While going over different cloud service options, you may have encountered some companies that mention Microsoft Azure Services even though they are not actually offering Microsoft Azure. LiquidDataSystems.com, for example, mentions on its website that it offers an Azure-based cloud archive solution and an Azure-based mailbox.
For those who are new to the nitty-gritty of cloud services, this is not because these companies want to capitalise on the familiarity of Azure cloud services. It’s not that companies are trying to make use of Azure’s brand and popularity. The reason is simply that they are offering services that are meant to work with Azure and other Microsoft solutions. These companies have partnered with software as a service (SaaS) providers that support Microsoft solutions to provide cloud services that make it easy to store and migrate collaborative data.
Advantageous Azure Services
Azure cloud service provides a good deal of benefits. For one, it enables the simple and affordable creation of data backups in the cloud with 99.95% monthly SLA. It also makes it easy to scale up or down the solutions to cost-effectively suit your needs. Moreover, Azure provides an efficient way for hosting apps on the cloud so they can be quickly deployed and you only have to pay for the cloud resources you use.
Given these advantages, it’s not difficult to figure out why many are using the Microsoft Azure cloud service. In fact, a report early this year revealed that the Azure cloud market share has been rising, at the expense of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The report cited data from KeyBanc analysts. Accordingly, Microsoft already has 20% of the cloud market in the last quarter of 2017. This is 4% higher than the figure for the same period in the previous year. AWS still leads the global cloud market with a 62% share. However, this number is down from 68% for the same period in the prior year. It appears Microsoft has been gaining customers who have ditched AWS.
Purposeful Advertising, Not Mere Namedropping
As mentioned earlier, mentioning Azure on the websites of cloud service providers is not an attempt to deceive. Yes, these companies are trying to convince clients to use their cloud solutions and leave Azure, AWS, or Google but the namedropping is not for this purpose. It is mostly because they want to inform potential customers that they have services that can complement or supplement the Azure cloud platform potential customers are already using. It’s not going to be easy to ditch Azure especially for businesses that have had a good experience with it.
The goal is to reach out to potential customers who are seeking good alternative cloud solutions that are compatible with the Azure platform. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s actually good that there are many alternatives for those who may not want to use Azure but want to make sure that they will not have problems in case they have to do data migration that involves Azure services.