spinpanel
Accelerate your
Microsoft Cloud adoption
Azure growth cheat sheet for Microsoft Partners
spinpanel
Setting the scene
Why Microsoft Partners need to take
the cloud opportunity seriously
Public cloud is growing exponentially
If you haven’t already felt the cloud growth shockwave, In 2019 public cloud became a $258 billion industry1. Cloud revenue
grew an impressive 17.5% in one year alone, and it will only continue to increase.
During 2019, Azure took the cloud market by storm, boasting an 82.4% year-on-year growth2 and outpacing AWS growth
in the same year. On top of that, Microsoft brokered partnerships with major players in the cloud computing world, with the
likes of Salesforce selecting to power their enterprise-level applications on the Microsoft Cloud3. Azure is here to stay, and
Microsoft are further entrenching their position in the cloud market.
Azure is the preferred cloud technology for many businesses
More than 85% of Fortune 500 companies use Azure today according to Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO4. It fits seamlessly
with the computer devices and Office 365 usage of many existing businesses. Azure also offers some of the best and
well-known security features on the market, which is often cited as a major concern for many companies.
Resistance to change may be holding back growth opportunities
We hope by now that many Microsoft Partners have shifted gears to embrace the Microsoft Cloud. Yet still, when it comes to
business models, there remains an age-old mindset among some IT Service Providers: “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it”. It is
true that some MSPs have grown comfortable over the years making margins on Office 365 products and simply don’t want
to step outside of a proven service model and explore the benefits of becoming a Cloud Service Provider (CSP). With the
introduction of the new Microsoft commerce model, the pressure is now on for partners to demonstrate measurable added
value on top of margins earned through license reselling.
The Microsoft channel landscape is evolving
Microsoft is attempting to consolidate within the channel itself and is now encouraging Tier 1 resellers to cooperate further
within the channel and purchase through larger Microsoft distributors. This change in dynamics is shifting the way partners
approach their business model and has instigated a much-needed transformational shift for partners to strengthen and
evolve their service offerings.
Herein lies the opportunity for Microsoft MSPs
Expand cloud competencies and become a CSP. Ride the wave of cloud growth, generate
more revenue and leapfrog your competition.
www.spinpanel.com
spinpanel
Seizing the opportunity
5 ways Microsoft Partners can capitalize on the
Microsoft Cloud opportunity
Migrate traditional on-premises
customers to the Microsoft Cloud
Resell Azure and take advantage
of partner incentives
1
2
5
Re-think your design approach to
customer applications
3
4
Develop and monetize value-added
solutions to increase Azure Spend
Leverage elasticity - use autoscaling
and provisioning capabilities
to reduce overheads
www.spinpanel.com
spinpanel
1. Resell Azure
Resell the Microsoft Cloud and take advantage
of partner incentives
Reselling Azure is the starting point for MSPs - and a ‘no brainer’ in many ways. Microsoft recently updated their partner
incentives for indirect Cloud Service Provider (CSP) resellers to encourage utilizing their services. Since Azure is critical to
Microsoft's growth, they want to encourage MSPs to use it. Therefore, they have created a program for CSP resellers to
profit even more from it.
Partner Incentives are available for all Silver or Gold partners in one of the following competencies:
Windows and Devices
Enterprise Mobility Management
Cloud Customer Relationship Management
Cloud Productivity
Data Analytics
Cloud Platform
Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions
Data Platform
Cloud Business Applications
Enterprise Resource
The incentive program also requires signing up for the Partner Incentive program and obtaining a valid cloud reseller
agreement.
You can take advantage of their incentives by purchasing Azure through distributors, such as Ingram Micro, Tech Data,
D&H Distributing, SherWeb, or Pax8. Some of the benefits include:
$4,500 in total one-time incentive for selling Azure
6% for CSP software subscription of SQL servers
1.25% for CSP software subscription of Windows Server
10% monthly rebate for reserved instances paid upfront
The incentive programs allow resellers to be more profitable by lowering the overall cost
versus the pay-as-you-go method, as well as increasing the opportunities for profit.
www.spinpanel.com
spinpanel
2. Migrate Customers
Accelerate the transformation of traditional
on-premises customers to the Microsoft Cloud
While many smaller and more agile organizations are being born in the cloud
today, the opposite often applies for larger and more complex businesses.
Microsoft Cloud
Aging on-premises infrastructure and legacy systems are a burden for your
client and for you to maintain. With the advent of the cloud, the benefits are
Configuration
clear: With IaaS and PaaS, it is possible to decrease the time spent
Webserver Applications
maintaining applications and reduce the total cost of ownership of your
Database
infrastructure.
