If your organisation is making the move to the cloud and considering using Microsoft Azure or M365, it can be daunting to know where to start. If you don’t have the right skills in-house, then perhaps engaging cloud consulting services is a good way forward. But you might be wondering where to start, who to ask and how to make sure you get a return on your investment? Read on to find out how to engage a cloud consultant, what to use them for and how to ensure success.
What can a Microsoft Cloud Consultant help me with?
For organisations considering switching from on-premise applications to running everything in the Cloud (e.g., Microsoft Azure and M365) then a consultant can help with providing a high-level strategic overview and give advice and guidance on how to proceed. A consultant might be the answer if you need help with a wide range of business challenges – we outline three specific examples below:
Should we move our business solution(s) from on-premise to Cloud?
If you’re considering moving your business solutions to the cloud, you might need a consultant to advise on whether this is the right plan for your business and if so, how you should go about it. This type of project will typically be delivered in the following phases:
Assessment and Planning
During this first stage, the consultant will help to evaluate your current on-premise infrastructure and applications, identify which applications and data need to be migrated and develop a migration strategy and timeline.
Preparing for Migration
In order to successfully manage the cloud migration, your consultant will work with you to ensure all data is backed up, address any compliance and security requirements and set up the necessary cloud infrastructure.
Migration Execution
Depending on the scope of the project, your cloud consultant can help you to:
- Migrate domains, users, mailboxes, and file content.
- If using Office 365, consider the complexity of migrating services like SharePoint email, , OneDrive, and Teams.
Testing and Validation
An important part of the project includes the testing phase. Your consultant can help test the migrated applications and data to ensure they function correctly and validate that all data has been successfully transferred.
Optimisation and Monitoring
Once the migration has been completed, your cloud consultant will work with you to optimise the cloud environment for performance and cost-efficiency.
This Case Study explains how Compete366 supported the Education Company with their move to Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure to provide a great service to its customers and make significant cost savings.
Can we use a Cloud Consultant to improve our business reporting and insights?
If you are looking to extract insights, business value and reporting to help with better decision making, you might not be sure how to access and structure your data that is held in disparate systems and places. A cloud consultant who specialises in cloud-based business intelligence can help with this in several ways:
- Data Integration: They can help integrate data from various sources such as SQL databases, Oracle databases, spreadsheets, or flat tables, whether on-premise or in the cloud. Typical sources include ERP, CRM, and finance systems.
- Data Orchestration: Consultants can set up services to extract relevant data from your systems, ensuring that the data is properly organised and ready for analysis.
- Cloud Solutions: They can guide you in implementing cloud-based data integration and BI solutions, leveraging tools like Microsoft Syntex for document processing and content assembly.
- Artificial Intelligence: By using AI capabilities, consultants can help analyse and understand the content within your documents, providing a seamless, end-to-end solution for managing your business data.
- Ensuring Success: Consultants can offer strategies and best practices to ensure the success of your BI initiatives, from planning to execution. Engaging a consultant can streamline your BI processes, making your data more accessible and actionable for informed decision-making.
Should we use a Cloud consultant to set up operations in a new location?
If you are considering opening a new office abroad, you might be struggling to work out how you can best provide IT services in this new location. A cloud consultant can provide valuable assistance in several key areas when setting up a new office location:
Technology and Infrastructure
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- Assist with the transition from on-premise applications to cloud-based solutions like Microsoft Azure.
- Help in setting up necessary IT infrastructure, including virtual networks, domain controllers, and user profile management.
Cost and Performance Optimisation
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- Identify the right options for your specific requirements to optimize cost and performance.
- Provide support for a pilot phase to enable thorough testing and any adjustments to be made.
- Implementation of services like Azure Virtual Desktop to allow your teams to get set up quickly within your cloud infrastructure.
Our Case Study explains how we worked with Integrity, an international consultancy working on complex and challenging issues around the globe, to build a global IT infrastructure using Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop.
By leveraging the expertise of a consultant, you can ensure a smooth and efficient setup of your new office location(s), addressing both strategic and technical challenges effectively.
We have other requirements for a Cloud Consultant…
Maybe you have a more nitty-gritty technical question or challenge that’s been troubling you, or you’re just looking for advice based on what works well for other customers of your size or in your industry sector?
If so, you can get in touch for a free initial consultation to discuss your specific requirements.
Choosing the right Cloud Consultant
If you’ve decided that some external consultancy support might help with your business challenge – how do you go about selecting the right consultant for the project?
Here are some things you consider:
- Does the consultant / consultancy have specialist expertise in the cloud area you are considering (eg Specialist Azure Consultants or M365 Consulting Services)?
- How many years’ of experience do they have in their specialist area?
- Do they have evidence of numerous happy customers?
- Can they showcase cloud projects that they have delivered?
- Do they have the appropriate level of certification or specifically in the case of Microsoft – Solution Partner Designations?
