Confused about how to use Azure? Get a map!

THE SHORT: The best way to make plans for evaluating public cloud (namely Azure in this case) is to map out the entire platform of services into a limited collection of use cases that those services enable. Hold the phone on specific services. Think USE CASES. The good news for you is that this use case map is the same for everyone (and conveniently pasted in this article I might add). How you choose to navigate it and pursue specific use cases is what will make you different, and most likely, successful.

THE SLIGHTLY LONGER:

"Yeah, but how exactly do we use it?"

If you've been in the world of Azure public cloud exploration and adoption for any significant length of time, you know that most teams and organizations and IT leaders struggle with this question. Even sellers of public cloud can struggle with this question! And it makes sense as to why.

Documentation. Online videos. Conference showcases. Case stories. Digital tours. Word-of-mouth testimonials. Commercials. News articles. You hear a lot about hyperscale public cloud computing platforms like Azure, AWS, and GCP all the time (especially if you're looking at 'em). The messaging on what's available and what's possible is legitimately inspiring - even if some of it may be fluffy at times (you know what I mean).

But, how exactly do you use such a platform? How do you make Azure work for your IT operation and your business? Potential lower TCO. Elasticity. Expansive breadth of services. Cutting-edge AI technologies and capabilities. You get that (maybe). But which services are for you? Which do you focus on and orient your training and planning around? Which make sense for IT improvement? Which make sense for business enablement?

There are currently 200+ different Azure products/services available via the Azure platform's catalog of services (i.e. The Azure Marketplace) today. Take a look for yourself:

For many folks, it's daunting to look through the catalog and feel good about making critical decisions about where you plan to spend your time, effort, and money. And we're not even talking adoption yet! We have to explore and envision first. And so...You better get your ducks in a row!

Look...you want to know who's who in the zoo. Am I right? We all do. Well, I'm here to tell you that the zoo tour isn't the best way to go about the process of figuring out how a public cloud platform like Azure can be useful to you. Yes, you. Not them. Not us. YOU.

The best way to strategically think through HOW you will explore and ultimately adopt and use Azure (again, think time-money-effort) is to get a map. Yes, a map. Let's call it:

Sure, there's 200+ available technology services on Azure. But there's only about 20 major use cases enabled by these 200+ services. And so, if you become familiar with this limited number of use cases (they are categorically grouped to help with internalizing even more), you'll find that you'll have a MUCH EASIER TIME figuring out how to evaluate Azure for your team and organization. Why? Well firstly, you narrow the scope and focus your exploratory jets. Secondly, there's nothing mystical or new about the use cases. They've been around for a while. And thirdly, 20 neatly defined use cases is much easier to get into your brain for strategic and holistic big-picture processing as compared to 200+ proprietary products and services with flashy names. Synapse Analytics anyone? LOL.

And hey, I'm serious about this map making your life easier! I get great feedback on the map concept all the time. In fact, most people ask me for a copy of it after we discuss it!

Without further adieu, please meet the map:

It's kind of nice to look at, isn't it? And that's because it makes sense. There's order in all things. You just have to find it. Trust me, it's there.

The map validates the reality of our strategic public cloud discovery conversations: the three major areas of exploration and adoption pertain absolutely to running servers, delivering applications, and query-pounding a lot of data in a data warehouse. Then chuck in SIEM-as-a-service, SC/CI/CD-as-a-service, and Centralized Logging-as-a-Service, as well as a few specialty use cases that a smaller subset of folks will use. It's pretty simple and straightforward.

Now it's time to participate in use case envisioning. It's the third step in charting your course to public cloud utilization (more on this so-called course/journey in future articles). Use this map as some form of a checklist as you walk through your IT landscape and make note of the following:

• Which of these use cases are near-term interests?
• Which of these use cases are far-term interests?
• Which of these use cases are worthless to us?

Once you identify the most resonant near-term use cases, the work begins. You can now start exploring the various services on the platform that you can use to enable the use case. It's up to you to determine which services or collection of services you like best for enabling it. Let me give one example...let's say your hardware is aging, you don't want to manage hardware anymore, and you're interested in a lift-n-shift (as they like to say) to Azure. If you look at the map, you'd be looking at this specific use case below:

Drill down and discover the services that enable this use case on Azure. In the drill down, this is what you'd encounter (see below). NOTE: You're now in the zoo! Hooray!

From there, this new science and art of yours continues into solution envisioning, architecture design, cost modeling, training, and ultimately implementation. Build the muscle once and go use it on another use case. Look at you go! And I mean that. Way to go! This is the acumen and savviness folks need to tackle public cloud and to make it work for their business!

OK. Whew. I think that's enough for now. Moving on...

If you want to digitally transform, you must explore public cloud. I mean it. If you don't, you're missing out. And if you want to explore it effectively so that you can actually adopt it effectively, you're going to need a map. You're going to need this map. That doesn't mean it has to be this one. But you'll need one like it.

If you're interested in getting a copy of the map or discussing the process of use case envisioning more, please feel free to reach out at anytime! I'm just another dude on the public cloud playground looking to have some fun on the jungle gym of digital T. Time for recess, anyone? You KNOW it!