Microsoft partner program (AMM) removes barriers move to Azure The torrent of companies migrating to cloud platforms continues unabated – but with many potential adopters still concerned about the cloud’s complexity, cost, security, or practicality, channel specialists are pivoting to offer new services that will help reluctant businesses move into the cloud at no cost.
That’s a tantalising proposition for companies that have shied away from fully committing to a digital transformation revolution that will, Gartner has predicted, increase expenditure on cloud platforms by 21.7 per cent this year compared to 2022 – totalling a predicted $880 billion ($US597b) – and a further 21.3 per cent into 2024.
The pace of that transformation will see three-quarters of organisations shifting to a digital transformation model based on a cloud platform by 2026, Gartner anticipates.
Yet for all their enthusiasm, each of those companies must address a raft of concerns before making the transition – including cost, access to suitable migration and operational skills, budget constraints, and the impact of potential business interruption.
Add to that the risk of cloud security issues such as misconfiguration, which was the most common cause for the cloud security breaches reported by respondents to Check Point’s recent 2023 Cloud Security Report.
24 per cent of the more than 1000 surveyed cybersecurity professionals said they had suffered a public cloud-related security incident in the past 12 months, 19 per cent of whom said the breach was made possible because of a wrongly configured resource or account.
Furthermore, 59 per cent of respondents cited misconfiguration as the biggest security threat in public clouds – followed by risks including insecure interfaces and APIs (51 per cent), unauthorised access (49 per cent), hijacking of accounts and services (45 per cent), and malware or ransomware (38 per cent).
Adoption of secure design principles and use of standard hardening configuration templates can help companies to reduce their exposure to those and other risks – but for resource-constrained small businesses and those with other priorities, the very real chance of cloud-related problems is often enough to discourage them from taking the plunge.
Crayon has a proven track record and experience with Azure migrations worldwide. You can be confident that the migration will be executed according to best practises with customer success in mind, notes Andre Carpenter, Director, Cloud Solutions at Crayon.
“A lot of people will do the migration themselves, particularly if they’re technical, and then it will not be secure when it gets to the cloud,” he explains.
“Although it’s implemented on that cloud framework, if they leave the service and applications open to attack, that can be quite serious.”
Crayon Leaders in Azure Migrations
To promote the migration of workloads into the cloud, rhipe – a longtime Microsoft partner – has used its partner-led Azure Migrate & Modernise (AMM) to help partners move their customers to the cloud with confidence.
Crayon's Azure Migration and Modernisation Service offers partners the proactive guidance and tools to set up their customer’s cloud environment, migrate infrastructure, databases and application workloads, and confidently move forward. We hold a MS Azure Expert/ Gold Cloud Platform competency status with over 10 years specialization in helping customers across ANZ and APAC. Our Crayon migration team will work with you to design, architect, deploy and migrate your customers to the cloud and handover for you to manage to ensure they stay relevant and are supported
Even though end users understand the benefits of cloud platforms’ OPEX-based cost structure, upfront migration costs can be a showstopper for many – particularly for companies with extensive on-premises infrastructure, where costs mount quickly as complexity scales upwards.
“One reason a lot of people don’t migrate their infrastructure to cloud is cost,” Carpenter explains, noting that “depending on workloads, it can be quite high.”
“If you remove that barrier, it widens the scope of the people being able to access the Azure Cloud.”
Designed for Azure Expert MSP and Azure Specialised partners, AMM participants nominate customers for a migration to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.
End customers pay nothing for the services, with partners reimbursed from AMM program funds with payments ranging from $10,000 to $100,000USD, depending on the size and complexity of the end-user project.
By tackling the complexity, cost, and security of cloud environments head on, AMM has become an indispensable tool for cloud specialists and a salvation for businesses that have felt unprepared to undertake the migration they know they need.
AMM has already proven to be successful for rhipe, which has used the program to help numerous Australian partners confidently migrate their customers to Azure.
Rhipe’s support proved critical to helping Sydney partner Intelliworx make the most of the AMM program – which enabled it to migrate one of Australia’s largest disability providers from on-premises infrastructure to the Azure cloud.
The migration was completed seamlessly, noted Intelliworx CEO Shane Maher – who credited the ability of rhipe’s Azure experts “to effectively convey the benefits and value of Azure solutions.”
Having the support of AMM “has not only strengthened our relationships with clients,” Maher said, “but has also helped them achieve their business goals and leverage the full potential of the Azure platform.”
Systematic migrations and architectural reviews ensure the new environments are robust and secure – giving any organisation a foothold in the cloud on which they can continue to reinvent their business for the future.
“If you do a migration properly,” Carpenter said, “the infrastructure is correctly set up in the cloud and the bottom of the pyramid is secure – and you are going to have fewer problems down the track.”
Click here to learn more about rhipe’s partner-led Azure Migrate & Modernise .
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
