Microsoft defines Azure as a flexible and open cloud platform that enables you to quickly build, deploy, and manage applications in its data centers. It has various workloads for the three levels of cloud deliveries: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).

Many organizations use Microsoft Azure to modernize legacy applications or bring their on-premises servers to the cloud to save on costs, enable scalability and high availability, and take advantage of its state-of-the-art security and compliance capabilities.

Learn more about Microsoft Azure here.

Microsoft Azure is a public computing platform that provides organizations access to cloud services for networking, storage, analytics, compute, and more. It comes in various forms such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Azure offers organizations to "pay-as-you-go", which means you are billed only for what you use on a monthly basis. 

Microsoft 365, (formerly Office 365) on the other hand, is a Software as a Service (SaaS). It provides users access to office productivity apps for email, collaboration, communication, file storage, and more that they can either install on their desktops or access on a web browser. Microsoft 365 includes applications such as the well-loved Microsoft Office, SharePoint for content and collaboration, Teams for chat-based communication, Exchange Online for email, Yammer for company-wide communications, and lightweight version of Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI. It also has built-in security that helps you provide a productive and secure remote work environment for your people.

You can purchase Azure services directly through Microsoft or you can get it from Professional Advantage.

By going direct to Microsoft, you will use your credit card to pay for your subscription and Microsoft will provide you with support following their standard SLA’s.

Professional Advantage is a Tier 1 CSP, which means we can provide you with your Microsoft software needs not only for Azure but also for Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 Windows Server, and SQL Server. By choosing Professional Advantage as your Azure provider, you take advantage of these benefits:

1. You work with a single partner that can not only provide you the software that you need, but also the services that help you maximize your Azure investment.
2. You help your IT focus on the things that matter more for your business by complementing them with access to a team that has years of experience deploying, managing, securing, and optimizing Azure.
3. You get billed through monthly invoice from Professional Advantage so you do not have to worry about reaching your limit on your credit card.
4. You get immediate local and/or national support for your billing and technical concerns with our dedicated account management and managed services team.

We recommend using Azure for the following common scenarios.

1. You have ageing hardware or existing datacenter contracts that are becoming too costly to maintain.
2. You are looking for flexibility, scalability, and high availability that your on-premises servers can’t provide.
3. You have legacy business-critical software that you want to modernise.
4. You are worried about the limited protection your current security tools offer to guard against cyber threats.
5. You require to be able to recover and restore your data in cases of unplanned outages, cybersecurity incidents or natural disasters.
6. You want to enable secure remote working by virtualising desktops and apps in the cloud.
7. You want to develop your own apps quickly but want to host them to the cloud.

Yes, you may do so by purchasing Azure through a Microsoft CSP partner such as Professional Advantage where we will bill you for your consumption through a monthly invoice.

We recommend Azure for modernizing or migrating your legacy Windows Server and SQL Server because of the following reasons:

• Azure is built to natively support Windows Server and SQL Server.
• Azure has seamless hybrid capabilities.
• Azure has intelligent security, complying with the world’s most rigid security and compliance regulations.
• Azure has the lowest cost of ownership with its unique pricing options and extended security updates for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Leverage the Windows Server and SQL Server technical skills that you already have. No need for a sharp learning curve to support your users on Azure.

You own your data and Microsoft does not inspect, approve, or monitor applications that you deploy to Azure. Moreover, Microsoft does not know what kind of data you choose to store in Azure. They do not claim data ownership over your information that you enter into Azure.