The Security Risks of Keeping Your On-Premises Systems: Why You Should Move Your Clients to Azure

Everyone understands what cloud services are today, but only some Microsoft partner clients are ready to transform their operations and move on-premise infrastructure to it.

They can see the benefits, but they are not ready to make the jump. Cloud migrations can appear daunting. So how can you help your clients understand that digital transformation is worth the effort?

The one simple question you need to get them to answer is: how can the cloud help their organization? It does not have to be something large or expensive. Their answer could be as simple as driving higher efficiency, adding a level of network protection, or adding a layer of resiliency to their business operations.

For many clients, one benefit that only comes to mind when thinking about cloud migrations is enhanced cloud security. After all, controlling your own on-premises hardware simply must be more secure than trusting someone else to host your infrastructure who knows where, right? That blind spot towards the weaknesses in on-premises security can create big risks.

This article explores the security risks of on-premises systems that Microsoft partner clients face and offers talking points on how valuable migrating to Azure can be towards improving their security and overall operation efficiency.

The Security Risks of on-Premise Systems

When on-premises infrastructure was the only option, the risks it created were just the cost of doing business. Now that the cloud has created a viable alternative for your clients’ IT infrastructure, some risks are no longer worth carrying.

Security Patch Management & Increased Risk of Data Breaches

Applying security patches and updates across your clients’ on-premises systems can be complex and time-consuming. Any delays, errors, or oversights can increase the risk of your clients’ data getting exposed by unpatched vulnerabilities.

Cloud infrastructure is patched often and immediately worldwide. There is no delay waiting for patches to roll out, local admins to configure deployments, and then inevitable endpoint troubleshooting. Cloud security management is much more seamless and efficient.

Maintaining Physical Security

Unlike cloud infrastructure, on-prem infrastructure requires physical security to prevent unauthorized access to servers, networking equipment, and your clients’ other hardware. Without proper controls, there is a risk of theft, tampering, or damage to the hardware.

The Threat of Natural Disasters

Those are just the human physical security risks of on-premises systems. If you and your clients are responsible for physical data centers, you must worry about fire, floods, and other natural disasters, potentially taking them offline.

Limited Redundancy & Disaster Recovery

On-premises systems can be more limited in their failover capabilities. If your clients need hot or warm backups, keeping that extra infrastructure online locally can be costly for you and them. And if those backups are all still in the same data center, a major incident could still knock the whole facility offline.

Cloud-based backups are much more resilient and virtually eliminate the problem of natural disasters or major power events shutting down entire data centers. Backups, mirrored infrastructure, and other redundancy measures are also more efficient to maintain and more cost-effective.

How the Cloud Mitigates On-Premises Security Risks

When you boil it right down, the primary reason the cloud can offer better, more secure hosting than on-premises infrastructure for your clients is that it offers unparalleled resiliency. Resiliency means better backups, but it means so much more than that too.

“Resiliency” means ensuring your environment can recover from any adverse scenario. For example, if there is a power outage, if local or regional network service goes down, if there is a power outage, fire, flood, or a facility issue at your client’s office. All those issues would impact on-premises services. None of them impact cloud-based ones.

There are some secondary benefits many clients do not think about either. Not only will migrating to the cloud practically eliminate those direct concerns, but it also eliminates the need for all contingency planning and spending your clients must do for on-prem services. The cloud is its own safety net for any risk scenario, from cyber-attacks to network or other hardware failures.

Benefits of Microsoft Azure for Your Clients’ Cloud Infrastructure

Azure is Microsoft’s comprehensive cloud computing platform that equips Microsoft partners and other IT professionals with a powerful array of services for building, deploying, and managing their clients’ infrastructure.

• Quickly stand up new VMs.
• Host servers, databases, and other services must scale up or down rapidly.
• Build web apps for unique client needs.
• Securely and compliantly implement partner and client-specific AI tools based on private datasets.

With Azure, partners gain access to Microsoft’s global network of hardened data centers to deploy services closer to their clients and their remote users, no matter where they are, reducing latency and enhancing performance. Azure also easily integrates with your clients’ existing Microsoft on-premises systems, allowing you to build hybrid solutions that combine cloud capabilities with existing infrastructure and make cloud migrations easier and less disruptive.

There are many different cloud services on the market today. But to serve your clients better, Microsoft Azure offers a few other specific advantages.

Azure Offers Enterprise-Grade Scalability

Microsoft partners can easily adjust the computing resources allocated to different clients based on short-term business demands and workloads. Using Azure, you can quickly scale resources vertically or horizontally.

Vertical scaling involves modifying the storage or computing power or database resources allocated to a service up or down to meet specific requirements, such as seasonal spikes in a client’s traffic. In contrast, horizontal scaling involves adding or removing additional services of the same type, such as extra VM servers for load balancing or additional database nodes—commonly known as sharding.

Access to the Microsoft Ecosystem

Moving your clients to Azure puts their resources in close proximity to the entire Microsoft ecosystem of applications and services. It will become much easier to integrate. Microsoft is also constantly gauging how partners and their customers use Azure resources. They use that information to guide their roadmaps so they are more responsive to what you and your clients will need in the future.

Accelerate Your Clients’ Digital Transformations with Stratos Cloud Alliance

We are the Microsoft Indirect Provider of the Year with extensive experience in helping organizations move to the cloud. Partnering with us, a proven indirect cloud provider who understands the Microsoft ecosystem end-to-end can help you mitigate the security risks of on-premises systems and move your clients to Azure more easily and effectively.

Schedule a quick call today to learn how Stratos Cloud Alliance can help you move your clients to Azure.