Now Dell does Azure

For businesses with a legacy of commitment to Microsoft applications, the obvious route to follow if they wish to move into the cloud is to at least look at Microsoft’s comprehensive platform service, Azure. But because of that legacy, many businesses still seem reluctant to move from their on-premise environment. Providing help and assistance to them is, therefore, a challenge that several other vendors have taken up.

The latest of them is Dell, which seems to be building out service-delivery capabilities in several directions at once. One of the latest is the arrival of a complete portfolio of services designed to enable development and migration of applications onto the Windows Azure platform.

This collaboration follows a pattern Dell has established of targeting business-specific service opportunities, such as SAP’s move into the cloud, Microsoft Dynamics for CRM and ERP, and a range of services in ERP and lifecycle management built around Oracle software.

A key contribution to the Azure-related partnership is the creation of the Dell-powered Windows Azure Platform Appliance. Working on the platform-as-a-service cloud delivery model (PaaS), the Appliance sets out to offer cost-saving elasticity, by allowing users to scale up and scale back as required.

The result is a flexible cloud delivery model that adapts to the needs and goals of individual businesses. Dell is making it available as both public and private options, together with a range of cloud support services, such as standardised technology and proactive, remote management, ease of use, with automated, self-configuring, open technology, and tiered storage that the company states is safe, affordable and open.

Dell also offers cloud consulting services for such tasks as application migration, integration and implementation.

The aim is to create an environment where Microsoft customers can work with Dell as a single point of contact for design, delivery and ongoing management of applications hosted in the cloud on Windows Azure. The goal is to drive benefits such as increased speed-to-market and agility, better collaboration across organisational boundaries, more modernised application portfolios and a greater ability to manage variable demand capacity needs.

With Windows Azure, Microsoft provides fully supported infrastructure and platform services offerings, spanning a comprehensive hybrid cloud solution that integrates existing IT infrastructure with the latest cloud technology.