Blog | Enavate

5 Reasons to Migrate Your Microsoft Dynamics Solution to the Cloud

Written by Bill Moore | May 15, 2023 12:10:56 PM

If you love your legacy Microsoft Dynamics solution, we’re not surprised! Whether it’s GP, SL, NAV or AX, your business has likely benefitted quite a bit from using such a functional, reliable ERP. No one could blame you for getting too comfortable to consider switching to anything else. Why go through all the trouble when you already like what you have? 

Well, there are actually at least five good reasons why— and with a trusted Microsoft partner it isn’t much trouble, either. Microsoft’s Cloud-based solutions, such as Azure, keep getting better, and before long, the extended support for their older, on-premises solutions will expire.  

Let’s take a look at those five good reasons to migrate to the Cloud today: 

1. Lower Your Total Cost of Ownership 

According to Penn Gartner, the average cost for an on-premises server is between $1,216 and $1,600 per month. That includes both direct costs, like hardware, electricity, and HVAC, and indirect costs, such as the salary of whoever’s in charge of maintaining the server. Then there are those hidden costs, like the productivity you lose whenever the server goes down. All told, if your company needs 4-6 servers, you should expect to pay $14,000 per month.  

Moving to the Cloud eliminates many of the costs associated with on-premises solutions. In fact, ten servers would cost around $7,500 per month. Just like that, you’ve cut your ownership cost nearly in half. 

2. Ensure Business Continuity  

Downtime happens, but in the Cloud, it's rare. Enavate builds its managed ERP environments with redundancy that ensures 99.95% uptime or better. That works out to just 43 minutes of downtime per month. And even if disaster does strike, both your application and SQL data are constantly backed up and easy to access.  

3. Enjoy More Security 

Azure is essentially a $10 billion multi-Cloud security business that protects over 400,000 customers every day. When you think about it, Microsoft is really a security company with decades of experience, and it can more easily provide that security in a Cloud-based environment 

Plus, Enavate can supplement that service with:  

  • Intrusion prevention systems 
  • Intrusion detection systems 
  • Antivirus and antimalware software 
  • Ransomware detection 
  • Distributed denial of service protection 
  • Database encryption 
  • 7x24x365 monitoring and management of your servers and applications 

4. Get the Job Done Anytime, Anywhere 

When your ERP is in a well-built, Cloud-based environment, it’s easy for you and your employees to access whatever they need, with whatever device they have, anywhere in the world. Even if your business is affected by a natural disaster or another major local disruption, your essential data and functions will still be readily available.  

5. Improve Operational Agility 

Think about what it entails to acquire a new physical server. You must figure out what specs you need, gather multiple price quotes, order the server, wait for it to arrive... and then you have to build the thing. It can take weeks or even months just to get one new server online. In the Cloud, resource provisioning is a much faster and less painful process. In fact, you can get a new server up and running in a matter of hours.  

Want to Know More About Cloud Migration? 

To know more about the reasons to move to the Cloud and the benefits of Microsoft Azure, check out the recent webinar we did with MS Dynamics World.