The Azure Innovation Forum recently held a discussion on the merits of modern integration platforms, providing a deep dive into the transformative power of Azure. This article distils what I think are the key takeaways from the forum into seven key insights, showcasing how businesses are harnessing Azure Integration Services to drive innovation and efficiency.
Boosting Developer and Architect Productivity
With Azure, integration developers and data architects have seen a surge in productivity, working 80% of their time efficiently with the Azure Integration Services stack.
Over three years, the productivity increases observed were 35% in Year 1, 40% in Year 2, and 45% in Year 3, contributing to a financial impact of $2.4M.
Personally, I’ve noticed our developers and clients teams enjoy the lower code tools approaches offered in AIS, but there are still all the code-centric approaches available to crack those tough problems. Using Logic Apps for event-driven architecture and orchestration and policy reuse in Azure API Management are much more efficient than rolling your own solutions in custom code.
Efficient DevOps Team Coordination
Azure has streamlined the deployment process, reducing manual deployments from a week to mere seconds, as echoed by the AVP of Engineering in a financial services firm.
Continuous integration and deployment in AIS is a must and the Microsoft product teams have done a great job ensuring that all the guidance is well presented for teams. Continuous integration and continuous delivery had transformed how the Uni’s team operated, using DevOps.
“It’s made the solution development process and team communications seamless and transparent – we’ve seen the real value DevOps can provide from a project delivery perspective,” Zaicu said.
Reducing Application Support Requests
Azure has helped in reducing support requests significantly over three years, with 35 requests avoided per week in Year 1, escalating to 75 requests by Year 3.
This reduction has also led to a decreased ticket resolution time by 45 minutes per request, amounting to a financial impact of $654K over three years.
Our customers have also realised significant improvements in supportability moving to Azure, the single pane of glass contributes to speedy incident resolution.
“One of the biggest benefits of the project to the University has been the increase in visibility,” said Brian Crowe, the Waikato university’s principal enterprise architect.
“Using the Azure solution has been like having a big, single pane of glass – our reporting is much better.
Legacy System Consolidation
Migration to Azure allowed the decommissioning of legacy servers, with the functionality being moved to serverless functions, leading to a cost reduction of $343K over three years.
Having assisted clients migration to Azure in the past there are significant savings in decommissioning on premises infrastructure used to host legacy integration platforms. The setup and management of PaaS solutions not only unlocks infrastructure costs but also operations efforts are considerably simplified.
Driving Revenue Growth through Innovation
Establishing a single source of truth for data across various systems has fostered consistent decision-making and innovation, driving incremental revenue growth.
The revenue growth observed was 1% in Year 1, 1.5% in Year 2, and 2% in Year 3, with 20% of this increase attributed to Azure Integration Services, leading to a financial impact of $3.2M.
Automating Data Entry and Validation
Azure Integration Suite’s automation capabilities have eliminated manual data input, saving 10 minutes per day per employee, and leading to a financial impact of $3.5M over three years.
By automating data entry and validation processes, Azure significantly reduces manual errors and saves time, enabling employees to channel their efforts towards more strategic tasks.
Unquantifiable Benefits
Azure App Innovation solutions have also provided unquantifiable benefits like shared data as a knowledge foundation, elimination of data silos, robust security, and an ease in onboarding new hires.
These insights from the Azure Innovation Forum demonstrate the substantial benefits and cost savings that Azure Integration Services brings. As businesses continue to migrate towards Azure, the myriad of advantages unfold. If you think Azure might be the integration platform for your business, reach out to either me or Adaptiv for a free consultation. With seasoned experts, Adaptiv stands as your reliable partner in navigating the digital landscape, ensuring a seamless integration experience.
To watch the recording yourself, visit https://mktoevents.com/Microsoft+Event/409184/157-GQE-382 or to get a copy of the report go here.
