for your law firm.

If you want to find out more about Azure Virtual Desktop or have any burning questions, then you’re in luck. Microsoft has identified us as one of a handful of Azure Virtual Desktop Specialist Partners.

Whether you’re in the cloud or on-premise, you will have an Operating Model in place that defines how technology supports your business – but when was it last updated? In 2020, 87 per cent of CEOs expected their operating models to change in the three years that followed as they delved deeper into the world of digital transformation. But the importance of updating it promptly can often be overlooked, which will only hinder your ability to achieve long-term technology operation success.

For those that have already migrated their servers to the cloud, has that change been reflected in your operating model? And for the businesses that are looking to migrate in 2024, what considerations should be made when adopting a Cloud Operating Model?

What is a Cloud Operating Model?

Microsoft defines a Cloud Operating Model as ‘the collection of processes and procedures that define how you want to operate technology in the cloud.’ After detailing your Cloud Strategy, the Cloud Operating Model will provide a high-level representation of how your business will deliver on that strategy, breaking each section down into individual methodologies.

Operating Models have been around for decades as teams have always had to define how technology would support their business. However, while some processes may remain relevant from your legacy Operating Model when you migrate to the cloud, many will change and impact the way your IT team operates.

What you should consider

When migrating to the cloud, it’s important to consider the processes you currently have in place and how they will change once you’ve migrated. There’s a lot to look at, and potentially a lot of changes to make in order to ensure successful long-term cloud adoption, so our team has been busy identifying the seven key considerations you should be making when building a Cloud Operating Model.

People

When you’re in the cloud, the skills your IT team needs will change dramatically. Gone are the days that required boots on the ground to physically maintain and manage your on-premise infrastructure. Instead, your team will need to be adept at monitoring a cloud environment, either themselves or with the support of a Cloud Provider, and will need to want to work with cutting edge technology to drive business innovation. The benefit of hiring the best cloud talent is that often you can upskill the resource and reallocate to different functions to drive competitive advantage and ultimately improve business performance, increase revenue, enhance customer experience – but your current team should not be overlooked, and upskilling and training programmes should be considered.

Technology

When transitioning to an Operating Model that’s geared up to support your cloud environment, it’s important that you consider how your tools and technology will change, along with how you support that. This can be broken down into three key areas:

• Infrastructure: When you’re on-premise, your infrastructure is restrictive and inflexible. Network connectivity is configured traditionally and reporting and analytics are limited. When you move to cloud you will benefit from an increase in the number of compute nodes as they can be spun up almost instantly, and in vast quantities. This provides a more dynamic environment, but requires more consistent oversight to ensure that you are extracting the maximum ROI from your technology.
• Physical servers: In the cloud you’ll need to adopt virtual machines, and more of them than you had physical servers. You’ll have to ensure you have new processes for people and technology to keep track of these.
• Analytics: On-premise offers limited analytics solutions and therefore limited insights. In the cloud, you’ll be able to gain more business insights from its wealth of analytics capabilities, but in turn you will need a add deeper analytical skills and expertise to your team.

Processes

Your full list of business processes is likely innumerable, making it one of the biggest areas of consideration when adopting a Cloud Operating Model. Moving to a cloud environment will impact on areas of your business that you may not have thought would be changed, so make sure you consider each of the following.

• Procurement: Not only will never products and services you procure need to be compatible with the cloud, you will also need to begin procuring suppliers and providers in new areas – starting with a Cloud Vendor, who will help your business make a smooth, seamless transition to the cloud.
• Problem management: On-premise problem management is a very hands-on process with lots of patching, troubleshooting and hardware replacement. However, when you’re in the cloud, there’s a greater focus on solving connectivity, availability, and configuration – your cloud provider will resolve any infrastructure problems.
• Ticket management: This will change from a manual tracking of issues with communication from the IT department to streamlined, automated systems that can be quickly escalated to the relevant teams, decreasing resolution times and reducing the impact of disruptions.
• Identity management: The way in which your team accesses its servers will change drastically to ensure your data remains safe and secure. You’ll need more than a key to gain access, so your Cloud Operating Model should include considerations like multi-factor authentication and trusted networks.
• Change management: This becomes a much more dynamic process in the cloud as your provider will assist with any updates or upgrades. It will Minimise disruption to users, and allow you to allocate some resources elsewhere.
• Data sovereignty: When you’re managing on-premise datacentres, you are fully responsible for that. In the cloud that changes to a shared responsibility between your business and your Cloud Provider, meaning your Compliance team would need to adapt your approach to continue adhering to regulations.
• Backup & Data Recovery: In an on-premise world, you would have had to invest quite a lot of time, effort and money in backups for datacentre upgrades, repairs, and maintenance. In the cloud, this is all automated at a much lower cost and allows for data recovery from a wide range of locations. Giving you peace of mind.

