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Charmaine Peens Microsoft Brand Manager at First Distribution

Compute power is emerging as one of the most critical resources for this decade. The term refers to the hardware, processors, memory, storage and energy needed to operate the datacentres running AI.

With surging global demand for compute power, leading datacentre players are gearing up for a massive deployment of capital. However, there are several barriers to datacentre development. The biggest challenges include power infrastructure bottlenecks, supply chain constraints, community concerns over resource use, and the environmental impact of datacentres, as well as uncertainty over future demand.

Organisations need to make calculated decisions when planning ahead. “Energy supply and rising electricity tariffs make long-term planning difficult, and also impact competitiveness,” says Charmaine Peens, Microsoft Brand Manager at First Distribution. “Since datacentres require a steady supply of water for cooling, water supply is also a major concern. In South Africa, the specialised technical skills required to maintain a datacentre’s infrastructure and software are also very limited at this time.”

Many organisations are making the decision either migrate their IT infrastructure to a cloud provider or go with a datacentre refresh. “There are many aspects to consider here,” Peens says. “The overall costs and the total cost of ownership of on-premise software must be taken into account, especially since costs of hardware are rising and scalability is very limited – you have to buy today for the future.”

With Microsoft Azure’s Cloud Limited, an organisation doesn’t carry the responsibility for the infrastructure costs, maintenance costs, or labour costs to ensure sufficient uptime. Pay-as-you-go models allow for ultimate flexibility and scalability. Reserved instances – discounted reservation rates for one- or three-year term commitments on stable workloads – ensure further cost savings.

The Microsoft Datacentre Optimisation (DCO) is designed for any Microsoft partner migrating customers to Azure. DCO itself is an optimisation methodology, where software, predominately middleware, is procured and deployed using Azure ARC – a bridge that extends the Azure platform into customers’ environments.

“This optimisation programme meets customers where they are on their journey to the cloud,” Peens says. “It’s a global initiative to help partners supplement their on-premises business and, simultaneously, benefit from the cloud. DCO is especially designed for any Microsoft partner migrating customers to Azure.”

Moving to Azure DCO allows for flexibility and cost reduction from a software perspective. This is beneficial because the software is used on a consumption basis, so organisations only pay for what is used. This works particularly well for independent software vendors as they often have limited need for Microsoft SQL servers, and they can be turned on and off. DCO allows partners and their customers to benefit from incentives, free resources, tooling, engineering support, and proven guidance for their hybrid cloud journey. “Whether you are already a partner or looking to become one, DCO will help you move forward with confidence,” Peens says.

Azure offers a comprehensive set of security features and compliance certifications, investing more than $1 billion annually in security and offering more compliance certifications than other hyperscalers. This makes it suitable for all partners, no matter how stringent their security and compliance requirements.

Additionally, from an environmental perspective, Microsoft set goals in 2020 to become carbon-negative, water-positive, zero-waste, and to protect more land than it uses by 2030. “I believe that going forward, hybrid environments making use of the cloud and on-premise, with the use of tools like Azure ARC, will provide an optimal solution that offers flexibility and cost-savings,” Peens concludes.

Contact us for more information: 011 540 2640 microsoft.leads@firstdistribution.com