Azure consultancy services

Setting up Azure correctly – before the account explains it

We advise medium-sized companies on the way to the Microsoft Cloud: structure, identity, cost control and operation. Manufacturer-neutral, implemented in Azure – from the Stuttgart location.

Discussion of projects
Cloud migration
Pre-launch costs calculated
Hybrid if need be
Three questions before the first deployment
Anyone who answers it later will pay for it
How is the structure cut?Subscriptions, resource groups and naming conventions can only be changed with relocation.
Who is allowed what – and where does identity come from?Without a clean role concept, “give access for a short time” becomes a permanent state.
To whom is the euro allocated?After six months, no one knows what the invoice is for.

What Companies Get Us for at Azure

It is rarely the question of, whether Azure. Usually, the decision has been made and it is tied to the implementation – in one of four places.

The way there is unclearWhich systems migrate first, which ones do not, and what happens to those in between? We evaluate the stock and set an order that does not stop the operation. The mechanics behind it – Rehost, Replatform, Refactor – are on our side Cloud Migration.
The costs are running out of handThe environment is running, but the monthly bill is rising and no one can explain it. This is almost never a price problem, but a structure and allocation problem.
It remains hybrid – and this must workManufacturing, measurement technology or old applications remain in the house. The connection to Azure must be stable, secure and traceable in the event of an error.
Lack of evidenceClients, auditors or regulation ask about access concept, logging and data location. Answers can be retrofitted – it is easier beforehand.

The basic structure: why the order counts

The most expensive mistake in Azure projects is not the wrong VM size, but an environment that has grown without structure. Five things must be decided before the first productive resource is created.

1
Identity and roles
Whoever registers from where and what he is allowed is the basis for everything else. Roles are given to groups, not individuals, and increased rights are temporary rather than permanent. If this is followed, you have to intervene in a running environment – this is much more unpleasant.
2
Cutting of subscriptions
Whether production, testing and development are separate determines how cleanly costs, rights and policies can be separated later. Subsequent conversion means moving resources – with everything that depends on it.
3
Network and connection
Address areas, transitions to your own house and the way of data traffic to the outside. Especially in hybrid environments, this point later decides on stability and on a significant part of the running costs.
4
Guidelines Instead of Calling
What is allowed – permitted regions, mandatory encryption, forced labelling – belongs in machine-enforced policies. Everything that is only in an operating instruction is bypassed at some point, usually under time pressure.
5
Cost allocation from day one
Each resource gets a label that says which area or project it belongs to. Without this, the bill is a sum without cause – and no discussion about savings can be conducted objectively.

Why Azure Bills Are Surprising

Prices are publicly available on the net. Nevertheless, estimates are regularly wrong – because the expensive posts are rarely the ones you think of.

External data traffic
Pushing data in is usually cheap, not getting it out. Anyone who regularly moves large quantities back into the house or to another provider should calculate this beforehand – that is also the question behind every exit consideration.
Moving without adjustment
Servers are often adopted one-to-one, including the reserves that were planned for peak loads years ago. In the cloud, you pay these reserves monthly instead of buying them once.
What is never shut down
Test and development environments often run around the clock, although they are needed during working hours. Shutdown schedules are one of the few levers that act immediately and without risk.
Memory of the wrong class
Archive data on fast storage costs many times what would be necessary. This is rarely noticeable, because memory per unit is cheap – but not in total.
Unused licensing benefits
Existing Windows and SQL Server licenses can be charged under certain conditions. Anyone who does not check this pays licenses twice – once in the contract, once in the hourly price.
Forgotten resources
Unassigned addresses, orphaned hard drives, snapshots from a project from the year before last. Individually inconspicuous, together a noticeable post – and without labeling no one finds it.

We deliberately do not give percentages for possible savings. How much is in it, shows only the look into your accounting – and that is part of the first conversation.

Azure consulting in Stuttgart and the region

Our location is the Ulmerstraße 300 in Stuttgart. This is less relevant for a cloud topic than for other services – the work takes place largely remotely anyway. Nevertheless, two things are regularly different in the region, and both have to do with the industrial environment.

First, more remains in the house than the plan envisaged. Machine, measurement and process data do not migrate completely to the cloud – partly because of latency, partly because the customer restricts it contractually. The result is permanent hybrid environments, which must be planned as a permanent state and not as a transition. This changes grid connection, operating concept and cost model in equal measure.

Secondly, the data location is asked for – by customers from automotive and mechanical engineering as well as from the public environment. Azure offers regions in Germany and the EU; Which services are available there in which form, however, differs. This test belongs at the beginning, not in the acceptance.

For local appointments we are easily reachable in the region; Customers are looked after nationwide. If you want to hand over an existing environment, we also take over the ongoing operation – see Managed Services in Stuttgart.

Frequent questions about Azure consulting

No. We also support AWS and Google cloud environments and provide manufacturer-neutral advice. But when the decision has been made for Azure – often because Microsoft products are already in use – we implement them. We do not advise anyone to make a change that is of no use.

Yes. At the beginning there is an inventory: structure, rights, guidelines, cost allocation and what is documented. This results in what can be straightened during operation and what requires conversion. We say both before, not during billing.

Yes, and in the region this is more the rule. Production-related systems, metrology and some legacy applications remain local. It is important to plan the hybrid model as a permanent state – with a clear grid connection, uniform monitoring and an operating concept that covers both sides.

That is what you determine. Azure offers regions in Germany and the EU, and guidelines can technically enforce that resources are only created there. In individual cases, it is necessary to check which services are available in the desired region – this differs, and it is a question for the start of the project.

The start is deliberately small: an inventory or a concept for the basic structure, the result of which you can assess before you commit to more. What the Azure environment itself costs depends on your burden – this can only be said seriously after a look at the stock or the previous billing.

Some leverage works instantly and without risk – shutdown schedules for test and development environments, cleaning up orphan resources, checking eligible licenses. Others need a conversion, such as tailoring subscriptions or a changed storage strategy. We separate the two cleanly instead of packing everything into a number.
ALGEBRA Engineering & Consulting GmbH
Azure consultancy for SMEs – location in Stuttgart, activity nationwide.
Ulmerstraße 300
70327 Stuttgart
+49 711 390 146 56
info@algebra-ec.de
What a First Talk Starts With
  • What's going on today and what's going to move from it at all
  • What to Stay in the House – and Why
  • How today's bill comes about, if there is already one
  • Which first step is really worthwhile

Settlement of talks

Related benefits

Cloud MigrationRehost, Replatform, Refactor – and when what fits.Find out more ›Managed ServicesOperation and monitoring after the project.Find out more ›Data MigrationTake stock data without loss.Find out more ›Business intelligenceEvaluations based on the new platform.Find out more ›
Azure – planned instead of grown
Whether you are at the beginning or have inherited an environment: We look at the actual state and tell you what is worthwhile and what you can save yourself. The initial conversation costs nothing.

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