Z is for Zero

New Signature offers the best solutions, leveraging Microsoft technologies to drive modern businesses forward. In fact, not only does New Signature offer so much, but they also offer nothing. Zero. How can that be? Check out our list of ways that New Signature brings you absolutely zero.

Zero worries about scaling up.

Both Office365 and Azure are built for scaling.  The technology behind Office365 will automatically increase and decrease recourses for your tenant when needed, and Azure allows both IaaS and PaaS systems to be scaled up, down and out when needed.  No more rushing around when marketing releases an advertising campaign without notifying IT.

Zero worries about disaster planning.

Office365 is served by different data centers and regions, so even if disaster strikes, you will still be able to access your email, SharePoint and other apps without an issue.

Using Azure Site Recovery (ASR) you can replicate your on-premises (physical, VMWare or Hyper-V) servers to Azure and have them monitored for any failure.  When a failure happens, the Azure replicated server in Azure can be started, and all traffic will be routed to the new server with minimal downtime.  Effectively Azure becomes your cheap hot site in the cloud for all of your servers.

Zero hardware.

Why pay for CPU’s to sit there until you use them in 3 years’ time, when you can simply create and resize virtual machines without notice.  This frees up money and space that you can put to other uses.   With Azure, you can have all your systems in the cloud without having to worry about 5-year upgrade cycles, as Microsoft upgrades their systems with regularly updated hardware.

Zero costs for migrating.

Microsoft has programs to assist with the migration to Office365 and Azure, so even the cost to entry can be zero, and this doesn’t even include the free tier services and the free ways to migrate to Azure, like Azure Site Recovery (ASR).

Zero downtime for migrating

By utilizing Azure Database Migration Service (ADMS) and Azure Site Recovery (ASR), you can also migrate with almost zero downtime.  As ASR constantly replicates your servers, downtime is reduced to the time it takes to restart the server.  ADMS is designed to work with Data Migration Assistant, the Database Experimentation Assistant, and SQL Server Migration Assistant to provide an easy and trouble-free migration to Azure SQL, whether you are migrating from MS SQL, Oracle, Sybase, DB2, MySQL or other sources.

Zero worries about updating.

Office365 and Azure PaaS services are updated with latest software and hardware without you having to lift a finger, so you get all the latest features as soon as they are released.   If you subscribe to Azure OMS, IaaS Virtual Machines can also be updated using the Operations Management Suite’s Update Management solution, or just continue using your current solution to update all your Azure Virtual Machines on your normal schedule.

Zero sudden costs.

Office365 and Azure gives you a consistent monthly cost. No surprises with hardware failures suddenly forcing you to spend thousands of dollars you didn’t plan on spending and no more large hardware refresh cycles to plan.  Microsoft also has an Azure calculator, so estimating your costs is easy too.

Zero worries about the latest trends

Microsoft Azure offers the latest services and features, including Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Hadoop clusters, Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, and a vast number of other services.  All you must do is sign up to start using these great services.

Zero worries about Security

Microsoft has invested millions of dollars into ensuring their datacenters are secure and comply with the latest standards, such as NIST, GDPR and HIPAA.  They also provide DDoS protection, provide MFA for Azure Active Directory (AAD), encryption for at-rest and in-motion data, and can continuously monitor the security of your machines, networks, and Azure services.  Azure and Office365 also allows you to bring your own encryption keys (BYOK), so even Microsoft cannot view your data.

Azure Security Center (ASC) can also monitor all your servers and warn you of any threats, across Azure, AWS and on-premise.  ASC also continuously monitors your machines using hundreds of built-in security assessments or you can create your own.  ASC can also detect and respond swiftly to attacks by utilizing advanced analytics and the Microsoft Intelligent Security graph.

Zero maintenance worries

Taking advantage of Office365 and Azure PaaS services will mean you never have to worry about tuning software or optimizing CPU and memory.  Everything is take care of behind the scenes, including auto-tuning SQL databases and storage locations for your virtual machines, to ensure you have a fully optimized system.

Zero time to wait!

Now is the time to migrate to Office 365 and Azure.  Connect New Signature to start your migration to Zero!

Originally posted at https://newsignature.com/articles/z-is-for-zero/