Microsoft 365 and Azure
Microsoft 365 and Azure for small businesses: migrations, cost reviews and the honest answer about your server
Fixed-price Microsoft 365 and Azure projects from a Microsoft partner who has designed and run cloud infrastructure for organisations a great deal bigger than yours. Migrations with no day without email, Azure environments that are architected rather than “spun up”, and a cost review that finds what you’re paying for and shouldn’t be.
Microsoft partner, independent. Eleven years securing enterprise cloud infrastructure. Fixed price, scoped and quoted before we start.
Microsoft 365, set up the way it should have been
Most small businesses are on Microsoft 365 already. Fewer have it set up well: multi-factor sign-in on for everyone, the leaver’s mailbox handled, files in SharePoint rather than on the one laptop, licences matched to what people actually use. A Microsoft 365 tidy-up is a fixed-price job and it’s usually the best value work we do.
Migrating to Microsoft 365 from on-premises Exchange, Google Workspace or a tangle of personal accounts is scoped and quoted first, and moved without a day without email. The sign-in security goes on at the same time, because a migration is the one moment everyone will accept it.
Azure services we deliver as fixed-price projects
Architecture first. Ongoing management afterwards, only if you want it.
Azure architecture
Landing zones, network segmentation, management groups and policy. Designed so somebody can find things in a year, not just made to work today.
Migration to Azure
Server by server or all at once, assessed and planned first, moved with minimal downtime, tidied afterwards. And told plainly when a server should be retired instead.
Azure cost review
Reserved instances, right-sizing, orphaned resources, storage tiers. The review is fixed price and the saving usually covers it within months.
Azure Virtual Desktop
Windows desktops in the cloud for people who work from anywhere. Auto-scaled so you’re not paying for desktops nobody’s logged into.
Backup and disaster recovery
Azure Backup for what’s there, immutable copies ransomware can’t delete, and a recovery plan that’s been tested rather than filed.
Azure security
Defender for Cloud, private endpoints, network security groups, policy enforcement. Secure by design, run to Cyber Essentials standards.
The Azure reality for most small businesses
It started at £500 a month and it’s £2,000 now, and nobody’s sure why. Resources scattered across subscriptions with no names. A consultant who set it up and left. Backups that exist, probably, and have never been restored. Azure isn’t the problem. Unmanaged Azure is the problem.
The cost review is where most Azure work starts: a fixed-price look at what’s running, what it costs, who uses it and what can go. Then the architecture gets tidied, the security gets set, and you get a written record of what’s there.
What it costs
Projects are fixed price, scoped and quoted before anyone starts, with the scope written down so there’s nothing to argue about later. Microsoft 365 licences are paid to Microsoft at Microsoft’s price, roughly £10 to £20 a person a month depending on the plan. If what’s built needs looking after afterwards, that’s priced per box and it’s optional.
Most Microsoft 365 tidy-ups for a small office are a day or two of work. Most Azure cost reviews pay for themselves inside a few months.
Projects, priced in the open
Scope written down before anyone starts.
Azure cloud support by area
The work is remote first wherever you are. If you’d rather read about it for your patch: Azure cloud support in Cheshire covers Chester, Warrington, Crewe and Macclesfield, with the Wirral and Liverpool pages to follow.
Azure and Microsoft 365: the questions people ask first
Do we need Azure at all?
Often not. A lot of small-office servers are doing a job Microsoft 365 already does, and the right advice is to retire them rather than move them to the cloud and keep paying. We'll say that on the call if it's true. Azure earns its place when there's a line-of-business application, a database, or a need for virtual desktops.
Our Azure bill keeps growing and nobody knows why. Can you help?
That's the most common Azure conversation we have. Test machines still running, premium storage holding archive data, licences for people who left, resources nobody can name. A cost review finds it, fixed price, and the saving usually pays for the review inside a few months.
Can you migrate us to Microsoft 365?
Yes. From on-premises Exchange, from Google Workspace, from a mix of personal accounts and a shared inbox. Scoped and quoted before we start, moved with no day without email, and the sign-in security set up properly at the same time.
Are you a Microsoft partner?
Yes, and independent. Licences are paid to Microsoft at the price Microsoft charges, not marked up through us. If a cheaper licence does what you need, that's the one you'll get.
What do Azure and Microsoft 365 projects cost?
Fixed price, quoted before anyone starts, with the scope written down. Microsoft 365 licences run roughly £10 to £20 a person a month, paid to Microsoft. Ongoing management of what's built is optional afterwards, priced per box.
Have a chat with Eric
Fifteen minutes with Eric. Bring the Azure invoice if that’s what started this.
That didn’t send. Ring 0151 452 3060 and you’ll get me directly, or email [email protected].
Microsoft 365 and Azure without the experiment
Fixed-price migrations, cost reviews and architecture from a Microsoft partner who's run it at scale. Small businesses across the Wirral, Liverpool and Cheshire, and remote first everywhere else.