Finance

Your finances and how you manage them will change considerably when your business is in the cloud, so be prepared.

CapEx to OpEx: The biggest change will be moving away from Capital Expenditure (CapEx), where you spend a lot upfront on hardware with potentially significant Operational Expenditure (OpEx)on maintenance, which leads to an inflexible financial strategy. When in the cloud you prioritise OpEx spending, which can be scaled efficiently and spread over many financial periods, with fewer areas of spend – the Cloud Provider covers maintenance and other costs. However, we recommend that this is paired with a FinOps strategy to ensure investments are managed effectively, and the financial benefits of cloud are fully realised.

Operational expenditure drops: When in the cloud, you will notice that your operational costs will drop significantly. These costs are baked into the cloud pricing and the responsibility of these tasks are performed by your cloud vendor, giving you greater flexibility to reinvest any leftover budget.

Moving to a Cloud Operating Model will enable you to ultimately move from an inflexible financial strategy to an agile one, so it’s a great time to factor in how you can use that to your advantage and invest in innovation.

Security and Governance

When you shift to the cloud, the parameters in which attackers can target increase as you move from needing physical access to attack to digital. With this in mind, it’s advisable to adopt a Zero Trust approach. This requires a change in mindset – instead of assuming everything behind your firewall is safe, you should assume breach and verify each request as it comes from an open network. Zero Trust encourages you “never trust, always verify”, meaning cyberattacks don’t slip through the gaps. With a Zero Trust approach, there will be more of a focus on identity management, and while this can be quite a large configuration task as part of your migration, there are plenty of tools that come with your Azure platform from Microsoft, ready for you to adopt in order to follow a Zero Trust approach.

Timescale

It’s no secret that the cloud improves business and IT agility by speeding up processes. Slow timescales and mundane processes will be a thing of the past once you have shifted your Operating Model to the cloud, but be sure to consider the following process changes.

• Instant access to adopting new IT: The beauty of the cloud is the being able to adopt new technologies almost instantly, allowing your teams to start innovating quicker than ever before.
• Maintenance updates: There’s no longer the need for an internal IT team to manually maintain and update your infrastructure. When you move to cloud, your infrastructure will be maintained by your Cloud Vendor, which results in quicker updates due to their expertise and the scale at which they operate.
• Development cycles: When you’re in the cloud you can adopt tools to help you move away from traditional development methods to DevOps. This allows you to efficiently respond to customer needs and build applications quicker than ever before.
• Hardware refresh: On-premise hardware refresh cycles often end up being long and drawn-out processes that happen every few years, which are often locked in as soon as the decision is made. When your Operating Model is in the cloud you will have a near-constant view on various metrics that will dictate what scaling and flexibility is required, allowing you to optimise your cloud environment and maximise your investment.

Strategy

Finally, your Cloud Strategy is what brings everything together to integrate it with your wider business strategy, rather than having separate and often conflicting approaches. While the IT team is largely responsible for managing your cloud environment, it’s a business decision to migrate to cloud and therefore should be part of a strategic business strategy and way of working. The IT Team will move away from focusing on just keeping the lights on, to leveraging the latest technology to drive business optimisation and innovation.

Looking to shift to a Cloud Operating Model?

Are you looking to adopt a Cloud Operating Model, but not sure where to start? These seven considerations will get you going in the right direction, but when it comes to migrating it’s important that you have a Managed Service Provider in place that takes time to help you understand your long-term strategic goals and align your Cloud Operating Model with the needs and requirements of your business.

Simply get in touch with our Azure experts to help you start your successful cloud migration.

