Microsoft Azure partners get a new tool, migration program

Microsoft Azure partners have become a brand new control tool and a migration program as part of channel investments Microsoft found out inside the run-as much as the business enterprise’s annual associate convention.

Microsoft brought Azure Lighthouse, which the employer stated gives partners “a single control plane” for viewing and handling Azure throughout clients. The new Azure Migration Program, or AMP, ambitions to help clients accelerate their cloud adoption.

The moves are a part of a broader barrage of announcements beforehand of Microsoft Inspire, with a view to run from July 14 to 18 in Las Vegas. In addition to the Azure initiatives, Microsoft improved its Teams collaboration software, launched vertical marketplace integrations for Dynamics 365 and took the wraps off a new Microsoft competency and numerous specializations.

Partners, in the meantime, saw capability in both Azure trends.

“We haven’t begun operating with it yet, but we’re excited about what capacity it could provide and a number of the solutions to demanding situations we are hearing it is going to provide,” said Rory McCaw, president of organisation advisory services at Green House Data, an Azure Expert Managed Services Provider (MSP) based in Cheyenne, Wyo.

He stated Lighthouse offers a single platform that gives access to multiple tenants, simplifying cloud control. The management imparting can be available to Microsoft Azure companions this month, according to Microsoft.

JD Helms, president of CloudJumper, a cloud workspace vendor and Gold-level Microsoft accomplice, known as Azure Lighthouse an attempt to simplify what he termed the “effective, but extremely complex” Azure control portal. “While it’s a step inside the proper path, it is nonetheless limited in scope and functionality.”

Helms said Lighthouse validates the market call for for a simplified Azure management console, as well as 0.33-celebration Azure control consoles. CloudJumper offers Cloud Workspace Management Suite, which Helms said provides a single-pane-of-glass console for a number Azure services.

AMP, in the meantime, affords assets and tools, including Azure Migrate, which centrally plans and tracks an Azure migration. AMP offers guidance to clients via “Microsoft specialists and specialized migration companions,” according to Microsoft.

AMP also provides gives to lessen the expense of migration. “Microsoft has constantly had investment programs and investment mechanisms, however, it’s far clear that AMP is highlighting their hobby in seeing a big migration of workloads to Azure,” McCaw stated.

He stated the timing is suitable, given the approaching stop of life of Windows Server 2008 and this week’s cease of support for SQL Server 2008. Microsoft is providing three years of automatic Extended Security Updates for SQL Server 2008 customers that rehost their workloads to Azure.

AMP ties into VMware on Azure, McCaw brought. He said AMP ambitions to make it less complicated for corporation customers the usage of VMware as the hypervisor to transport from an on-premises VMware implementation to an Azure-primarily based one, especially for their older Windows Server and SQL Server instances.

Robin Brandl, VP of strategic alliances at CloudJumper, said AMP “simplifies the migration manner for precise workloads and offers an alternative to traditional raise-and-shift deployments.”

In addition to the equipment and programs for Microsoft Azure companions, Microsoft rolled out extensions to Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365. New Teams features encompass companion integrations that aid contact centers, compliance recording, and cloud answers providers, in line with Microsoft. Dynamics 365 updates encompass integrations concentrated on the car and economic offerings industries. Microsoft additionally introduced the state-of-the-art model of its Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator.

Other traits encompass the supply of a Microsoft competency in safety and 5 advanced specializations that specialize in Microsoft Azure: Windows Server and SQL Server Migration to Microsoft Azure; Linux and Open Source Databases Migration to Microsoft Azure; Data Warehouse Migration to Microsoft Azure; Modernization of Web Applications in Microsoft Azure; and Kubernetes on Microsoft Azure.

2nd Watch launches AWS migration carrier

2nd Watch, a public cloud MSP based in Seattle, has rolled out a provider that focuses on AWS Managed Services (AMS).

The organization’s AMS Onboarding Accelerator pursuits to help customers examine, migrate and operationalize applications from on-premises infrastructure to the AWS cloud, in step with 2d Watch. The service is added in components. Part one consists of a 4-hour discovery and making plans workshop that is freed from charge. Part two offers onboarding acceleration, a segment that includes packages discovery, structure and infrastructure design, and a migration approach, among other components.

AWS’ access into the managed offerings space in past due 2016 raised eyebrows, however, MSP executives file AMS hasn’t hurt their businesses. Jeff Aden, government VP of marketing and commercial enterprise development at 2nd Watch, stated no longer the whole thing a customer desires to do within the Amazon cloud suits into AMS.

“For us, we see [AMS] as a chunk of the cloud adventure that receives the purchaser to achieve success,” he said. “We are not shying away from it. We see it as an opportunity for a consumer to retain to evolve and scale their cloud usage.”

He said some ISVs have used 2d Watch’s Onboarding Accelerator to offer their on-premises services in a cloud-based solution. He stated the ISV example is a good use case but referred to the provider isn’t always different from ISVs.