10 Best Azure Tools for Small Businesses

Using cloud services in the UK are becoming more common everyday, in fact 94% of enterprises already use a cloud service and companies are putting their efforts and budgets into cloud based tools. One of the most popular cloud tools for SME are the Microsoft's Azure tools, so let's dive and take a closer look at Azure and which are the best Azure tools for small business.

Microsoft Azure is a useful platform with a lot of advantages for your business. It provides a great variety of tools as part of its cloud computing platform, enhancing everything to improve your workflow and business processes and operations.

Azure offers flexible storage to meet your business's increasing data and performance requirements. Its hosted applications are used in conjunction with Microsoft's SaaS tools to boost employee productivity and provide advanced analytics.

Is Azure good for small business?

SME's of all sizes can benefit from Microsoft Azure in several ways. Since it is a flexible cloud service, you will find reliable options without paying huge amount of money for services or cloud storage space that you won't use.

For example, if you need a server to store your data, it would be better to use the Azure storage option instead of buying a physical server. One of the best reasons to use Azure tools is that you pay exactly for what you need.

5 Benefits of migrating to Azure for your small business

1. Azure brings agility

Companies that use Microsoft Azure benefit from shorter development cycles than on-premise solutions. This means they can get feedback faster and make better choices while creating their own applications. This enables companies to make decisions and investigate technology results based on their business goals.

2. Azure has a strong security proposition

Azure Single Sign-On gives access to all of their related platforms without having to remember different passwords or signing in to multiple accounts. This is a major security advantage that protects the staff and business from data breaches and hacking.

3. Azure can be extremely fast to deploy, operate, and scale according to your business needs

Small businesses go to constant changes. Azure doesn’t only provide agility, it also has the speed and pace your business needs in a variety of areas.

4. Flexible expenditure

As we said before, your business just pay for what you use in Azure. No high upfront costs. This is a huge advantage for low-budget companies.

5. Disaster recovery

Huge volumes of data are often transferred globally because many companies operate internationally. Azure provides safeguards against data breaches and repercussions when these data are transmitted.

Best Azure tools for small business in the UK

• Azure Search

This is an AI-powered cloud search service you can add to your business site or mobile apps. This sophisticated search function improves your customers' experience because they can quickly and easily find results they need from your site.

Azure BackupRegular and reliable backups provide your business security against ransomware attacks and data manipulation. Azure Backup is an excellent backup solution because it does not need any extra infrastructure.

With Azure Backup, you can also allow multi factor authentication, set up alerts for any unusual online backup activity, and prevent unauthorised retention or deletions.

• Azure Information Protection

Azure Information Protection gives you complete control over your email, documents, and any other confidential data you may need to share outside of the business. You can set up policies to identify, mark, and protect data based on its sensitivity, as well as revoke user access and determine what actions can be taken with it.

• Azure Automation

Azure Automation is a cloud-based automation and configuration service that helps you to manage your Azure and non-Azure environments in a consistent way. Process automation, configuration management, upgrade management, mutual capabilities, and heterogeneous functionality are all part of this solution.

Automation gives you full controlover workload and resource deployment, processes, and decommissioning.

You can combine orchestration and configuration management operations with Azure Automation. Admins use this method to build runbooks that help them complete management tasks quickly. A technician who does not have access to the environment may, for example, scale up a database.

• Azure Virtual Machines

Using Microsoft Azure to build a Virtual Machine (VM) is a powerful foundation for many businesses. With Azure VM you're getting the best out of modern cloud computing. This VM is used to host apps, websites, or production for your business.You may use your own computer or device without spending money on buying or repairing physical equipment.

• Business Intelligence Tools

Using business intelligence software like Microsoft's Power Business Intelligence (BI) unlocks a slew of advantages. And one of the most significant benefits is the ability to easily collect and process data.

BI lets you organise your data even better, analyse it, and create dashboards, reports, and other visualisations.This tool is designed to help you improve specific aspects of your business operations, such as keeping track of industry dynamics and closely tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

• Azure Active Directory

Azure Active Directory (AD) is an identity management tool your company can use to protect and track all account operations. Giving each user their own identity enhances protection and reduces the possibility of a data breach and cyber attacks.

Azure Active Directory has everything you need to secure account activity through identity management in today's world of cybersecurity. Identity safety and surveillance, as well as threat detection, are all provided by AD.

It ensures solid safety for your business environment by combining sign-in and multi-factor authentication, as well as other security features.

• Mobile Apps

If you’re a business with a team of remote workers, you can use the Mobile Apps tool to build an internal app to communicate with your team effectively, manage workflow, and collate any other internal work documents you need.

Use Mobile Apps to build a mobile app for the iOS, Android, or Windows mobile operating systems. Mobile Software also allows you to build apps that work offline, allowing consumers to create and change data when on the go.

• Storage

Storage gives you access to a variety of resources, depending on your requirements. These tools are fully scalable and adaptable as your company grows and your needs change. Use the 'file system' to transfer your data to the Cloud, or use the 'archive' feature to store essential but infrequently accessed data.

Azure's storage services will help any company with a lot of data and files that need to be protected.

• Azure Site Recovery

Azure Site Recovery goes hand-in-hand with backup as a must-have for any company looking to safeguard its records. Site Recovery is a disaster-recovery-as-a-service that is easy to use, low cost, and reliable. By restoring your most recent data without the need for additional recovery infrastructure, Site Recovery will minimize your business's downtime.

HelpDesk Heroes Advice - Get Microsoft Azure for your SME

Microsoft Azure is one of the most uncomplicated clouds to set up. It's also one of the simplest to run once it's in operation. It has nearly unlimited capabilities for supporting your enterprise, and you can enjoy them even if you have a small business.

A small business is not an excuse to not enjoy the powerful platform provided by Azure. Are you an accountancy firm? Azure can help you at managing your clients while creating reports easily; is your business related to hospitality? Let Azure assist you managing orders, deliveries and clients automatically.

At HelpDesk Heroes we advice you to make a list with the best Azure tools that fits your company, so you can have a better idea. Do you want a more personal guidance? Let's talk! Our IT experts can guide you better how Azure can improve your business.

Read our IT Guide for small business for a full breakdown of all the things you need to know, to keep your business running smoothly.

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