Macquarie Cloud Services launches Dell, Azure hybrid cloud offering

Macquarie Cloud Services has launched a new hybrid cloud offering in collaboration with Microsoft and Dell Technologies.

Macquarie Flex is a hybrid solution powered by Microsoft Azure Stack HCI (Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure) and Dell Technologies APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure.

The solution provides "workload flexibility, a single management plane, consistent experience, 24x7 mission critical support and evergreen compliance across public, private and hybrid cloud environments," Macquarie Cloud Services said, adding that it's the first Dell Technologies partner to offer Azure Stack HCI in Australia.

“Macquarie Flex is the true definition of hybrid and represents a new era of hybrid cloud solutions,” said Macquarie Cloud Services head of Azure Naran McClung.

“Azure and private cloud, two disparate environments, promising different things, for different purposes, bound together to provide Australian businesses the choice, flexibility, and agility needed to succeed.” 

“Our purpose is to help customers who have been traditionally underserved and overcharged. We’re thrilled to be leveraging our long-standing partnerships with Microsoft and Dell Technologies to deliver much needed new innovation to Australian businesses.”

In May 2024, Macquarie Cloud Services was awarded the Dell Technologies Global Alliances Partner of the Year award for Asia Pacific and Japan.

“Macquarie Flex allows us to meet our customers wherever they are on their cloud journey,” said Jonathan Staff, head of private cloud at Macquarie Cloud Services.

“Through our strong relationship with Dell Technologies and Microsoft, we can now arm Australian businesses with another lever to extract more value from their IT investment.”

“Macquarie Flex represents a significant advancement in hybrid cloud solutions. By leveraging Microsoft Azure Stack HCI, Macquarie Cloud Services is providing an unparalleled level of flexibility, security and performance."

Macquarie Cloud Services said Macquarie Flex enables businesses to deploy and run sensitive or compliance-driven workloads in a private cloud whilst leveraging the benefits of Azure.

It also allows them to diversify deployment locations to improve commercial viability, treat private cloud workloads as first-class citizens of Azure, as well as monitor, alert, report, backup, secure, manage and govern virtual workloads with one toolset.

"This collaboration exemplifies our commitment to empowering Australian organisations with the tools and technologies needed to drive innovation and achieve their strategic goals,” said Steven Worrall, managing director of Microsoft Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).

The new offering comes after the company launched Macquarie Guard, a SaaS solution that automates practical guardrails into Azure services, in December 2023.

“The collaboration between Dell Technologies, Macquarie Cloud Services and Microsoft delivers powerful hybrid cloud capabilities to Australian organisations,” said Angela Fox, senior VP and MD, Dell Technologies ANZ.

"It provides customers with the flexibility to decide where and how they run their workloads in a secure and cost-effective way to drive better business outcomes.”