When investigating the Azure Cloud, Independent Software Vendors will have a variety of questions. In this article, we review some of the questions that IT leaders and CTOs typically have before migrating or modernising their applications on Azure.
ISVs are often seeking new methods to increase the scalability of their applications and improve overall workflows. Migrating and modernising applications on Azure can help achieve these goals. However, it should be observed as a strategic transformation which not only solves scalability and workflow problems but creates economic opportunities.
To align an application cloud migration strategy with overall business objectives, certain key questions arise for ISVs. For example, how will it affect our customers? Are the costs of management too high? An experienced Azure partner, like Spanish Point, can work with ISVs to understand their applications, users and business goals to develop a comprehensive cloud migration/modernisation plan that will support their strategic objectives.
In this article we will share some of the key questions that arise in relation to the cloud:
Q1 Will our customer data be secure when hosted in Azure?
A major concern for any organisation, is the security of data. Beyond pan-European data security laws which are highly important, poorly managed data or security breaches can have a detrimental effect on reputation. For ISVs, this is vital as many customers from various companies or geographies use their applications on a daily basis.
With Azure, the safety and security of your data is a shared responsibility. Azure is a robust and modern cloud service in which Microsoft has invested extensive cybersecurity resources to ensure data security and compliance, even at scale. Azure also has inbuilt tools for ISVs to identify threats or issues so that they can respond quickly, improving customer experience and security.
Q2 Will migrating and hosting my application on Azure be expensive?
Overall costs are an important factor for ISVs. Using Azure’s Total Cost of Ownership calculator (TCO Calculator: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/tco/calculator/) ISVs can estimate the cost savings associated with migrating their application to the cloud. In addition to this calculator, an experienced cloud partner, such as Spanish Point, can support you in building a cloud migration plan that works for your business and budget.
As for hosting, Azure’s autoscaling capabilities mean that ISVs just pay for what they need. Cloud capacity can be scaled up and down as required. ISVs can also rely on the global presence of Azure to scale their business, in turn driving more revenue and growth.
Q3 Will migrating to Azure mean we lose control over application innovation?
Obviously, for independent software vendors, ownership over their application innovation and IP is important. Modern development practices utilise APIs and open source technologies, which is increasingly favoured by developers. Microsoft shared a statistic from the IT PRO Cloud Survey highlighting that 91% of IT workers prefer to work in an organization that allows them to utilise open source technologies.
Rather than taking ownership of your application, instead Azure fosters innovation within the ISVs organisation. Developers are at the heart of innovation and Azure DevOps provides them with the tools to build applications using modern development practices such as CI/CD and Agile. Development teams can also collaborate remotely. ISVs can develop and deploy innovations to their users more efficiently.
This is the approach that our teams use when migrating applications to Azure. It allows our team to collaborate effectively in Azure DevOps, which in turn benefits our customers. Speaking of our approach, Spanish Point Technologies CTO John Corley shared “Implementing a modern DevOps approach across all practice areas is very important to Spanish Point. With modern DevOps, we deliver software quicker and with less bugs and that is easier to maintain. Our customers see benefits in faster time to delivery, automated testing and more frequent feature releases”.
Q4 How long will it take to migrate an application to Azure, will customers experience extended downtime?
For each ISV, their migration or their modernisation will be different, with each requiring different levels of re-architecture. However, by understanding their cloud maturity stage, ISVs can better understand the level of development required and what will best fit their objectives at that time. This could range from Lift and Shift to complete cloud modernisation. See our article about cloud maturity to learn more about this
An efficient way to define your Azure migration strategy is with SMART AIM. Together with Spanish Point Technologies, ISVs can develop a roadmap which aligns with business objectives and keeps disruption to a minimum. This roadmap may be in a phased approach.
Q5 How do we begin our cloud migration journey?
Spanish Point Technologies has worked with many ISVs to help them harness the power of Azure for their applications.
Our development teams have migrated numerous ISV applications to Azure and have a deep understanding of Azure and its complimentary features and technologies. We can share years of experience in Azure development with CTOs, helping them define their cloud goals.
An efficient way to define your Azure migration strategy is through SMART AIM or by contacting us directly for a free consultation.
If your questions have not been answered here, send us your query to sales@spanishpoint.ie and we would be happy to help.
