Software

Microsoft Ignite: Mastering the Art of Cloud Management

To achieve consistent security and flexibility in the cloud, experts recommend pairing tools such as Azure Arc and CDW’s Inscape.

Lily Lopate

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Lily is a Senior Editor at BizTech Magazine. She follows tech trends, thought leadership and data analytics.

Cloud management is complex; some might even call it an art form. For experts at Microsoft Ignite, hosted online and in person in Chicago November 19-22, it requires strategic planning as businesses balance costs, security and flexibility. But it’s a worthwhile effort, especially as more than 89 percent of organizations are implementing multicloud architectures, according to a 2024 Flexera study.

At this year’s Ignite, Microsoft announced several new innovations. The first is a new “adaptive cloud” approach powered through Azure that is “purpose-built to support all workloads, and that includes those spanning on-prem, edge and multicloud environments,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the cloud and AI group at Microsoft. “The adaptive cloud enables you to have consistent operations, applications and data models on the infrastructure of your choice,” he added.

This approach offers users more continuous, 360-degree visibility into the cloud than ever before. But it’s not the only option. Here are a few advanced strategies IT leaders can use to enhance their cloud management.

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Adopt Adaptive Cloud Strategies for Seamless Hybrid Integration

The first strategy experts recommended is to embrace adaptive cloud methodologies to unify hybrid, multicloud, and edge environments.

“We are working across the entire ecosystem,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The company’s newest iteration of Copilot + PCs brings everything that’s “happening in the cloud with AI to the edge. Think of all of this as one, continuous, distributed computing fabric,” said Nadella.

Microsoft’s adaptive cloud strategy unifies workloads and also promotes greater synergy between productivity, security and data tools.

This approach also elevates the power of Microsoft’s cloud databases. “With the addition of Fabric databases, Fabric now brings together both transactional and analytic workloads, creating a truly unified data platform to enable scenarios that were previously very difficult,” Guthrie said.

And with all tools in one ecosystem, artificial intelligence (AI) agents can be trained directly on inputs from Fabric’s OneLake because it “brings together your data across not only Azure, but also data in AWS, GCP, or from SaaS platforms such as SAP and many others,” said Seth Juarez, principal program manager of the AI platform at Microsoft.

Implement AI-Driven Operations with Azure Arc and Copilot

As a second strategy, experts said, businesses should bake AI directly into their cloud operations. Teams can do this by integrating with Azure Arc and Microsoft Copilot. For instance, Copilot can assist in anomaly detection and failure analysis, streamlining issue resolution.

And with Azure Arc, organizations can deploy and manage applications consistently across diverse infrastructures. This simplifies operations and provides a unified control panel for all resources.

Once IT leaders have centralized management across hybrid and multicloud environments, it’s much easier to automate routine tasks, gain intelligent insights and limit large security threats.

The adaptive cloud enables you to have consistent operations, applications and data models on the infrastructure of your choice.”

Scott Guthrie Executive Vice President of the Cloud and AI group, Microsoft

Enhance Security Posture with AI-Powered Threat Detection

A third strategy is to bolster security with AI-driven threat detection tools built into the cloud. For example, tools such as Azure Arc offer consistent security and governance, and the Azure Update Manager provides a unified service to help monitor and manage compliance across hybrid and multicloud. Users can also try an Arc-enabled Hotpatch, a surgical security fix that works by patching in-memory code of running processes without requiring a reboot.

Ultimately, integrating AI into security operations allows for continuous monitoring, proactive identification of vulnerabilities from vast data sets and better defense mechanisms, Guthrie said.

Use AI and CDW’s Inscape to Optimize Cloud Spending

And finally, consider using CDW’s Inscape proprietary cloud platform to get personalized financial recommendations for your multicloud environment.

“We created Inscape about 10 or 11 years ago with the goal of really helping people gain better clarity over their cloud spending,” said Tony Suffoletto, director of Microsoft tools and support at CDW.

Ideal for FinOps, the platform makes recommendations about how to allocate resources, spot trends and create budgets with customized alerts. Inscape can also help users decide what kind of cloud licenses are right for them and scan for anomalies, he explained.

Tools such as Azure cost management and billing are also enhanced with AI capabilities to predict usage patterns, recommend cost-saving measures and automate resource scaling. This ensures that cloud costs align with actual business needs.

LEARN MORE: Master the art of cloud management with CDW’s Inscape platform.

“Too often, businesses purchase these tools, but then they realize their technical readiness is not quite where it needs to be,” said Al MacKinnon, a solution architect in CDW’s Digital Experience Productivity practice. Then they’re stuck.

“Say you want to fold Microsoft copilot into the cloud: We have trainings for that. We offer trainings on every Microsoft application, which is a great one-two punch,” Suffoletto added.

With more knowledge, the cloud becomes a much more manageable environment to organize. “A lot of benefit comes from being able to unlock the power of these tools,” he said.

To learn more about Microsoft Ignite, visit our conference page. You can also follow us on the social platform X at @BizTechMagazine to see behind-the-scenes moments.