Efficiency has always been the watchword of a well-run IT organization that contributes value to the corporate bottom line. But maintaining and gaining efficiencies as the pace of change accelerates—all while staying agile and innovative—remains more challenging than ever.
The sheer scale and complexity of cloud environments complicate oversight. Unlimited configuration options can fragment standards, making it difficult to maintain consistent policies and controls. Left unchecked, costs may spiral unexpectedly. But cost control is only part of the story. Security must remain rock-solid as you scale. On top of this, skills gaps within your team may limit your ability to optimize usage.
A recent IDC research study, “The Business Value of Enhancing Microsoft Azure Projects with Practical Guidance and Resources,” shines a light on how other IT professionals use Azure Essentials to realize tangible value. Azure Essentials brings together curated best practices and product experiences from customers and partners along with reference architectures, skilling, tools, and resources into a single destination to help you maximize the value of your cloud investments.
IDC research validates the Azure Essentials approach
In November 2024, IDC interviewed IT decision makers across a range of industries—financial services, government, insurance, manufacturing, professional services, retail, and utilities. The study's goal was to understand what truly works in the field with Azure, not just on paper.
This research uncovered patterns in how Azure users achieve value through Azure Essentials. Organizations found that what seemed unattainable—cost predictability, efficient workloads, simplified modernization, and readiness for AI—became realistic targets.
Addressing your needs with the right tools
As a part of the IDC research, customers interviewed were asked which parts of Azure Essentials proved to be most impactful. The following tools and guidance featured prominently in the responses from the users in the study:
- Azure Monitor: A comprehensive service for monitoring applications and infrastructure, both in the cloud and on-premises to identify bottlenecks and optimize resource usage effectively.
- Azure Architecture Center: A resource providing best practices, reference architectures, and design patterns for building on Azure, including standard templates and guidelines that promote scalability, security, and compliance while planning for growth.
- Microsoft Cost Management: A tool for tracking and managing cloud spending, providing insights into resource utilization and cost trends, including features for setting budgets and alerts to prevent unexpected charges.
- Azure Landing Zone and Landing Zone Accelerators: Pre-configured environments that provide guidelines for secure and compliant Azure deployments, ensured study participants consistent resource deployment using best practices.
- Azure Advisor: One of the most popular free service solutions, Azure Advisor, provided participants tailored, actionable recommendations based on a company’s specific usage patterns and configurations, regardless of the complexity of their environments.
- Azure Reservations savings: Using Azure Reservations instead of pay-as-you-go enabled study participants to obtain equivalent Azure performance at lower costs and ensure greater cost predictability.
- Azure pricing calculator savings: Azure pricing calculators allowed for increased transparency into costs based on intended workloads, which helps with budget planning and procurement decision-making.
- Enhanced resource utilization and decision savings: Using Azure guidance documentation and tools helped study participants architect their Azure environments to use Azure capacity more efficiently and plan for capacity expansion needs.
- Azure savings plan for compute: Committing to consistent Azure capacity enabled study participants to take advantage of lower costs without giving up flexibility and scalability by allowing Azure customers to change the specifics of their compute capacity depending on workload requirements.
How IT organizations effectively use Azure Essentials
According to the IDC study, most of the participants surveyed reported that their organizations had successfully adopted the guidance, products and tools that comprise Azure Essentials. Most of the clients interviewed were able to establish cost-effective and resilient Azure architectures, while adopting FinOps best practices to manage their Azure environments. These are among the most valuable insights from the study.
Faster and more efficient migrations to Azure
Microsoft customers interviewed reported completing their migrations 30% faster, shaving an average of 2.7 weeks from the typical time needed to migrate an application. Faster migrations and improved staff productivity powered by Azure Essentials guidance, documentation, and tooling have led to an average reduction of 40% in staff time needed for Azure migrations, freeing high-value IT teams to focus on higher-priority activities and initiatives.
Ongoing operational efficiencies
Interviewees additionally reported that with the guidance and tooling of Azure Essentials the typical member of their IT teams spends an average of 16% less time keeping the lights on, which opens 24% more time for them to focus value-generating activities, including proactive strategic planning.
Improved resiliency and availability
Finally, the Azure clients reported experiencing 73% fewer unplanned outages and 77% lower overall impact of unplanned downtime, further bolstering one of the core advantages of running workloads in Azure—the ability to ensure more robust and consistent availability and performance. Moreover, interviewed organizations have reduced revenue-impacting outages to minimal levels, shrinking already low revenue losses associated with unplanned outages by an average of 94%.
Accelerate your future
Whether you are taking your first steps into the cloud or pushing advanced AI workloads across hybrid architectures, Azure Essentials is structured to meet you wherever you are in your cloud AI journey. It offers detailed guidance, as a resource kit, tailored to specific use cases and business scenarios. Moreover, Azure Essentials can help you turn a complex, costly cloud environment into a well-structured ecosystem with actionable insights that support strategic goals while maintaining security and resource balance.
Read the IDC research study to see how implementing the guidance in Azure Essentials leads to measurable benefits – including faster migrations, more time for strategic planning, and less unplanned outages and downtime.
Ready to achieve results that keep your organization on track and prepare for what lies ahead? Visit Azure Essentials and learn how you can better manage your technology to enhance business outcomes.
Microsoft