It’s no secret that Australian businesses have adopted cloud computing. Gartner predicts our cloud services market will be worth $4.74 billion by 2016, while Forrester says 86% of Australian businesses have used cloud technologies for 12 months or longer.
These figures suggest most enterprise-level CTOs understand why cloud computing is a smart business move. From faster implementation to reduced maintenance costs, embracing the cloud has tangible benefits.
Despite this, many organisations are reluctant to move enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, to the cloud. Perhaps they haven’t realised that cloud is no longer a second option for ERP deployments, or that it is widely used for mission critical applications.That’s why I’d like to share with you four reasons to consider running Dynamics AX on Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure.
1. You can respond to change faster
In an increasingly competitive business environment, adaptability is critical for long-term survival. In fact, a recent Infosys survey found that 77% of enterprises consider agility as the key driver for moving to the cloud.
This is good news for Dynamics AX and Azure users. Azure makes it easy to scale infrastructure to respond to changing business needs. Unlike on-premise deployments, you don’t need to worry about exhausting your resources or paying for additional capacity as your organisation grows. Azure can support an almost limitless number of Dynamics AX configurations, and you only pay for what you use.
You can also quickly spin up Dynamics AX testing environments in Azure, which can be scaled to almost any size. For example, you could create a virtual machine on‑premise, shift it to the cloud for testing on Azure and return it to the on‑premise environment for further development. Changes can be implemented in hours, rather than weeks.
2. It’s cheaper than running Dynamics AX on-premise
How much money could your organisation save if it didn’t have to build, manage or maintain IT infrastructure?
Azure hosts Dynamics AX as infrastructure as a service (IaaS), which means virtualised servers are hosted in a cloud managed by your organisation. It’s similar to a private cloud, but without access to the physical machines.
Without expensive servers to maintain and Microsoft automatically taking care of upgrades, Azure can greatly reduce your IT infrastructure expenses.
3. You can keep your data safe from prying eyes
According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data, over 30% of large Australian organisations limit or prevent cloud computing use because of security concerns.
However, this concern isn’t warranted. When it comes to security and privacy, Microsoft is the most advanced public cloud solutions provider on the market. I’d even go so far as to say that on Azure, your data is just as secure as if you were hosting it on your own physical servers.
Azure also allows you to create and maintain secure infrastructure and cloud applications.
4. You can be up and running in hours
Say goodbye to lengthy application deployments. Unlike traditional on-premise ERP deployments, which can take time to plan and install, Azure can reduce deployment time to just a few hours.
It’s this simple: choose the resources you need, select the platform on which you want them to run, and they’re ready to go in minutes. Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services automates server set-up and systems/software deployment, saving you the hassle of manually deploying Dynamics AX on Azure yourself.
