Professional services
Microsoft Azure consultancy
Azure specialists who design and deliver cloud projects around your business, with a cost estimate before anything is built, migration in stages, and security, compliance and cost kept in view throughout.
Who it is for
Businesses in Teesside, the North East and beyond with servers or applications that should move to Microsoft Azure, or that already have and cannot see where the monthly bill goes: a finance system outgrowing its server, a line-of-business application the vendor now hosts only in Azure, a disaster recovery requirement, or an Azure environment set up by someone who has left.
What you get
A roadmap for adopting Azure that fits your goals, a solution design sized for cost and performance with an estimate before anything is built, workloads migrated in planned stages with downtime and data loss kept to a minimum, security and compliance built into the design, and an existing environment reviewed and right-sized so you stop paying for capacity you do not use. Delivered by a Microsoft partner whose engineers are all Odyssey employees.
The problem
Azure can do almost anything, which is why it is easy to overspend, misconfigure or migrate in a way that disrupts the business.
Azure is sold by the hour and the gigabyte, which rewards a design that fits the workload and punishes one that was lifted from the server room as it stood. The common results are a bill that climbs every month with no one able to say why, virtual machines sized for a peak that never comes, storage nobody has tiered, backups nobody has tested, and security settings left at whatever the migration tool chose.
The migration itself is where businesses get hurt. Moving an application and its data in one weekend with no rollback is how a Monday is lost. Thomas Armstrong's critical applications moved to Azure, and its email from Exchange to Microsoft 365, as part of a year-long programme planned in stages with no unplanned downtime.
Azure is also not the answer to everything. Some systems belong on the Odyssey private cloud, where the charge is set by the resources used rather than metered consumption; some belong with their vendor. We design, build and run both, so we have no reason to push one over the other.
What Odyssey provides
- A roadmap for adopting Azure that fits your goals, with what moves, what stays and in what order
- Solution design sized for cost and performance, with an estimate of the Azure consumption before anything is built
- Migration planned in stages to keep downtime and data loss to a minimum, with rollback at each stage
- Security and compliance built into the design, from identity and network to backup and monitoring
- Cost optimisation of existing Azure environments, right-sizing what you already run
- Documentation and handover, with ongoing management from our team if you want it
What is included
| Included | Detail |
|---|---|
| Discovery | Your systems, applications, data, goals and constraints reviewed, and the dependencies between them mapped |
| Roadmap | What moves to Azure, what stays on site or on our private cloud, and the order, agreed with you |
| Design | An Azure architecture with identity, networking, security, backup and monitoring designed in, and a consumption estimate you can take to the board |
| Build | The environment built to the design, with Entra identity, network security and backup configured before any workload moves |
| Migration | Workloads moved in planned stages, each tested and with a rollback, scheduled around the business |
| Optimisation | An existing environment reviewed for cost, security and performance, with the savings made |
| Handover | Documentation, and ongoing management through cloud infrastructure support if you want it |
Not included, or sold separately
- Azure consumption
- What Microsoft charges for the resources you use is separate from our work; the design exists to keep it predictable
- Application changes
- Making an application cloud-ready is the vendor's or the developer's work; we design the environment around what the application needs
- Day-to-day management
- After handover, monitoring, patching and support of the servers in Azure is cloud infrastructure support, from your retainer
- Microsoft 365
- Licensing, tenant security and user support are the Microsoft 365 and Azure service
- Other clouds
- We work in Azure and the Odyssey private cloud, and take on AWS work on request
How it is delivered
-
Discover
Your systems, applications and data, who depends on what, what the business wants from the move, and what it cannot tolerate during it.
-
Roadmap and design
What moves, what stays and in what order; an architecture sized for cost and performance with security and backup designed in; and a consumption estimate before anything is built.
-
Build the landing zone
Identity, networking, security, backup and monitoring configured in Azure first, so every workload lands in an environment that is already governed.
-
Migrate in stages
Workloads moved in planned stages, out of hours where the business needs it, each tested before the next and with a rollback, and the old system kept until the new one is proven.
-
Optimise and hand over
The environment reviewed after it is live, resources right-sized, and the documentation handed over, with ongoing management from our team if you want it.
Why trust Odyssey with this
-
ISO
Certified to ISO 27001 for information security
-
In-house
All work completed by Odyssey employees, never subcontracted
-
3
Calls answered within three rings, and a director is always reachable
- Odyssey is a Microsoft partner
Questions people ask
Can you help if we are already in Azure?
Yes. We review existing Azure environments for security, cost and performance, right-size what you run, put right what needs attention and document what you have, which is often the first time anyone has.
Will a migration disrupt the business?
We plan migrations in stages, test each stage before moving on, keep a rollback and schedule the work around your operations. Thomas Armstrong's critical applications moved to Azure as part of a year-long programme with no unplanned downtime.
We are new to Azure. Where do we begin?
With a roadmap for adopting Azure that fits your goals, followed by a solution design sized for cost and performance and a consumption estimate, so you know what you are building and what it will cost before anything moves.
How do you keep Azure costs under control?
We size designs for cost as well as performance from the start, give you a consumption estimate before building, and for environments already in Azure we review how resources are used and cut what you do not need.
Should everything go to Azure?
No. Some systems suit Azure, some suit the Odyssey private cloud, where the charge is set by resources rather than metered use, and some belong with their vendor. We design and run both clouds, so the recommendation is about fit.
Is Azure secure by default?
Not without design. Identity, network security, backup and monitoring are configured in the landing zone before any workload moves.
Can you support our servers after the migration?
Yes. Our cloud infrastructure support monitors, updates and optimises servers in Azure, and our backup and recovery service protects them with recovery objectives agreed per system.
What does the consultancy cost?
A migration or build is priced as a fixed sum after discovery; advice and reviews are by the day or the hour. Azure consumption is separate and estimated before we build, so there are two numbers and you see both.
Challenges this helps with
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