Microsoft Azure Licence Advisory
The business case for optimising software licensing before you migrate to Azure.
Why optimise licensing
before moving to Azure?
Migrate smarter: Don’t move across licences you don’t use. Find your organisation’s optimal cost, licensing and consumption models for Azure. Reduce current licence spend, avoid cloud cost blow-out and non-compliance fines.
Ensure compliance: Make sure you’re aware of contractual blockers and licensing restrictions and clean up any compliance issues before you move to avoid costly penalties.
Get more value out of Azure: Optimising your software licensing can help get better performance in the cloud.
Why now?
Optimise before you move, not after: Licence advisory should be the first step to minimise risk and understand the value of an Azure migration from a licensing perspective.
Renegotiate contracts: Stop overspending on software. Use your Azure migration as an opportunity to reassess vendor contracts and negotiate a better deal.
Higher chance of being audited: A move to Azure can trigger a vendor audit, especially from the vendors you’re moving away from. Make sure you’re compliant and audit-ready.
Why Invictus Partners?
We know Microsoft: To truly understand Azure, you need to understand Microsoft. With our deep knowledge of Microsoft’s licensing models, contractual nuances, sales processes and negotiation strategies, we can cut through the BS and help you focus on what really matters.
Cloud licensing expertise: Our team has many decades of combined experience advising on software licence optimisation across on-premise, SaaS, PaaS and IaaS environments. We can help you optimise existing licensing structures without compromising your compliance when moving to Azure.
Holistic approach: We offer a 360-degree view of all elements of cloud engagements between software vendors, cloud providers, and system integrators.
Chat to an expert
Understand the licensing impacts of an Azure migration before you move.
Turn your Microsoft licences into Azure licences
Choosing to move to Azure over a third-party cloud platform may make dealing with Microsoft easier, but it doesn’t automatically equate to cost savings and compliance. Invictus Partners can assess your Microsoft estate and rightsize your licensing structure for Azure to ensure your migration is beneficial.
The best way to keep costs down is to use your existing on-premise licences where possible. Our Cloud Licensing specialists can help you chart a course of what, when, and how Microsoft products (Windows Server, SQL Server, and more) can be redeployed in Azure within existing licensing terms.
Licensing Oracle on Azure
In third-party cloud strategy terms, Oracle’s licensing terms are very flexible for customers moving to Azure. The Microsoft-Oracle partnership continues to strengthen, with Azure now offering fully licensed and supported Java, as well as an Oracle-authorised cloud environment for Oracle Database and applications. Don’t let this lull you into a false sense of security, though; Oracle is notoriously strict on licence compliance during cloud migrations, and that won’t change anytime soon. Our team can assist in optimising your Oracle licensing ahead of the move to Azure and ongoing.
Licensing IBM on Azure
IBM allows its customers to transfer on-premise licences to Azure on a BYOL basis, as long as this is in line with the terms of existing IPAA/IPLA agreements. Invictus Partners can help optimise your IBM licensing ahead of a move to Azure to ensure you avoid excess costs.
Licensing SAP on Azure
SAP customers can run mission-critical applications in Azure using a BYOL model. Invictus Partners can optimise your SAP software licensing footprint for Azure, and ensure you manage compliance risks and prevent cost blowouts during the migration.
Our Microsoft Azure Migration Licence Advisory Service breakdown:
We can provide expert licensing advice before, during and/or after your move to Microsoft Azure. We do this in three phases, which are available as an end-to-end service, or as separate engagements.
Phase 1
Pre-Migration
Licence
Assessment
Phase 2
Azure Cloud
Migration
Strategy
Phase 3
Vendor
Negotiation
Advisory
Phase 1
Azure Pre-Migration Licence Assessment
A Pre-Migration Licence Assessment provides an insight into the licences you currently have and use, which is needed to identify which servers, applications, and services you should migrate, and how they would be best converted to the Azure instance. This comprehensive review also highlights where you may need to restructure and/or renegotiate licensing terms for optimal deployment in the cloud.
Phase 2
Azure Cloud Migration Strategy
Invictus Partners works with you to develop an Azure migration roadmap that aligns with your business goals. This includes which workloads and applications to migrate, the best approach for the platform migration (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), planning and prioritising, accountabilities and governance, contractual and entitlement mapping, reporting and measuring success parameters.
Our team can then guide your organisation to effectively implement the strategy, working in collaboration with your chosen systems integrator to manage licensing before, during and after the migration.
Phase 3
Vendor Negotiation Advisory
Our team can assist in negotiating optimal contract terms with your software vendors ahead of an Azure migration. We provide benchmarking advice in relation to pricing and terms and can participate in vendor negotiations (or conduct them on your behalf) to secure you the best deal.
Have you already moved to Azure? We can help you reduce Azure costs.
If you’ve recently received a horrifying Azure bill from Microsoft, you’re not alone. Most organisations spend far more on Azure than they budget for, as more workloads, applications and data are moved into the cloud. Before you know it, what you predicted would cost $100,000 has cost your organisation $350,000.
Unfortunately, we don’t have the power to change the last invoice, but we can help prevent you from ever getting Azure bill shock again.
Azure Cost Analysis
We assess your Azure spend and usage patterns against your Server and Cloud Enrollment (SCE; for expiring Azure customers), Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) or Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) entitlements. We look for the common Azure cost traps and decipher Microsoft’s tricky financial terms to work out exactly where your money is going.
Azure Cost Optimisation
We can ensure that your Azure consumption is rightsized from a licensing perspective. Our team implements best-practice cost optimisation strategies, as well as identifies any short-term savings opportunities.
Azure Licence Management
Our team can also manage your Azure licensing on an ongoing basis to keep costs under control. This keeps you in a continuous state of licence optimisation and compliance, ensuring you never pay more than you need to and are not caught out by changing Azure usage terms. We can provide resources to support an in-house licence management program or you can offload it entirely to us.
The Invictus Partners difference: Independent Microsoft Azure Cloud Consulting Services
Invictus Partners is a vendor-agnostic software licensing advisory firm, working across a number of leading global vendors, including AWS, Google Cloud Platform, RISE with SAP, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and IBM Cloud. Our independent business model ensures we always act in our clients’ best interests, providing impartial facts and informed insights.
Our experienced team knows how to make the most of Azure’s licensing options, discounts and financial incentives. We have extensive experience with Microsoft’s licensing terms and agreement structures and bring clarity and understanding to Microsoft licensing, release information and “sales speak”.
With Azure budgets often blowing out by hundreds of thousands of dollars, it makes business sense to work with a specialist licence advisory firm and get your licensing right from the start.