Azure for Startups

Azure for Startups May Be the Way to Go for Your Small Business

Cloud computing has proven to be a boost for startups in terms of task flexibility and scalability. You don’t need to invest heavily at the start for hardware and software infrastructure.

One of the most widespread cloud computing platforms for startups is Microsoft Azure.

Azure is an open-source cloud service that lets you create, test, and maintain new apps or run existing ones efficiently.

Some of the services your startup gets from Microsoft Azure include analytics, networking, storage, and virtual computing.

Azure for startups offers you multiple benefits such as acceleration and innovation without worrying about the cost.

Not only that, you can execute your ideas for applications and mission-critical services without allowing data security threats to impact your objectives.

Azure is cost-effective and flexible, which allows you to grow your startup’s data center capabilities effortlessly.

That said, let’s look at why moving your workflow to the cloud using Azure is perhaps the best decision for your startup.

Autoscaling

Azure for Startups

Azure for Startups

One of the main benefits of using Microsoft Azure as a startup is the flexibility to scale your resources up and down depending on your needs.

Horizontal scaling allows you to increase the number of resources or scale by reducing them based on processing jobs.

On the other hand, vertical scaling allows you to scale the amount and capability of your resources up or down.

This will help you have a scalable architecture that you can automatically scale up or down depending on your company’s requirements.

Cost Savings

Azure for Startups

Azure for Startups

Azure solutions for startups can give your small business notable savings in terms of costs. This cloud computing service is much cheaper, easier, and faster to boost and scale your infrastructure based on your needs.

When it comes to data centers, you don’t need to spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on hardware and software.

In addition, there is a high cost involved in terms of payroll overheads for managing such equipment.

By using Azure’s expertise and extensive infrastructure, as a small company, you can significantly reduce your IT expenses by paying as per your needs.

Azure for startups comes with BizSpark as standard. This is a startup-friendly program from Microsoft which gives you up to 5 free accounts for Microsoft developer software.

BizSpark also offers free Microsoft Azure hosting credits, which are handy for startups working with restricted budgets and resources.

Data Protection

Azure for Startups

Azure for Startups

With over one decade of experience in creating enterprise-grade software, Microsoft has successfully developed robust security measures and solid technology that safeguard Azure infrastructure against imminent attacks.

It helps keep your startup’s user data secure by managing and regulating user access with a more foolproof sign-in process.

Not only that, but with its extensive encryption possibilities, Azure offers you numerous options to pick from based on your company’s needs.

For instance, you get protection against online threats with an anti-malware tool for cloud computing and virtual machines. Therefore, as a startup, you don’t need to hire a team of IT experts to secure your data because Azure does this for you.

Easy to Build and Deploy

Azure for Startups

Azure for Startups

IT professionals in SMBs, especially those comfortable with Windows Administrator, find Microsoft Azure user-friendly thanks to its out-of-the-box features.

Microsoft Azure has a very intuitive interface with wizard-like features, which gives you complete freedom to create and deploy anywhere as per your needs and manage apps via a worldwide network of Microsoft data centers.

What’s more, Azure allows you to use apps, frameworks, and tools of your choosing.

Azure supports databases, gadgets, open-source technologies, operating systems, and programming languages, giving you the flexibility your startup needs.

Support

Azure for Startups

Azure for Startups

Microsoft Azure offers startups exceptional and prompt support for any of their requests.

Microsoft is also open to establishing workshops to help you fully understand and utilize the power of Azure. Microsoft also offers prompt support via voice calls and emails.

Azure offers you several benefits and helps you accelerate your innovation.

Azure’s global reach and user-friendly services allow you to build and run mission-critical apps for your startup cost-effectively without compromising on privacy and safety.

As a small business, you have the flexibility to create applications using your preferred technology.

You also can build and deploy massive data and IoT applications using AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning.

Final Thought

To sum it all up, Azure for startups ensures that your small business faces little or no issues during processes such as application development.

These benefits allow you to focus on other areas of your business, which helps boost your overall productivity.

See Also

Azure Devops Personal Access Token

DevOps Toolchain

Azure DevOps Pricing Calculator

Amazon Chime

AWS Cost Optimization Checklist

AWS EC2 Pricing

Azure Pricing Calculator

Amazon Chime

Using Amazon Chime for Productivity, Convenience, And Time-Saving

Using Amazon Chime for Productivity

Online communication tools for businesses are no longer optional but a necessity. It’s either internal communication with colleagues or business meetings with clients.

With many companies adopting the work-from-home model, the risk of poor communication is high. Fortunately, there are platforms such as Amazon Chime that simplify communication.