Migrating clients to Azure has never been easier. Solutions are available on the
market to ‘lift and shift’ traditional on-premises workloads to the cloud while
retaining existing configurations. In some cases, this is ideal for end-customers;
Exact Copy
they don’t have to re-learn how to operate their applications because a)
On-Premises
they’re already familiar with them; and b) behind-the-scenes factors like drive
mappings and security settings are the same.
Configuration
Webserver Applications
With the available tools on the market, the process for transforming your
Database
clients to the Microsoft Cloud is much more straightforward. This situation is
absolutely a ‘win-win’ for both MSPs and end-customers. This ease in transition
can save end-customers time and minimize business disruption, while you as
an MSP will benefit from reduced maintenance burdens and increased profit
from partner incentives.
Additional Migration Hacks
AZURE HYBRID BENEFIT
UTILIZE AZURE RESERVATIONS
Retain the Windows licenses you already use with
Azure Hybrid Benefits. It can mean savings of up to
49%, depending on your usage. Combined with RI,
Hybrid Benefits can equal cost savings of up to 82%.
MSPs can save up to 57% on infrastructure costs by
reserving compute units ahead of time. This
especially useful if you have predictable application
workloads and long-term contracts with your clients.
The ease in transition from lift-and-shift migrations can save end-customers time and
minimize business disruption, while you as an MSP will benefit from reduced maintenance
burdens and increased profit from partner incentives.
www.spinpanel.com
spinpanel
3. Develop New Solutions
Create and monetize value-added solutions
to increase Azure spend and profit
We mentioned earlier that the Microsoft partner landscape has evolved. With the introduction of the new Microsoft
Commerce model, partners are being strongly driven to provide measurable value through services and solutions.
Not only does this create a better customer experience, but it gives partners the chance to grow their revenue through new
offerings and rewards from increased Azure spend. MSPs might consider offering customers with, for example, security
auditing services or backup solutions that complement existing Microsoft 365 services. Use your expertise to do more than
resell. Instead, use it as a chance to transform your business, expand your unique offerings and differentiate from the
competition.
Key techniques to increase your profitability
ADOPT RESOURCE TEMPLATES
DEVELOP VERTICAL-SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS
Reduce redundant tasks in your business and
increase efficiency by adopting resource templates.
With the correct templating tools, you can develop
applications with a single client and quickly deploy
the same application in Azure for multiple new clients.
Maximize your up-front investment and continue to
deliver rich value to new clients through
pre-packaged solutions.
MSPs may also consider specializing in specific
verticals to increase the value received by those
end-customers. For example, data, AI and machine
learning capabilities are currently a ‘hot topic’ across
multiple industries. Imagine how you might create
pre-packaged, configured and branded healthcare
analytics solutions for pharmaceutical clients… or
perhaps machine-learning anomaly detection tools
for the manufacturing industry.
Creating repeatable vertical-specific solutions will
increase your chances of maximizing your return by
reselling to multiple customers facing the same
problem. If being ‘vertical’ doesn’t appeal to you,
consider developing broader solutions for problems
which translate across industries, such as data
security or compliance tools.
Example: 3 Tier Redhat Solution on Azure
Lorem ipsum
MSPs can reduce time-to-market through templating and maximize value delivered to
end-customers through repeatable industry or problem-specific applications.
www.spinpanel.com
spinpanel
4. Leverage Elasticity
Utilize autoscaling and automated provisioning
capabilities to reduce overheads
For some end-customers, predictability may be an important factor in their cloud migration strategy. However, simple lift
and shift strategies have limitations and will only deliver finite benefit in the long run.
Cloud technology is evolving at a breakneck pace. The world has moved on since the early days of migrating on-premises
applications to cloud-hosted dedicated machines. In typical ‘lift and shift’ scenarios, the prevalent approach is to utilize smaller compute units (virtual machines) and hosted SQL Server databases to house applications. In this design, a fixed number
of virtual machines and database resources would be chosen to provide stable, preemptible performance. However, this
comes at the expense of paying a fixed cost for running these resources 24 hours a day. While the costs can be brought
down through incentives and reservations, this is usually the ‘ceiling’ for cost savings in a typical setup.
By utilizing the correct automation and provisioning tools, you can manage your application overheads even further by
introducing elasticity. This is the benefit derived from adjusting your infrastructure footprint according to the actual demand
placed on your applications. Here are a couple of design considerations for your to-be application:
Deployment options for your ‘to-be’ client environment
HORIZONTALLY SCALABLE WORKLOAD (SCALE OUT/IN)
VERTICALLY SCALABLE WORKLOAD (SCALE UP/DOWN)
In this deployment pattern, new VMs are spun up
when demand increases, providing increased
compute power for the duration of the spike. Once
demand drops off, VMs are taken offline. This
approach is suitable for stateless applications and in
cases where distribution is a key requirement, for
example, scaling applications across multiple
geographies.
