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Cloud Direct is delighted to have confirmed its status as a Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (MSP) for the sixth consecutive year.
Microsoft set up the Azure Expert MSP programme five years ago to promote only the most capable and experienced of its more than 90,000 partners. Of those organisations, Cloud Direct is one of only 131 to be awarded Azure Expert MSP status, 58 of which are UK-based.
Following the successful completion of the audit process, Cloud Direct CEO Brett Raynes said: “Reconfirming our position as a Microsoft Azure Expert MSP is a great source of pride for the whole team. To have our level of service independently verified as being among the best in the world means we can continue working towards our goal of truly empowering businesses to achieve fearless growth.
“The Azure Expert MSP programme sets high standard for its partners, and we are incredibly proud to be part of it. As a result, our customers can continue having the utmost confidence and reassurance in our ability to deliver successful Azure projects.”
The process, which is conducted by an external auditor, saw the Cloud Direct team assessed on their ability to deliver Microsoft Azure managed service provisions at scale, including the skill to migrate and support infrastructure, data, and applications within Microsoft Azure at the highest level.
What does it mean for our customers?
Resecuring our Azure Expert MSP status confirms that we continue to serve our customers to the highest possible standard. We are empowering businesses to achieve fearless growth in ways that are safe, affordable, and achievable for them.
As an Azure Expert MSP, we will continue providing…
Better service
It’s simple, really: when you work with an expert, you get expert-level service. Microsoft has made it easier to verify the best partners by awarding this rigorous accreditation to a select few top performing partners. Every service that we offer, every customer interaction, is held to a higher standard. We love raising the bar because it makes us up our game and hop right over it.
Broader offerings
Whatever your business needs, we can deliver it. Keen on IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS? We can advise you. Ready to adopt mobile working or the Internet of Things? We know all about it. Need help with app migration, security, or compliance? We have experts in all areas.
Closer partnerships
Being one of the few Azure Expert MSPs in the UK brings us much closer to Microsoft. Our already close partnership is now much stronger, and all the benefits that come our way get passed directly on to you, our customers. Picture this: Microsoft’s capabilities and software paired with our expertise and skills, all working to better your business. The possibilities are endless.
If you want to find out how you can unlock fearless growth with Microsoft Cloud, get in touch with one of our Experts. We’ll show you what’s possible.
In October 2022, Microsoft announced the launch of its new Azure Savings Plan. It’s billed as the easiest and most flexible way to save costs on compute services. According to Microsoft, customers can save up to 65%* on pay-as-you-go prices for select services.
How does the Azure Savings Plan work?
In short, you set your fixed hourly consumption limit to lock in your discount. When usage exceeds the hourly commitment, you will be charged at the usual pay-as-you-go rates. Customers can choose to commit for one or three years, and whether to pay upfront or in part each month at no additional cost.
Image source: Microsoft
Customers that take advantage of the Azure Savings Plan have lower and more predictable spending, which frees them up to reinvest in innovative technology projects.
How is it different to Reserved Instances?
The Azure Savings Plan is not replacing Reserved Instances (RIs). RIs have been a popular cost-saving method for some customers where the discount is applied to a specific virtual machine (VM) in a specific Azure region.
The Azure Savings Plan delivers greater flexibility as it can apply to any compute resource in any global region. Savings are optimised automatically to help you get the best value for money.
Customers may, for a limited time, swap RIs for an Azure Savings Plan, or combine them together.
Now’s the time to review your compute workloads to see which pricing model best works for your business. Is it worth you swapping RIs for an Azure Saving Plan, or having both for different workloads? Our experts can help you identify the best way to leverage the new Azure Savings Plan to optimise costs.
Discover your savings potential
It’s important you plan for known usage, so you can start leveraging the cost savings available to your company. Microsoft’s example of the potential savings available is demonstrated below based on an illustrative spend of $1,000,000.
Image source: Microsoft
Customers can assess potential cost savings with Azure Advisor. This tool is a window into the health of your Azure environment and is founded on the five pillars of the Well-Architected Framework (WAF) for best practice management.
Cost optimisation is an integral pillar of the WAF and should be balanced against the performance of the other four pillars. An Azure expert will be able to assess your spending against your strategic plans and advise on the best way to stabilise your costs with Azure Savings Plan.
Start optimising your costs
If you’re looking to learn more about how you can adopt the Azure Savings Plan, or more broadly save on costs across your businesses then get in touch. We offer a wide range of cost optimisation solutions, from workshops to assessments that all align with the Well-Architected Framework – ensuring you’re following Microsoft’s best practices.
* According to Microsoft
For the ninth consecutive year, Cloud Direct has achieved G-Cloud status.
We’re excited to announce we’ve added 11 approved services to G-Cloud 13, the UK government’s Digital Marketplace. The Digital Marketplace is a government-regulated tool for public sector organisations and agencies to find specialist providers for technical digital projects.
With almost a decade of experience as one of the earliest adopters of G-Cloud, our transformational consultancy and support services have been designed to support organisations such as local government, health, education, emergency services, defence and not-for-profit organisations.
Here is the full list of cloud services available from Cloud Direct on G-Cloud 13, under our legal name On Direct Business Services Limited:
- Azure Assessment and Migration
- Azure Managed Service
- Application Modernisation
- DevOps
- Sentinel Managed Service and Security Operations Centre (SOC)
- Cloud Security
- Microsoft 365 Migration and Managed Service
- Teams Calling
- Backup and Disaster Recovery (DR)
- Citrix-on-Azure
- Managed IT
Brett Raynes, CEO of Cloud Direct, says:
“We work with several government organisations who enjoy the increased level of security and accreditation G-Cloud 13 awards us. Our business and the services we provide are all about enabling transformation and as we expect to grow, we plan to increase our customer base amongst public sector organisations. The stringent G-Cloud framework shows our continued commitment to providing first-class service and support to our clients.”