Please note: This post was written by Highlander prior to their rebrand to FluidOne Business IT - Sheffield.
We’re told that we’re in a cloud-first world, and despite the rhetoric we’d tend to agree. The result is, every man and his dog seems to be migrating workloads to the cloud in some form or another. We love the cloud as much as the next person, but it’s not enough just to jump on the bandwagon and follow the hype – you need to know what you’re moving to the cloud and that you have selected the right technologies and services for your business. We believe that one of the best ways to achieve this is by taking advantage of the benefits offered by the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Program, which enables partners like Highlander to augment the Microsoft service offering.
As one of the big three cloud providers and because of the familiarity customers already have with on-premise Microsoft technologies, Microsoft Azure is a logical place to start, and in most cases offers a relatively frictionless move into the cloud services arena to capitalise on its promises.
As a Microsoft CSP, we’ve gotten to know Microsoft’s cloud service portfolio inside and out, and combined with an already established heritage working with their technologies can add significant value to your cloud experience. As such, we’ve compiled a list of 6 reasons why you’ll fall in love with the services we can therefore offer you as your Microsoft CSP.
1) One partner, one invoice, one cloud
One of the biggest advantages is that you can pay for your cloud as you go. Thanks to a flexible monthly subscription, you only need to pay for what you consume from one month to the next, ensuring you’re never unnecessarily over- or under-provisioning. What’s more, we’ve developed our own unique CSP billing engine that sees your Microsoft cloud solutions are all consolidated into a single comprehensive invoice, dramatically simplifying and streamlining the payment process. Even better – as well as a single invoice, you get a single partner to turn to, so whenever you need any support with your solution, you’ll always have one point of contact on-hand for everything.
2) Get secure with CSP
We all know only too well just how critical it is to make certain your business’ IT is secure at all times. Microsoft CSP is a great place to start to help bolster your security posture. By utilising the CSP model to add Microsoft’s innovative Enterprise Mobility and Security (EM+S) suite to your Office 365 or Azure cloud environments, you can ensure your most precious assets – your data, your information, and your people – are all fully protected wherever they are.
3) Prepare for Microsoft end of support announcements
As you probably already know, Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, and Windows 7 will all reach end of support in January 2020. With the looming date now less than a year away, businesses are being rightfully urged to migrate to supported operating systems such as Windows 10 as soon as possible. The security risks associated with continuing to use an unsupported OS should be more than enough of an incentive for IT teams to begin seriously considering what the best approach is to migrating, especially as we’re already well into 2019. Microsoft CSP is a fantastic way to accelerate along the migration path. The CSP consumption model enables users to easily upgrade to the latest, most up-to-date operating systems without the need for a large upfront CAPEX outlay. You can simply purchase the licenses you need whenever you need them, and scale these up or down as demand dictates.
4) Cloud-based collaboration
Good collaboration forms a core part of how your business operates. It’s so important to provide your users with the tools and technology that make working as a team seamless, so they can stay productive no matter where they are. Microsoft CSP opens up all the benefits of Office 365, offering users the flexibility and ease of cloud-based file sharing, instant messaging, real-time co-authoring, and more. CSP puts all of this at your fingertips, making collaboration possible in a secure cloud environment that isn’t reliant on on-premise infrastructure. Importantly, we offer bespoke training opportunities to educate your users on how to optimise their use of the applications available to them, such as Microsoft Teams and SharePoint, so they’re able to collaborate better than ever before.
5) Meet Microsoft 365
Introduced last year, Microsoft 365 is Microsoft’s integrated subscription service that combines the benefits of Office 365, Windows 10, and EM+S in a single scheme. Built for teamwork, the intelligent cloud-based solution empowers user creativity and team collaboration, fostering self-sufficiency and the freedom to innovate without needing to compromise on security. CSP helps you harness the many features of Microsoft 365, ensuring that you enjoy built-in management, protection, and productivity all from one platform.
6) Optimise your workloads
Thanks to the flexibility offered by the Microsoft CSP consumption model, you’re able to easily manage your workloads within the cloud environment and can turn your services on and off as needed. You can also migrate at your own pace – we’re finding great success among our customers at the moment by moving one virtual machine (VM) at a time into their cloud environments, so there’s absolutely no pressure to go all-in from the word “go”.
We think Microsoft CSP is very much the way forward for identifying and sizing the right cloud services. By wrapping our own services around Microsoft’s suite of products and bundling our cloud solutions with their cutting-edge portfolio, we make sure you get the most out of your investment in their technology. Together, we help you add considerable value to your cloud experience so that you can enjoy the very best of what cloud has to offer.