Company staff worldwide are increasingly relying on Amazon Chime to facilitate remote working. Due to this rise, there has been scrutiny of security practices.

People want to be sure that as they go about their productivity tasks, the contents of the meetings are secure.

Amazon Chime offers you convenience, productivity, and security so you can control how people access sessions you initiate.

Which Productivity Features Does Amazon Chime Give You?

Communicating with Colleagues

Amazon Chime

Amazon Chime

1: 1 Video and Voice Calls

You can initiate video and voice calls and access your call history, including incoming, missed, and outgoing calls, making it easy to add new contacts, return calls and send messages.

Chat

You can use Amazon Chime to interact with colleagues directly in a chat room or group.

What’s more, you can search for chat rooms, contacts, and conversations, as well as share, files up to 50MB and access conversations on various devices.

Chat Rooms

You can create chat rooms to allow team members to collaborate on projects, share files amongst themselves and use @ mentions to interact privately with specific persons.

Amazon Chime hasn’t placed a limit on the number of people that can be invited to a chatroom and individual persons to be included in multiple chat rooms.

Initiate Meetings from Slack

There is an Amazon Chime Meeting application for Slack. If you’re a Slack workspace user, you can initiate and enter meetings directly from the Slack workspace, boosting your productivity and saving time.

Status

Amazon Chime utilizes status indicators where red implies busy, and green implies you’re available.

Amazon Chime also gives you the option to hide your status or manually configure your status to indicate you’re unavailable. Here are Amazon Chime basic features:

Business Meetings

Amazon Chime

Amazon Chime

Call History

Chime allows you to see a list of calls you’ve answered, made, or missed. With several clicks, you can respond to texts or return missed calls.

Place Phone Calls

Amazon Chime gives you the ability to make calls in multiple worldwide locations either by entering the number, using your contact list, or using call history.

Receive Phone Calls

Amazon Chime will send a notification when someone calls you, whether you’re using desktop software, a mobile application, or a web client.

Single App Functionality

The Amazon Chime app is convenient because you can use it to receive and make phone calls and receive and send messages without shifting between devices.

Switch Calls Between Devices

You can switch calls between your desktop and mobile devices from the Chime application without pausing or stopping your conversation.

‍Text Messaging

Amazon Chime allows you to send and receive messages and photos from over 100 countries where the service is available.

Voicemail

When you can’t answer imminent calls, the Chime voice mail feature will retrieve the message, and you can access it directly in the Chime app.

How Does Amazon Chime Keep Your Meetings Secure?

Amazon Chime

Amazon Chime

Disable Shared Control

As the meeting admin, you can disable the feature that allows participants to grant control over their screen to anyone else attending the meeting.

Lock Meetings

You can lock your meetings to deter people that weren’t on the original invite list from joining.

Meeting Region Settings

As a meeting admin, you can select which of the 14 AWS (Amazon Web Services) regions can be used for meetings initiated by your users.

After doing this, Chime will automatically pick where to host the meeting from the AWS regions you’ve chosen based on network telemetry and attendee proximity.

Apart from improving meeting quality, the ability to decide where your meetings are hosted and valuable if you’re subject to a limitation on where data can be processed and sent.

Moderated Meetings

When you create a new meeting ID, you can opt to increase security. How? Use moderated meetings that don’t start until you or a participant has joined the meeting.

Remove Attendees

Chime’s visual roster lets you see everyone added to the meeting, everyone attending the meeting, those running late, and those who’ve exited the meeting. If you happen to see a participant that shouldn’t be in the forum, you can remove them.

Final Thought

Amazon Chime offers you plenty of features to boost convenience, productivity, and Time-saving. It also offer a reliable Service Level Agreement. Terms of that agreement can be found here: https://aws.amazon.com/chime/sla/. SLAs will offer you service credits if the service is down and service credits are calculated as a percentage ot the total charges paid by you for the service that did not meet the service percentage commitment. Whenever the uptime is less than 95%, you will get 100% of you payment. as service credit.

This platform also has a host of controls that ensure your meetings are secure, so you can rest assured that no one else is listening as you conduct meetings. Amazon Chime comes with many different client options. Getting started with Amazon Chime is very easy, you can download amazon chime from https://aws.amazon.com/chime/download-chime/. Please visit and select the most suitable client version.

See Also

AWS Cost Saving Tips

Azure Pricing Calculator

AWS Status Check

AWS Free Tier

AWS Instance Types

AWS Optimization Checklist

EC2 Pricing Model

AWS EC2 Pricing