Third Parties Help Customers Use Azure

• Third parties can assist Azure customers with temporary or ongoing services, end-to-end solutions, and tools that improve on native Azure offerings.
• Dozens of third parties provide offerings that can help customers with aspects of Azure such as migration, management, and solution design.
• Microsoft certifies third parties with programs that recognize various areas of expertise and levels of qualification.
• Choosing third-party offerings can be a difficult task of searching and testing candidates.

Third-party offerings can reduce customer effort with Azure deployments and enhance and extend Azure’s native capabilities. However, third parties add costs and introduce support channels outside of Microsoft. Furthermore, there are risks of investing in those that do not add value or remain in business.

Finding Third-Party Offerings

Azure has evolved over the past decade to offer dozens of native services and tools covering an extensive range of solution requirements. Native Azure capabilities are often adequate for customer requirements. Nevertheless, a growing list of third parties have extended and enhanced Azure to help customers use Azure efficiently, reduce effort, and build solutions for specific scenarios. For example, third parties help customers migrate on-premises solutions to Azure, manage VMs, and optimize spending. Some third parties specialize in specific technologies such as networking components, blockchains, and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.