Benefits of Microsoft Azure for Small Business

Microsoft Cloud is a trusted resource used by 95% of Fortune 500 companies. Luckily, you don’t need a multimillion-dollar IT budget to access it.

Microsoft Azure is a popular cloud computing platform among small and medium-sized businesses without the resources to construct their own cloud architecture. You can get everywhere access to apps and data, scale your services easily, and pay only for what you use with pay-as-you-go pricing.

Here are some reasons why small businesses should consider Microsoft Azure services as an option when considering cloud-based solutions to improve productivity and reduce costs.

The Advantages of Using Azure for Your Small Business

Azure offers a suite of over 200 products and services that you can pick and choose from that allow your company to build, manage, or run applications across multiple clouds or on-site. Benefits include: 

1. Right-Sized Infrastructure

For most small businesses, using the cloud is much more cost-effective than having a data center on-site. A physical server will typically provide more computing and storage space than a smaller business needs. That translates to (potentially prohibitive) upfront investment for both hardware and security solutions. 

Azure lets you start small and grow when you’re ready, so you can keep your budget on operational expenses instead of making a capital expenditure. With virtual machines and cloud computing, you also won’t need to anticipate your future needs or get stuck with a wasted investment.

2. Connectivity 

Azure is compatible with the entire Microsoft Suite, including Office 365. Because most businesses and employees are already comfortable working in these apps, you won’t have to retrain your team on business processes. You can even use Microsoft SQL for your SQL server or Microsoft Dynamics for your CRM. 

Microsoft Azure will let your employees connect securely wherever they happen to be, and they can continue to work even when they are offline. Best of all, Azure’s SDKs allow you to pursue your own application development (for greater functionality).

 

3. Robust Security Solutions

Azure offers a variety of security tools to help you secure your company data and ensure secure access for your employees, wherever they happen to be. Active Directory, a cloud-based user ID and access management service, allows your team to log in and access internal and external resources on-site and off-site. Azure Gateway offers a robust, built-in firewall to protect your network from threats. 

You can also sync users and security groups into a local Active Directory Domain Service, either with on-premise infrastructure or through a virtual server. This allows you to extend your network capabilities. Users can manage their password online as well as have their password synced to the cloud or the on-site directory for safe, secure access from anywhere. 

Their service also lets your organization share apps and other products with guest users from third-party vendors or partners without compromising your data, even if the third party doesn’t use Azure. You’ll continue to maintain control of their access throughout the process. 

Key Services That Make Microsoft Azure for Small Business Indispensable

These products and services can help your business stay agile and optimize business processes for better employee and customer experiences.

• Azure Content Delivery Network: Azure’s CDN allows you to deliver high-bandwidth content with faster load times and increased responsiveness. You can develop or manage websites and applications or encode and distribute streaming media. It also provides key insights into how employees and customers are using the software for their workflows so you can fine-tune their experience.
• Azure Marketplace: This online store allows you to buy or sell web apps or computer-based software and services that are designed on Azure.  
• Business Intelligence: This service can organize and transform your data into easy-to-read visualizations to empower your decision-making with powerful analytics.
• Azure Site Recovery: With these site recovery tools, your business can stay operational even when your IT infrastructure is down. You can even keep your app service available during outages with automatic recovery, either from on-premises or within the cloud. 
• Azure Backup and Disaster Recovery: Your business can build or extend a backup solution with Azure, or configure a consistent backup that scales based on your business needs. The management interface allows you to define policies to protect, monitor and manage workloads, whether you’re running on hybrid or purely cloud networks.

Is Microsoft Azure Right For My Small Business?

Azure offers powerful functionalities that can satisfy the needs of most small businesses. But migrating business applications and data to the cloud in a complete lift and shift can be time-consuming if your team isn’t experienced with the platform.

Talk to an expert at Netsurit to find out how we make managing, monitoring and migrating systems to Azure seamless.