Northstar offers a wide range of hosting solutions. Microsoft Azure is a powerful tool, and we often help customers to utilise its strengths for hosting their business applications and documents. Microsoft Azure is Microsoft’s public cloud computing platform. It provides a range of cloud services, including compute, analytics, storage, networking and much more. You can pick and choose from these services to suit your business needs.
Below are the pros for using Microsoft Azure if you are a small business.
Microsoft Azure: Pros
1. Use Azure for servicing a remote workforce.
One of the main benefits of Azure for small businesses is that you can serve your data and applications to your remote workforce. Due to the current climate and global pandemic, you may have more employees working remotely than usual. As a result, you will increasingly need a way for your workforce to access and share your business data and applications from home.
2. Get rid of redundant equipment.
If your servers are reaching an age when they need replacing or you need storage capacity or application performance that you cannot easily achieve in-house, then Microsoft Azure might be an option to consider.
3. Security and availability
We know data security is a top priority for businesses. Microsoft Azure has a strong focus on data security. Azure boasts multiple compliance certifications, establishing it as a leader in data security. As a result, Azure protects both the platform and the end-user.
Microsoft predicts an approximate downtime of just 4.38 hours per year. At a level of 99.95%, this is a target that almost all businesses cannot achieve using in-house equipment.
4. Scalability
With Azure, you can scale up and down, depending on your business needs. For a small business, this can be as simple as adding more processing power or storage. If you find demand takes off, it’s simple to add lots of servers or masses of storage at once. Later you can remove all of that and dramatically reduce the cost, something that is not possible with physical equipment you have purchased.
5. Save costs by using Azure.
Microsoft Azure can be a cost-effective alternative to having an in-house server. If you can’t afford to buy a server outright, with Azure, you can pay a monthly fee for only what you use.
How can Northstar help you get the most out of Microsoft Azure?
1. We can help you migrate to Azure.
If you’re unsure about how to migrate your applications and data to Microsoft Azure, we can help. Whether you’re migrating from a physical server or another cloud provider, we can provide a seamless process for you.
2. We can look after the security of your Azure systems.
We can look at how people and devices access your applications and work with you to increase security.
3. We monitor and maintain the performance of your applications.
We can monitor and maintain your applications on Azure and make sure that performance is maintained. If a disaster occurs, we intervene quickly if any service is degraded to prevent downtime and lost customers.
4. We can provide IT support in Azure to keep your systems running.
Like any piece of IT equipment or software Azure needs care. We can supply directly and support your Azure products and services so that your business can provide the best service to your customers.
For more information and an in-depth look into how Azure will help you, contact us today. We will explain all your options with you before you choose, and help you find the best Azure solution for you and your business.