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“Leaders in every industry are accelerating their migration to cloud, and it’s not (just) lift and shift, 95% of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud native platforms by 2025.” This was a key take away from Satya Nadella’s Microsoft Inspire 2022 keynote.
Nadella went on to explain “Customers are focused on aligning their IT investments to scale with demand – and moving to cloud allows this, converting their spending from capex to opex. This creates an opportunity for partners to providing their expertise. It’s all about helping businesses drive operational efficiency, deliver faster time to value and reduce costs.”
With over 1,000 partners in their Australian channel ecosystem, the opportunity for Microsoft partners adopting cloud first businesses strategies is clear on paper, but what does this mean in real life?
Dicker Data, local Microsoft Indirect Provider, has been working with a subset of Microsoft SPLA, Hosting and Infrastructure partners on identifying how best to harness the cloud trends Microsoft is predicting in the context on current climate and economic conditions, through a program called DCO.
Data Centre Optimisation (DCO) is a concept coined by Microsoft’s global team and refers to an initiative targeted at Microsoft partners who are looking to transform their cloud business by optimising customer workloads to Azure. The DCO program is aimed at accelerating migrations and launching new Azure offerings by providing partners with guidance, tools, training, offers and incentives.
Dicker Data is the first distributor in Australia that has successfully brought a DCO program to market with pilot partner, Daraco.
“Over 18-months Dicker Data worked closely with Daraco and Microsoft to develop the state-of-the-art program to streamline the Cloud transition, while introducing and executing on a long-term business development strategy, including a set of next generation services built on Microsoft cloud. The approach has now been proven to accelerate a partner’s business with reduced impact on their bottom line,” Jakub Wolinski, Cloud Services Manager at Dicker Data, said.
Daraco & customers reaping cloud benefits
Daraco, an Australian established IT Managed Services provider committed to improving organisations' efficiency, capacity, functionality and security, is an enthusiastic proponent of Dicker Data’s DCO and is now experiencing rewards.
Matthew Jarvis, National Sales Manager Australia & New Zealand at Daraco, said the business has seen a great return on investment by transitioning to Azure and the DCO program was a key driver of this success.
“Microsoft Azure is providing huge benefits to our customers. Azure provides a technology stack and flexibility at a global level that is unlike other offerings in the market. This allows us to provide improved user experience across the already underlying Microsoft 365 solutions and be more seamlessly integrated into their environment,” Jarvis said.
“The scale, options, and flexibility available within the Azure Stack are critical in a world moving to more Cloud-based services. Azure enables Daraco to offer these solutions across many different geographic regions with ease. Changes within customer usage and requirements are managed easily, while consistently ensuring our best practices and security standards are always met.
“This program has provided Daraco with high levels of engagement, support and visibility within Microsoft and Dicker Data, further providing enhanced support and delivery across both new and existing customers.”
Revolutionising the Cloud transition
Together with Microsoft, the team continues to work with a strong pipeline of partners to replicate the success Daraco has seen for its business and customers.
Commenting on the partnership, Rachel Bondi, Director of Global Partner Solutions at Microsoft, said: “This is a one-of-a-kind partnership to deliver on Data Centre Optimisation. Ultimately, it is about meeting the needs of customers and recognising their shifting needs in Cloud, data, and security.”
“This is a remarkable milestone for us all and will set a precedent for other partners to modernise their solutions and evolve their business,” Ms Bondi said.
Dicker Data’s DCO Program:
Dicker Data prides itself on developing strong long-term relationships that add value and help partners to grow profitable businesses. Through this program you have direct access to real people with a wealth of experience and expertise in sales, technical, and marketing and are the conduit into the Microsoft Australia team.
Keen to learn more? Book your Partner Immersion Session with one of our Dicker Data experts now to explore your options and take your first step on the transformation journey.