In a vertically scalable deployment pattern, the VM
size is increased prior to/during a spike, and thus
scales down once the spike has resided. This pattern
is more often adopted when spikes are predictable,
for example, at set times of the day, or during
weekends. This approach is useful for reducing
infrastructure costs in typical 9-5 office-based
businesses.
Microsoft Partners can unlock greater infrastructure savings potential by building in
elasticity into the target resource architecture.
www.spinpanel.com
spinpanel
5. Re-think Your App Design
Benefit from PaaS and more advanced cloud
technologies to future-proof client applications
Autoscaling and provisioning capabilities will certainly help
For you as an MSP, this means you can deliver truly agile
you and your end-customers benefit from reduced costs
solutions to your end-customers while driving down the cost
and increased profits. However, to truly benefit from Azure,
of maintaining infrastructure and servicing applications.
MSPs have to re-think their customer application design
altogether.
Going beyond this, you may start to experiment with
Platform as a Service (PaaS) technologies to deliver high
The latest cloud technologies help Microsoft partners to
performance applications at very low cost. If you abstract
design future-proof applications that excel the needs of
away the concept of VMs and maintaining infrastructure
their customers. If we continue on the path of ‘Moores Law’,
completely, you arrive at the concept of PaaS and
we
application
serverless computing. Using tools like Azure Functions, you
containerization – even smaller compute units (containers)
can choose to run parts of your application as pure
suited to run smaller components of your application.
event-based functions hosted on automated, highly
have
now
reached
the
point
of
scalable infrastructure. Here you pay only for code
Enter Azure Service Fabric, a Microsoft Cloud technology of
execution time - down to the millisecond. Think about that:
a similar flavor to Docker or Kubernetes. With Azure Service
paying only for the time spent converting a video, or the
Fabric, it is now possible to manage large multiples of
time spent conducting a data transformation. If customers
containers running distinct parts of your application. This
aren’t using their applications, no cost is incurred.
helps further with delivering distribution and scalability. At
the same time, this allows MSPs to maintain discreet parts of
their application independently, without having to push
releases for the entire application.
Example: Event-driven function in Azure Functions
Breaking down monolithic applications into smaller ‘containerized’ microservices utilizing
PaaS and serverless technology will enhance performance and maintainability.
www.spinpanel.com
spinpanel
Summing It All Up
Key take-aways for Microsoft Partners
1
2
5
3
4
MSPs delving into the Microsoft Cloud world can unlock a range of benefits for both themselves and their end-customers.
Firstly, take advantage of the Microsoft incentives and unlock quick-win revenue by reselling Azure. If you’re not already
doing this, then this is your starting point.
Secondly, migrate your end-customers to the Microsoft Cloud to drive down infrastructure costs and reduce time spent
maintaining legacy on-premises applications. Identify the correct automation and provisioning tools to help keep costs to a
minimum by scaling applications according to demand.
Thirdly,
leverage the plethora of cutting-edge technologies available in the Microsoft Cloud to develop repeatable,
game-changing business applications for clients. Consider specializing in specific verticals or solve ‘common problems’ faced
by multiple industries. Take advantage of new PaaS services like Azure Service Fabric and Azure Functions to eliminate time
spent configuring infrastructure and keep your overheads to a minimum while delivering high performance, scalable and
maintainable applications.
By following these steps, MSPs can easily become a solutions powerhouse and elevate their status in the Microsoft
community.
www.spinpanel.com
spinpanel
About Spinpanel
The comprehensive cloud automation
solution for growing Microsoft Partners
Spinpanel is a scalable A to Z cloud automation solution that enables Microsoft Partners to
provision, manage, deploy and report on Microsoft 365 and Azure services through a single,
powerful and intuitive user interface.
Key Spinpanel Features
365
Microsoft 365 & Azure automation,
Flexible storefront (e-commerce)
provisioning and management
functionality
Pre-configured ‘ready-to-go’
Enterprise-grade modern workplace
Microsoft solutions
deployment and management
Get in touch today
And discover how Spinpanel can help you
Visit our website
www.spinpanel.com/contact
References
Gartner, 2019 – Forecasts worldwide public cloud revenue (https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-04-02-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-public-cloud-revenue-to-g)
Canalys, 2019 – Cloud market share Q4 2018 and full year 2018 (https://www.canalys.com/newsroom/cloud-market-share-q4-2018-and-full-year-2018)
Techcrunch, 2019 – Why Salesforce is moving Marketing Cloud to Microsoft Azure (https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/15/why-salesforce-is-moving-marketing-cloud-to-microsoft-azure/)
Searchengineland, 2019 – Microsoft Search, Linkedin revenue growth remains slower than a year ago (https://searchengineland.com/microsoft-search-linkedin-revenue-growth-remains-slower-than-a-year-ago-323938)
www.spinpanel.com