Microsoft Azure offers a wide range of cloud-based resources and tools for building, deploying, and managing various types of applications and services. Although many CPA firms have adopted Microsoft Azure, there are additional benefits that they may not be leveraging to optimize their IT infrastructure and unlock cost savings. By partnering with the right MSP, your firm can benefit from all that Microsoft Azure offers without burdening your firm with its intricate management and the real risk of overspending.
Azure Optimization for CPA Firms
Azure optimization refers to the strategic process of fine-tuning Microsoft Azure resources and services to achieve the optimal balance between performance, cost efficiency, and operational excellence.
For CPA firms, this entails carefully tailoring their cloud infrastructure to meet the unique demands of their employees using tax, audit, and financial applications. By analyzing resource usage, rightsizing virtual machines, implementing automated scaling, and adopting cost-effective storage solutions, Azure optimization ensures that CPA firms are getting the most value from their cloud investment. Furthermore, it involves leveraging Microsoft’s suite of payment options to drive costs down while still providing the firms with flexibility in relation to growth.
Key Features of Azure Optimization
- Cost efficiency and visibility: Azure offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model so that your firm can understand its monthly spend and only pay for you what you need.
- Workload management: Ensure that Azure resources, such as virtual machines, databases, and storage, are appropriately scaled to meet the workload requirements without overcommitting resources. During the busy season, you can tier and reallocate resources where needed without overpaying.
- Flexible scaling and reach: Unlock secure remote access to your accounting software, client data, and critical applications with Azure Virtual Desktops (AVD). Azure’s global network also enables your firm to maximize work from anywhere as you support your outsourced workers.
- Automation: Reduce manual efforts and minimize errors by automating routine tasks such as configurations and deployments.
- Performance monitoring: Tools like Azure Monitor are available to continuously monitor your environment to identify bottlenecks and optimize performance.
- Application performance: Enhance responsiveness and overall application performance by fine-tuning compute sizing, storage speed, analyzing network configurations, and more.
- Data management and analytics: Services such as Azure Files and SQL Database can be used to efficiently manage and store data. Other tools are accessible to help your firm interpret data and identify trends.
- Security and compliance: Access controls, encryption, and compliance configurations can be implemented to further protect your firm’s data and meet industry compliance standards.
What Your Firm Gains (or Loses)
Optimizing Azure allows your firm to gain new efficiencies and more uptime while cutting costs and resource restrictions. Especially during the busy season, the need for additional resources, flexible scalability, and performance can be adjusted to your firm’s specific usage needs. Your firm can efficiently allocate resources on-demand, ensuring seamless application performance without incurring unnecessary costs during slower seasons. Azure optimization also allows your firm to implement robust security measures and maintain regulatory compliance while avoiding overprovisioning and excessive spending.
By harnessing the power of Azure optimization, your firm can improve business focus, streamline operations, enhance client services, and manage costs all while retaining the agility and scalability of the cloud.
Why Partner with Netgain on Your Azure Journey?
According to Forrester, only 6% of enterprises have optimized their cloud costs. For those firms who do not have the expertise, staff, and capacity to optimize their Azure environment on their own, partnering with an Azure expert managed service provider (MSP) will enable your firm to do so. Netgain empowers CPA firms to realize the benefits of Azure while relieving them of the complexities and capacity that is required when managing a cloud environment. Our team of Azure engineering and FinOps experts has over 20 years’ experience in IT services with expertise in configuring and managing Azure infrastructure to ensure performance and tight cost management. We offer customizable support services to meet your firm’s specific needs along with our 24/7/365 on-call technical support to ensure your users get the most out of their environment while we fully manage:
- Azure optimization service: Track your consumption and regain control with our Azure Optimization Service that identifies immediate cost savings opportunities and performance optimizations by assessing your Azure spend in minute detail, configuration, and resource usage. Our FinOps experts work with you and create an actionable optimization plan.
- Proactive monitoring and maintenance: We proactively monitor and handle all day-to-day responsibilities in your Azure environment to enhance operational reliability and limit performance impact with 24×7 support, security incident response, disaster recovery, and system updates.
- Dedicated Azure management and consulting: We partner with you as an extension of your internal team equipped with certified engineers and unmatched expertise focused on optimizing your Azure environment and available for guidance.
- Managed disaster recovery: Leveraging Azure’s capabilities, we design, develop, and manage your disaster recovery plan. We monitor Azure’s Site Recovery to guarantee a complete recovery in record time with short Recovery Point and Time Objectives.
- Layered security solution: As a security-first organization, we practice layered defense that ensures perimeter, network, endpoint, application, and data protection security procedures complement each other so your firm maintains, and often exceeds, compliance requirements.
The Bottom Line
Microsoft Azure offers an extensive catalog of tools and services such as analytics tools, AI capabilities, virtual machines that are scalable and reliable so that CPA firms have unlimited access. However, the cloud platform is so complex that many users have yet to achieve Azure optimization, a harmonious balance between performance, cost, and operational excellence. By modifying usage, identifying cost savings, and enhancing performance, Azure optimization enables CPA firms to streamline operations. Aligning with Netgain’s approach to achieve Azure optimization ensures your firm can focus on its core business, unlocking savings, exceeding in compliance, and maximizing your cloud investment.
Learn more about our in-depth methodology with our Azure Cost Optimization Service.