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How to Adopt the Cloud with a Microsoft-Certified Framework

Does your organization have a growth mindset? How do you approach digital transformation and enabling technologies, like cloud computing?

Organizations with a growth mindset seek to drive innovation and thrive, while those with a “fixed mindset” seek to contain costs, risks, and behavior. In other words, they’re working hard just to survive.

They take a different approach to cloud computing as well. According to the Flexera 2020 State of the Cloud Report, most companies have adopted cloud in some form, whether it’s a public cloud instance, a private cloud, or a hybrid model.

But those with a fixed mindset focus on swapping another technology out for the cloud in giddy pursuit of cost benefits. When those benefits don’t materialize as expected, as is often the case, they view the technology as a failure, not their approach.

Thrivers, on the other hand, understand that cloud plays a key role in successful digital transformations. They fully leverage the myriad benefits of the cloud to enable their organization to grow, thrive, and compete successfully—even in (or especially in) challenging market conditions.

Overcoming challenges with the cloud

Even with the right approach to the cloud and an understanding of its transformational role, challenges remain. For those new to the cloud, lack of resources and expertise remain a key challenge, while advanced cloud users struggle to manage their cloud costs. The Flexera report suggests that organizations are over budget on cloud spend by an average of 23 percent and expect cloud spend to increase by 47 percent next year.

In fact, they go on to suggest that organizations could be wasting up to 30 percent of their cloud spend through inefficiencies or performance metrics that are not tied to their transformation goals. As Logicalis Australia CTO Toby Alcock says: “The advantages that cloud delivers go far beyond simple cost efficiencies and flexibility…cloud enables innovation and growth, not just savings.”

To compensate for the lack of resources and expertise and to better control cloud costs, more than half of enterprises in the Flexera report indicated that they use cloud managed service providers to manage their public cloud use. This is key. Logicalis Group VP for Business Development Mick McNeil notes that:

“A technology partner can help with many elements that underpin any cloud endeavor…a strategic partner initially extracts themselves from the workloads and technology to focus on your business goals, looking beyond the short-term technology needs at longer-term business opportunity.”

Logicalis: Your partner in cloud

A global Microsoft Gold Partner and in the top 1% as a Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Service Provider, Logicalis can help you overcome security, governance, and cost challenges, enabling you to move workloads to Azure in record time and strategically position your organization for long-term success.

As Architects of Change™, Logicalis knows what’s required for a successful transition to the cloud. Our Production Ready Cloud solution uses a proven approach to set up the Azure Cloud at speed, in a controlled and compliant way, while minimizing costs. You’ll have the confidence of getting it right the first time, in record time.

Using a three-step method, Logicalis helps you build a sound strategy that meets business and stakeholder needs and achieve your defined business outcomes by:

  1. Aligning your technology evolution with your strategic objectives, using one (or a combination) of our Cloud Readiness Assessment, Cloud Migration Assessment, or Cloud Security Assessment.
  2. Implementing the Logicalis Production Ready Cloud Platform—a proven, Microsoft-certified framework to deploy and manage Azure at speed in a cost-controlled and compliant way.
  3. Continuously managing and optimizing your cloud performance and costs and ensuring governance and security so your team can focus on core business innovation.

In other words, we provide the resources and expertise needed to help ensure your long-term business success.

Case in point: A global manufacturer with an aggressive growth strategy

One of our clients, a global manufacturer with more than 19,000 employees, set out to double their revenue in just five years. To achieve their aggressive goal, they wanted to shed technical debt and cost and adopt a cloud-first strategy.

Key to the project’s success? The client inherently knew they needed a trusted partner to proactively drive their technology strategy, while they focused on driving business growth. Logicalis led the way by providing clear and consistent leadership that enables this client to direct its energies into achieving their goals.  

  1. Optimized costs – Logicalis continuously optimizes their cloud costs based on their business needs, enabling them to reduce their spend. And instead of the hidden costs and unpredictability provided by their previous MSP, they now have complete cost transparency and know exactly what to expect.
  2. Reduced technical debt – By adopting a cloud-first strategy and implementing the Logicalis Production Ready Cloud Platform on Microsoft Azure, the client reduced considerable technical debt from their legacy environment and eliminated associated maintenance costs to lower their long-term TCO.
  3. Increased agility – With the right partner and streamlined processes in place, this client can now quickly move on their acquisition strategy. Logicalis is also helping to re-platform their applications to better take advantage of cloud functionality and cost optimization.

Today, Logicalis is working to migrate all ten data centers, leaving their client free to actively pursue acquisitions that are critical to their growth strategy. And, as they bring in new acquisitions, Logicalis is helping to integrate them into the business. 

Download Thinking Big: How a Growth Mindset in Cloud Adoption Will Enable Your Transformation Goals to learn more. Or reach out to be connected with one of our cloud experts.