By 10 October 2023, Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 will no longer receive extended support, posing potential risks to your infrastructure and applications. It is essential to consider upgrading or migrating to a supported version to maintain security and reliability. 

To prevent security breaches and ensure you remain compliant with industry regulations, now is the optimal time to start planning your migration in order to mitigate these risks. This process will involve migrating your workloads to newer, supported versions, such as Windows Server 2022, or purchasing Extended Security Updates (ESUs). 

One of the primary concerns arising from the end of Windows Server 2012 support is that your business will lose compliance with PCI, GDPR, and other relevant regulatory agencies. With the cessation of support, your applications and infrastructure will no longer receive updates or vendor support, automatically rendering your business non-compliant.  

Once the support for Windows Server 12 ends, your organisation will lose the capability to receive support in case of a security threat. With no dependable vendor to offer assistance, your business will become vulnerable to potential security threats.  

By delaying the migration or upgrade from Windows Server 2012 until the last minute, you will be left without a secure solution in place by the time support ends. It is essential to plan to prevent security breaches and loss of reputation.  

Migrating to Microsoft Azure 

You have the option to migrate your applications and databases to various solutions in Azure, such as Azure VMware Solution, Azure Stack HCI, Virtual Machines, and Dedicated Host. By doing so, you become eligible to receive free ESUs for three years after October 10, 2023. Additionally, you can take advantage of the Azure Hybrid Benefit, which allows you to apply your existing Windows Server and SQL Server licenses. This provides a cost-effective and efficient way to maintain security, as well as compliance, while benefiting from the capabilities of Microsoft Azure’s cloud services. 

Remain on-premises and upgrade to Windows Server 2022 

If your business requires an on-premise solution, there are two options. Firstly, you can upgrade to Windows Server 2022, which will provide you with the latest security updates and features. Alternatively, you can purchase ESUs for Windows Server 2012 which will grant you three years of continued security updates. The ESUs are renewable on an annual basis until 13 October 2026.  

For seamless management and enhanced security, you can use Azure Arc, which allows Microsoft to automatically deploy the purchased ESUs on your on-premise infrastructure. Furthermore, Azure Arc enables the extension of Azure’s security and governance features to your on-premise environment, providing your firm with a comprehensive and integrated solution. 

What is the next step? 

Change can be overwhelming, and planning your migration strategy can be a complex task. However, the key is to understand the options you have, make an informed decision and pursue the right technology for your business.

Our cloud migration assessment offers a comprehensive evaluation of the technical and economic aspects involved in transitioning to Azure. This assessment provides you with a strategic roadmap and a detailed business case for migrating your on-premise infrastructure to Microsoft Azure.  

Additionally, as an established Azure Expert Managed Service Provider, we have access to Microsoft assessments and funding to help you on every step of your Azure journey.

Data is shaping the world. It is having a profound impact on businesses, governments, charities and individuals alike,  changing the way we live, work, talk, share, sleep, interact and learn. For businesses and charities it is helping to improve their products and services, allowing them to make better decisions and target their marketing more effectively, while governments are improving public services and making better policy decisions. Individuals, meanwhile, are able to make better financial decisions, stay healthy, and connect with friends and family.

The growth of data is evident:

• The amount of data created in the world doubles every two years
• By 2025, the world will have generated 175 zettabytes of data
• 90 per cent of the world’s current data has been created in the last two years
• 70 per cent of all data is unstructured
• 80 per cent of all data resides in the cloud

The amount of data available to businesses is growing at an unprecedented rate. This is accelerating a new era of data-driven decision-making, with those that can harness the true power of data putting themselves at a significant competitive advantage.

The growth of data is a major challenge – just think of the storage required – but it also presents a great opportunity. By harnessing the power of data, we can create a better future for ourselves and for the world. This new paradigm necessitates a shift towards data-driven decision making, powered by robust technologies like the Microsoft Cloud technology stack.

The Microsoft Cloud technology stack, which consists of services such as Azure, Power BI, and Microsoft 365, provides comprehensive tools that enable businesses to harness the power of their data effectively. Let’s explore how businesses can leverage these tools to extract meaningful insights and drive informed business decisions.

 

Utilising Azure for data storage and management

We firmly believe that Microsoft Azure stands head and shoulders above the rest as a premier cloud computing service – that why we do what we do. The data storage, analytics, and machine learning capabilities it offers are unparalleled.

