6 Customer Questions About Cloud Migration Answered by Our Azure Experts

Recently, our Azure Customer Enablement (ACE) team came together for an hour-long Microsoft Teams meeting to field client questions called “Stump the Experts.” The result? A unique and valuable opportunity for our customers.

While no two customers face the exact same business issue or share the same point on the map of their digital journey, some common, fundamental themes emerged from the session. So, in case you missed it, here are the key takeaways we thought everyone could benefit from knowing.

First — Why Microsoft Azure?

Azure meets you wherever you are on your digital journey and gives you peace of mind with unmatched security and compliance. From DevOps to advanced analytics to IoT, Azure remains the only cloud solution agile enough to meet all your unique enterprise needs.

For data and AI, what percentage of your data projects leverage Databricks?

Approximately 50 percent. The focus should really be on the data lake. If constructed correctly, you can bring in any piece of computing you want, and Databricks is one of them. We’re going to recommend the right solution for each customer’s situation.  

For cloud migrations, how does your team align to address multiple work threads?

Watch our short video to hear Jan Nelson, VP of Modern Solutions, answer this question:

In terms of your technical team keeping pace with the rate of Microsoft innovation, any recommendations on people, places, or things to follow?

Anything Microsoft learned is the de-facto standard for readiness. There are multiple ways to stay apprised of the constant updates in our industry. Many of us follow RSS feeds daily on top of the ongoing skill-building we do as we solve business issues for our customers. One favorite of ours is Microsoft’s Scott Hanselman’s Azure Fridays. For data & AI, Microsoft’s James Serra, Paul Turley, and Andy Leonard are also good ones to follow.

What are the ins and outs for customers considering single cloud vs multi-cloud solutions?

The majority of our customers want a single cloud because leveraging Microsoft Dynamics is a major driver. To take full advantage of Azure’s capabilities, and to control cost, a single cloud is attractive because it’s a much safer investment and has more customization and capability options.

One thing to be careful about if you’re in one cloud and you want to have a multi-cloud strategy — the way you do one thing in AWS is not always the same way you accomplish the same thing in Azure. You may be able to accomplish something similar, but it’s not done the same way. You must figure out how to adopt and adapt your strategy for multi-cloud.

When you choose multi-cloud, from a tech side, what that really does is limit the implementation in terms of leveraging the path that Azure offers. We then have to choose more generic solutions, like container-based.

Additionally, you must consider your volume of data. That’s a bit of a red flag to move data around a multi-cloud environment. For moving gigabytes or terabytes of data, Ingress and Egress charges will come back to bite you.

In terms of choosing multi-cloud, make sure you really need it because it’s not for the faint of heart. Multiple clouds definitely add complexity. You’re giving up some of the goodness of the native platform, so you must make these decisions very carefully.

Why Hitachi Solutions?

Whether it’s single cloud or multi-cloud, we always choose the right tool for the right job. It’s about our customers. If we build it for you, we can assure you it’s secured properly and runs at peak performance. Whether you’re going to the cloud or you’re on-prem, you have to understand where you’re going. You need to have a strategic vision for the project. If there’s an existing system, you need to understand the scope and how the pieces come together – it’s independent of the technologies. Hitachi Solutions comes in and helps you put that vision together first.

At our core, we are technologists with a keen understanding of business environments, challenges, and initiatives. Our team of experts brings decades of technical and consulting knowledge, project leadership, and an understanding of complex problem-solving. We have an established track record in all things Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, including application services, Azure infrastructure, data platform services, machine learning, user experience, and IoT. Our team is your team.

Have a question for our experts? www.global.hitachi-solutions.com.