Top 10 Benefits of using a Microsoft Azure MSP

If you have taken the plunge to invest in Microsoft Azure and reap its many benefits, it makes sense to work with specialists who have the expertise and experience to navigate you through the entire operation.

As a longstanding Microsoft Gold Partner, our team at Fordway have rounded up the top 10 benefits of using a specialist MSP. 

As key players in their field alongside AWS, Azure is a truly impressive cloud platform. But with all that power and capability, comes great complexity in a fast-growing and evolving technical era. It’s no secret that a certain knowledge or expertise is required to tap into Azure’s unrivalled opportunities and that’s where a specialist Microsoft Azure MSP comes in – which is exactly why there’s a whole industry dedicated to it.  

1. Product knowledge  

The Azure cloud platform has over 200 products and cloud services designed to help you bring new solutions to life, and Microsoft is constantly adding and upgrading its offerings. Without the proper knowledge and expertise, it can be difficult to know which services are best for your business, what to change, and when to upgrade.

2. Success from the start 

Successful design and migration are key to having a seamless transition to Azure. Having an MSP will help you make the most of the set-up process, acting as a guide to help you build a bespoke cloud computing system tailored to your company’s needs.  

As well as being clued up about migration, an experienced Azure MSP will have the knowledge and expertise to craft a solution that seamlessly spans on-premise to the public cloud. Fordway offers an IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) Managed Services approach, which means you can choose a hybrid model – to invest in Azure managed services for whichever components you wish, while keeping in-house the essential elements that you can manage effectively. 

3. Proactive security  

There are many security solutions a Microsoft Azure package can bring for your business, providing you know how to use them effectively. An Azure MSP will provide a proactive security strategy to help you utilise your defences and keep your data safe. With a range of knowledge, tools and resources, an Azure MSP will be able to effectively navigate the ever-changing sphere of cybersecurity and cyber threats. Outdated defences will be a thing of the past with your IT security in the hands of experts.

4. Reduction in cost and time  

Outsourcing your IT services can save you money in the long run by allowing you to budget and predict your monthly costs, as well as plan for the unexpected. As well as being a cost-efficient route, having an MSP means you and your team can focus your time on running your business, rather than attempting to solve complex IT problems that may be out of your team’s skill set. As IT is the backbone of most businesses in today’s technology and data driven world, it’s worth knowing your IT system is in good hands, at a fraction of the cost of an in-house team.

5. Resilience as standard 

Whilst cloud helps with Disaster recovery, for IaaS and PaaS it needs to be designed in, it doesn’t come as standard. Effective DR involves a set of policies and tools to enable the continuation of your core IT services in the event of a cybersecurity or natural threat. Fordway will work to ensure resilient environment design to meet desired service SLAs plus ongoing protection to mitigate and resolve any unprecedented security threats within Microsoft Azure’s resilient and reliable system.

6. 24/7 Security, because the bad guys don’t sleep 

An MSP will keep your business running at its optimum level, 24 hours a day. Not only will you have access to a support team that works around the clock, but you can be comforted by their extensive and specialised experience in the field. By operating 24/7, you never have to worry about having full-time staff that are constrained to normal work hours, our team will be there through the night in case of any unexpected security threats or service outages.