When it comes to driving business decisions with data, there is no denying the sheer importance of data quality, its ease of accessibility, and its effective management. Azure not only meets these requirements – it smashes them out of the park while offering scalable storage solutions that adjust effortlessly to your business needs.

The list goes on – its data management capabilities are nothing short of stellar, allowing for streamlined and efficient data handling, and its advanced data analytics tools are a true game-changer, providing the power to extract meaningful insights from your data. Azure is the gold standard in the realm of cloud computing services.

Azure is the world leader for reliable, scalable and secure data storage platforms. By utilising the following technologies, it will transform how your business handles, stores and maximises its data.

• Azure Blob Storage is a highly scalable and durable object storage service that can be used to store any type of unstructured data, such as images, videos, and text files. This benefits from unrivalled scalability and durability to meet the needs of even the most demanding workloads and events.
• Azure SQL Database is a highly reliable platform, with a 99.9 per cent uptime service level agreement. It provides a relational database service that can be used to store and manage more structured data, making it a good choice for storing data that needs to be accessed and referenced frequently.
• Azure Data Lake Storage is a scalable and secure data lake storage service that can be used to store and manage both structured and unstructured data. It’s a great choice for storing large amounts of data that need to be processed in a variety of ways.

 

Leveraging Power BI for data visualisation

Being able to visualise your data truly unlocks its potential, making understanding complex datasets and extracting meaningful insights a much simpler process. Microsoft Power BI is a business analytics tool that crafts raw data into understandable and visually appealing information.

By integrating Power BI with Azure, companies can create interactive dashboards and reports that present real-time insights into business operations. This visual representation allows for easier interpretation of data, which leads to quicker and more accurate decision-making.

 

Creating interactive dashboards

• Power BI dashboards allow users to interact with data in real time. This means that users can drill down into data, filter it, and slice it to see different perspectives with a level of interactivity the helps users to better understand the data and, ultimately, make more informed decisions.
• Power BI offers a variety of data visualisations that can be used to represent data in engaging ways for a variety of audiences.

 

Improve collaboration with Microsoft 365 and Power Platform

You shouldn’t make business-critical decisions alone – and with Microsoft 365’s range of cloud-based productivity tools, there’s no need to:

• Microsoft Planner is a task management tool that can be used to create and track tasks. You can assign tasks to team members, set deadlines, and track their progress, helping to keep everyone on the same page and ensure that projects are completed on time. For example, a sales team can use Microsoft Planner to create a task management plan for a new sales campaign, helping the team to stay on track and to meet their sales goals.
• Microsoft Power Automate is a low-code/no-code automation platform that can be used to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up time for team members to focus on more important tasks. A finance team could, for example, use Power Automate to create a workflow that automatically extracts data from financial reports, which can then be used to create new reports and dashboards that enable better financial decision making.
• Microsoft SharePoint is a document management system that can be used to store, organise, and share documents in collaborative workspaces. This can help to improve efficiency and reduce the risk of losing important documents. This could be a customer service team using SharePoint to create a shared workspace where team members can collaborate on customer inquiries, allowing the team to resolve issues more quickly and efficiently.
• Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based collaboration platform that brings people together to chat, share files, and work on projects together across teams, departments and locations. This can help to break down silos and improve communication and collaboration, especially in today’s hybrid-first working environment.

 

Maximising data-driven decision-making with Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft Fabric is the stitching together of Microsoft Azure tools. It represents the next evolution in data analytics and business intelligence, creating a singular, unified platform that is designed to empower businesses to leverage their data effectively, streamline analytics processes, and ultimately make more informed, data-driven decisions.

 

1. Unified analytics platform

Fabric is an end-to-end analytics platform that consolidates the capabilities of Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI into one cohesive product. This integration significantly simplifies the process of extracting insights from data and presenting it to business users, eliminating the need for complex integrations between multiple products from different vendors. With Fabric, all the necessary capabilities for data-driven decision-making are available in one place, with a unified experience and architecture.

