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Infrastructure and Cloud
In 30 minutes, we’ll show you where Azure often goes wrong, how to avoid the most common issues, and how to get more value from your investment.
8 min read
Microsoft Azure can look like it is working well on the surface. Your systems are live, your workloads have moved, and everything appears to be running as expected.
But being in Azure is not the same as getting value from Azure.
In this webinar, Emma Portlock, Taner Turan and Joshua Whiteley-Pole explored the most common Azure misconceptions, the mistakes they often lead to, and what a healthier, better optimised Azure environment looks like in practice.
Watch the recording and you’ll learn:
The session focused on one clear message: Azure is not a one-off migration project. It is an environment that needs to be reviewed, managed and improved continuously if it is going to deliver real business value.
The most successful Azure environments are not necessarily the ones spending the least. They are the ones where organisations understand what is running, where their money is going, how risk is being managed, and what needs to change as the business grows.
One of the biggest misconceptions covered in the session was the idea that Microsoft manages everything once workloads move into Azure.
Azure runs on a shared responsibility model. Microsoft secures the physical environment and keeps the platform available, but the data, identity, access controls and configuration choices remain the customer’s responsibility.
That distinction matters. A storage account or database left open to the internet is not a Microsoft outage. It is a configuration issue, and it sits with the organisation using the platform.
Another common mistake is treating Azure as a hosting platform that works in exactly the same way as an on-premises environment.
You can use Azure to run virtual machines and, for some organisations, that may be the right first step. If ageing hardware needs to be replaced quickly, or a data centre exit is creating urgency, lift and shift can be a valid route into the cloud.
However, if the journey stops there, organisations risk paying cloud prices for an on-premises-style setup.
The real value comes from moving towards managed services, automation, analytics and AI capabilities that simply weren’t available in the same way in a traditional data centre.
Looking at how your environment aligns with Azure best practice can often highlight opportunities to improve performance, security and cost efficiency.
Getting into Azure has an end date. Optimisation does not.
Many organisations migrate workloads into Azure and then assume the project is complete. In reality, the move is only the starting point.
Once workloads are live, organisations need to understand:
Regular reviews and optimisation activities are often where some of the biggest cost savings and efficiency gains are found.
Azure changes the way organisations pay for infrastructure.
Instead of large capital purchases every few years, cloud spend becomes an operational cost that requires active management.
The webinar covered several ways businesses can reduce unnecessary spend, including:
The goal isn’t simply to lower costs. It’s to ensure every pound spent in Azure is delivering value back to the business.
Azure is secure by design, but that does not mean every customer environment is secure by default.
Microsoft manages the underlying platform, but organisations still need to manage identity, networking, role-based access controls, governance policies and security configurations around their workloads.
Without the right security foundations, businesses can still carry unnecessary risk, even when the workloads themselves are hosted in Azure.
Another important misconception is that moving to the cloud automatically solves backup and disaster recovery.
Being in Azure does not automatically mean everything is backed up, and it does not mean a disaster recovery plan is already in place.
Organisations still need to consider:
The advantage of Azure is that resilience can be tailored to individual workloads rather than requiring a one-size-fits-all approach.
Cloud Migration
Expert View
A healthy Azure environment is not about having the newest technology or simply completing a migration project.
It’s about establishing good habits and managing the environment consistently.
The session highlighted four characteristics of a healthy Azure estate:
You need to know what is running, who owns it and what it is costing.
Without visibility, Azure can quickly become difficult to manage.
Cost optimisation isn’t about removing services for the sake of it.
It’s about ensuring spend remains aligned to business value and adapting as priorities change.
Security should be built into the environment from the start, helping reduce risk and giving the business confidence to move faster.
Azure is not a destination.
It is an ongoing cycle of visibility, optimisation, security and improvement.
BCN’s Managed Azure Service
The webinar also explored the stages organisations often move through as they mature in Azure.
Moving workloads from on-premises environments into Azure and reducing dependence on physical infrastructure.
Understanding costs, improving governance and addressing any issues introduced during migration.
Reviewing architecture, right sizing resources and reducing inefficiencies.
Replacing legacy approaches with cloud-native services that are easier to manage, more resilient and often more cost-effective.
Using Azure as a platform for data, analytics, AI and automation initiatives that drive business growth.
Organisations looking to unlock more value from their data often move into platforms such as Microsoft Fabric to support analytics and AI use cases.
Cloud Optimisation
The session concluded with examples of how organisations have transformed their Azure environments.
One customer improved visibility and control by restructuring a single Azure subscription into multiple workload-based subscriptions, bringing governance and costs back under control.
Another customer implemented Infrastructure as Code using Terraform to maintain governance standards while giving developers a consistent, repeatable deployment process.
A third organisation migrated more than 100 on-premises servers into Azure, reducing the environment to just 32 Azure resources, improving disaster recovery to under one hour and reducing costs by £200,000 over five years.
The webinar also covered Microsoft funding opportunities that may be available to support different stages of the Azure journey, subject to workload eligibility and Microsoft approval.
Funding may be available for:
If funding can help reduce upfront costs, shorten project timelines or make a project easier to justify internally, it is worth exploring what options may be available.
Microsoft Funding
Azure can be much more than a place to host services.
With the right visibility, governance, cost controls and security foundations, it becomes a platform for stronger performance, lower risk and greater return on investment.
If you’re unsure whether your Azure environment is delivering the value it should, an Azure assessment can provide a clearer picture of what’s running, where improvements can be made and whether Microsoft funding could support the next stage of your Azure journey.
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