- Can they evidence their skills with blog posts and case studies around their expertise on their website?
What are the benefits of using a Cloud Consultant?
Expertise and Knowledge:
Cloud consultants bring specialised knowledge and expertise in cloud technologies, ensuring that your business can leverage the best solutions available.
Cost Efficiency:
They can help optimise your cloud spending by identifying the most cost-effective solutions and eliminating unnecessary expenses.
Scalability:
Consultants can design scalable cloud architectures that grow with your business needs, ensuring that you only pay for what you use.
Security:
They ensure that your cloud infrastructure is secure, implementing best practices and compliance measures to protect your data.
Time Savings:
By handling the complexities of cloud migration and management, consultants free up your internal resources to focus on core business activities.
Customisation:
Cloud consultants can tailor solutions to meet the specific needs of your business, ensuring that you get the most out of your cloud investment.
Access to Latest Technologies:
Cloud Consultants keep up with the latest advancements in cloud technology, ensuring that your business stays ahead of the curve and gets the benefit from your investment.
For businesses that are scaling quickly, cloud consultants can provide the necessary flexibility and resources as you grow.
Next Steps
Once you have evaluated the cloud consultants and narrowed down to a shortlist or selected consultant, you should agree a clear brief for the project including timescales, outcomes and budget.
Why choose Compete366 as your Microsoft Azure cloud consultant?
Established in 2014, Compete366 has more than 10 years experience in cloud consultancy, and specialises in Azure and M365 (we are a designated Microsoft Solution Partner for Azure Data and AI, Azure Infrastructure and Virtual Desktop, and Microsoft Modern Work)
Over the last 10 years we have delivered hundreds of cloud projects and now have over 300 satisfied customers. We regularly publish case studies and blog posts to share our expertise and guidance.
We offer a free no obligation call with one of our cloud consultants on any topic, just contact us with a brief explanation of your requirements. On the call and the follow up email we will provide we will either answer your question or give you advice on how to proceed. /you have nothing to lose in having this call – it’s our chance to prove our expertise and value, and gives you the chance to receive some free expert advice and guidance.
What Next?
If you’d like to discuss how how one of our Cloud Consultants can help, get in touch to book your initial free of charge call.
Following this initial consultation you have two options for next steps:
Option 1
Buy or transfer your M365 / Azure subscriptions to us and get free ongoing expert advice and guidance. This service covers everything in M365 / Azure, so for example:
- M365 – configuring SharePoint, Conditional Access Policies, Teams Phone, Intune, PowerBI, M365 Copilot etc
- Azure – Fabric, Azure AI Foundry, Copilot Studio, Azure Kubernetes service, Azure App Service, Azure SQL Database, Azure Virtual Machines, Are Files etc
- Call us anytime that you want to discuss anything M365 or Azure related.
- You will also have a scheduled monthly call with your assigned Cloud consultant and an Annual review of environment
Option 2
Ask us to deliver a project for you on a paid for consultancy basis. When we deliver a project (this could be a migration or implementation project) we always include documentation of what we’ve done and a handover session with the in-house IT team that will then take over the ongoing management of the new environment.
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“It’s great to work with the Compete366 team, the team members are really knowledgeable, helpful and responsive. No question is too difficult for them. They have really helped us to manage our Azure costs and ensure we have the right environment. When we bring a new customer on-board we can scale up immediately via the Azure portal and quickly make environments available to our customers.”
“We also find that there’s never a heavy sales pitch from them – they are technically focused and recommend what’s right for us.”
“We had great support from the Compete366 AVD expert, who was really helpful, and guided me through options to tackle issues that arose.”
“The great thing about our AVD set up is that we have a custom set up for each project which Compete366 showed me how to do. And with the scalability and flexibility of AVD – we can meet clients’ expectations and get project users up and running more quickly.”
“We were immediately impressed with the advice that the Compete366 specialists in Azure Architecture were able to provide. This was all new to us and we really needed some external expertise that we could use to get our questions answered. The beauty of working with Compete366 is that we transferred our Azure consumption to them, and at the same time received all of their advice and guidance free of charge.”
“Working with Compete366 has been like extending our own team – they are extremely and easy to work with. Right from the outset, it was clear what was on offer – everything was presented to us in a straightforward and uncomplicated way. They also provided just the right level of challenge to our developers and saved us time and money by suggesting better ways to implement our infrastructure.”
“Compete366 were able to help us leverage some useful contacts in Microsoft. We really value the expert advice and guidance that they have offered us in setting up a highly scalable infrastructure. We are also setting in place a regular monthly meeting which will allow us to further refine our architecture and ensure we keep on track as our requirements grow and change.”
“I have been delighted with the migration, where my team worked very hard, supported by expert advice from Compete366, and achieved everything in the timescale we had set out. Compete 366 made sure that we didn’t make any expensive mistakes, and guided us through the process”