 

2. Core workloads

Fabric includes seven core workloads, each offering a unique set of capabilities for data and analytics. These workloads cover everything from data engineering to real-time analytics and AI-driven analytics, providing businesses with the tools they need to make data-driven decisions. With these workloads, businesses can orchestrate data pipelines, build sophisticated AI models, analyse real-time data, and visualise insights, all within a single platform.

 

3. OneLake: the OneDrive for data

One particularly unique feature of Fabric is OneLake, a multi-cloud data lake that is automatically available to every Fabric tenant. OneLake allows businesses to centralise their data, making it easier to discover, share, and govern. By eliminating data silos, OneLake ensures that all relevant information is available for analysis, thereby enabling more comprehensive and accurate data-driven decisions.

 

4. Scalability and security

Because it is built with scalability and security in mind, Fabric is capable of handling the needs of businesses of all sizes, and its robust security and governance framework ensures that data is always protected and compliant with relevant regulations.

By integrating the powerful tools of Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI, Fabric enables businesses to effectively harness their data, streamline their analytics processes, and ultimately make more informed, data-driven decisions. This unified analytics platform is a significant step forward in the evolution of data analytics and business intelligence, providing businesses with the comprehensive tools they need to truly become data-driven​.

 

Data governance and quality control: a foundation for data-driven decision making

Effective data governance and quality control are critical components in making informed, data-driven decisions. They provide the necessary assurance that the data being used to inform these decisions is accurate, reliable, secure and up-to-date. Let’s explore how data governance and quality control support data-driven decision making.

 

1. Data governance

Data governance encompasses the processes, roles, policies, and technologies that organisations use to manage and ensure the quality of their data. By defining clear data ownership, data access rules, and data standards, data governance enables organisations to maintain consistent, high-quality data across the organisation.

For example, in the context of Microsoft Fabric, OneLake’s unified data storage system enforces policy and security settings centrally, ensuring that the right people have access to the right data. This data governance feature not only protects sensitive information but also facilitates efficient data sharing and collaboration, which are crucial for effective decision making.

 

2. Data quality control

Data quality control involves checking data for accuracy and consistency to ensure it is reliable and can be used to make informed decisions. Without proper quality control, inaccurate or inconsistent data can lead to flawed insights and poor business decisions.

An example of this could be a retail company using Fabric to analyse customer purchasing behaviour. If the data used in the analysis is of a poor quality, incorrect insights might be generated, such as overestimating the popularity of a certain product. However, with effective quality control processes in place, the company can be confident in the accuracy of their data and the insights derived from it.

 

3. Support for Data-Driven Decisions

Data governance and quality control provide a robust framework that supports data-driven decision making in several ways:

1. • Reliability: They ensure the data used in decision-making processes is accurate, consistent, and trustworthy
   • Compliance: They help organisations adhere to data protection laws and regulations, mitigating legal and financial risks
   • Efficiency: They streamline data management processes, making it easier for business users to find and use the data they need
   • Security: They protect sensitive data from unauthorised access, maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of the data

For instance, in a healthcare setting, data security and compliance would be critical. Patient data must be handled with strict adherence to regulations. In the UK alone, legislation governing the use and protection of personal data, including health information, is enshrined in the Data Protection Act of 2018, an act which also incorporates the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Data governance and quality control measures should ensure that such sensitive information is securely managed and accurately maintained, in turn supporting the healthcare provider’s data-driven decisions.

 

So, what is next?

The Microsoft Cloud technology stack provides a comprehensive solution for companies looking to leverage data in their business decisions. By offering scalable data storage, advanced analytics, insightful customer data, and collaborative tools, Microsoft empowers businesses to truly make the most of their data.

However, leveraging these tools effectively requires a deep understanding of each tool’s capabilities and a strategic approach to data management. It is about transforming the culture of a business, to value and rely on its data, encouraging curiosity, and fostering a willingness to make decisions based on the information at hand, rather than instinct.

The Microsoft Cloud technology stack is a powerful ally and, when paired with the right partner, you can unlock the full potential of your data to drive business success.

 

Written by

Leon Godwin
Principal Cloud Evangelist
LinkedIn | Twitter

Building and managing applications or software can often be complex. But it doesn’t have to be. Adopting a microservices approach to your application development can improve the way you build, secure and sell your app – allowing you to deploy new features and react to any issues effectively. According to a report from Nginx, 36% of enterprise businesses are already using Microservices within their business, and an additional 26% are researching. It’s safe to say Microservices are quickly being adopted by businesses of all shapes and sizes since the approach was first launched in 2011.

