Being partially rooted in technology (and partially in healthcare), our team often thinks in threes just like Steve Jobs. If you read our last couple of installments, you’ll notice our slight obsession with the number 3!
Let the obsession continue!
First, a little background on today’s topic…
Cost is always a crucial element to consider when executing any IT-related changes in your practice. With the end of Microsoft’s support of SQL Server 2008 R2 looming, necessary change will prompt an adjustment in terms of how your practice manages and houses important, sensitive data. The good news is that this necessary change may come with a silver lining when it comes to your budget.
The ideal scenario is to transition to an enhanced, fully managed data infrastructure with pricing transparency and accuracy. If you switch to Microsoft’s Azure Cloud, you can receive the most cost-effective return on your investment.
Below are three ways switching to the Azure cloud can improve your expense picture while also bettering your practice’s technical infrastructure.
1 – Manage and monitor your costs
Azure Cost Management empowers you to make the most of your cloud investment by providing tools to monitor, allocate and optimize your expenses. These tools enable you to improve budgeting and forecasting. You also have the capability to track your usage of resources and oversee your spending. This access to operational and financial insights will help you make the best informed decisions for your practice.
2- Choose flexible, transparent commitments
Keep things simple by exclusively paying for only the services you actually utilize. Pricing with Azure has no surprises and is predictable. Additionally, you have the power to scale your plan up or down at any time based on your practice’s priorities and demands. We recommend taking advantage of one-year or three-year commitment plans to leverage dramatic savings. By making the switch, you can also obtain three additional years of security updates for free. Microsoft even offers flexible subscription licensing that allows you to run software in either Azure, or your own data center, with seamless upgrade access to newer versions as they become available.
3 – Eliminate hardware
Switching to the cloud can also positively impact your capital IT costs by limiting the need to invest and reinvest in pricey hardware. Not to mention, housing and maintaining those servers. When comparing the total cost versus on-site hosting solutions and other cloud providers, Microsoft Azure proves to be the most cost-friendly and effective choice for Windows Server and SQL Server strategy.
If you believe your practice may be ready to convert to the cloud, but have remaining concerns, our next post may help. We’ll outline how Azure eases technology worries while also increasing innovation within your practice.
And yes, we’ll present it in threes!
Until then, our Focus Solutions team is here to help.