Firstly, what is Microservices?

Microsoft describes Microservices as an architectural approach to building applications where each core function, or service, is built and deployed independently. Microservice architecture is distributed and loosely coupled, so one component’s failure won’t break the whole app. Independent components work together and communicate with well-defined API contracts. In short, Microservices allows your developers to experiment by rolling out an isolated new feature and simplify the debugging and maintenance process.

Enabling you to fail faster (and smarter) and increase the overall productivity of your development team.

Benefits of Microservices

There are many benefits of using Microservices to build applications. Here are six key benefits identified by Microsoft:

• Agility – Microservices enable you to update a feature without the need of redeploying an entire application. This is because Microservices are deployed independently of each other.
• Small, focused teams – Microservices will be small enough so that a small team will be able to build, test and deploy it efficiently. Having small, focused teams will increase agility compared to larger widespread teams.
• Mix of technologies – your teams will be able to easily pick up new technologies that best suit their software or application.
• Fault isolation – if you are ever faced with an individual microservice becoming unavailable, it won’t disrupt the rest of your application or software as it operates independently. Assuming that your Microservice has been designed to handle any faults correctly.
• Scalability – you’ll have the flexibility to scale Microservices without having to scale the entire application or software. Allowing you to effectively utilise your resources.
• Data isolation – you’ll be able to easily perform schema updates as only a single microservice will be updated rather than an entire application or piece of software.

How Microservices works with DevOps

Microservices can often be complex due to the range of moving parts involved, which is why it’s important to adopt DevOps alongside Microservices to help with deployment, monitoring and lifecycle automation.

DevOps brings together siloed jobs such as IT operations, development teams, quality assurance and security to create a more fluid way of working that encourages collaboration. Which allows you to produce better applications or software by having all those roles working towards a common goal.

Microservices is often described as optimised for DevOps and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD), this is because they are smaller services that can be deployed more frequently. Deploying Microservices will help you successfully adopt DevOps – why? Because Microservices architecture requires DevOps to run effectively.

Adopting Microservices

If you’re looking to build resilient, scalable and distributed applications, Microsoft Cloud can help you deploy Microservices. Here are four benefits of adopting Microservices with Microsoft Azure:

Build and deploy services with agility

Building your Microservices in Azure will enable you to easily manage any new features, updates and bug fixes within an individual component without having to re-deploy the entire application. Meaning your development team will be able to save time deploying features and focus on innovating your application. You’ll also be able to automate any software delivery workflows with a continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline such as GitHub Actions.

Scale your Microservices with demand

Hosting your application in Azure will provide your developers with the ability to scale individual Microservices and subsystems based on your specific resource needs without having to scale the entire application. You’ll have the ability to pack a higher density of services into a single host by leveraging container orchestrator through tools such as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).

Create resilient applications

Microservices enable you to create resilient applications by using patterns such as circuit breaking to help tolerate individual service failure. This will also allow you to replace or retire individual services without affecting the entire application. Microsoft have tools available to help make this easier for you by installing a service mesh using the Service Mesh Interface (SMI) for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh for Azure Red Hat OpenShift.

Find the perfect approach for your team

Within Microsoft Azure you’ll have the ability to find the best approach for your team, allowing them to excel at what they do best. You’ll have the freedom to choose your team’s preferred deployment approach, language, microservices platform and programming model for each service.

Tools available and how they can help impact Microservices

Microsoft have ensured they have a range of tools available for you to leverage within Azure to help successfully deploy microservices.

• Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS)
• Azure Red Hat OpenShift
• Azure functions
• Azure container apps
• Azure cosmos DB
• Azure container registry
• Azure API management

You can learn more about these tools on Microsoft’s website.

Are you looking to adopt Microservices?

The benefits of adopting microservices are clear. So, if you’re looking to deploy microservices across your business, look no further. We’re a Microsoft DevOps, Application Development and Application Integration partner. In other words, there’s no better partner to have on your side.

Ready to find out how you can start adopting microservices within your business? Simply get in touch to speak to an expert.