Managed Azure, without the bill that surprises you
Microsoft 365 is per-user and predictable. Azure is billed by what you consume — which is why the most common thing anyone says about it is “nobody told us it would cost that.” We design the workload, put a price against it, and hold the admin.
Two ways to buy — and we’ll tell you which
One removes commitment. The other removes uncertainty. Most businesses need some of each.
Pay as you go
Consumption, billed as you use it.
- No commitment — turn it on, turn it off
- Right for projects, development and test
- Right for seasonal or spiky workloads
- Right for anything you might switch off
Monthly — designed by us, fixed cost
We design the workload, then quote one fixed monthly figure.
- A number you can put in a budget
- We carry the variability, not you
- Right for steady production you want off the risk register
- Savings from reservations and licensing, passed on
We design it, we price it, and we hold the admin
Nothing in your environment changes unless we change it — so the cost doesn’t drift. If your needs change fundamentally, we’ll tell you and re-quote, openly. And if we got the design wrong, that’s our problem to fix, not a surprise on your invoice.
Every agreement is written for the customer it’s for, on terms that work both ways. No template, and no minimum.
The order that actually saves money
Most people start at step four. Doing it in this order is the difference between a real reduction and a three-year commitment to the same waste.
- 1
Azure Hybrid Benefit, first
Windows Server and SQL Server licences you already own, with Software Assurance, applied to your Azure machines. It is routinely missed, and it is frequently a bigger saving than reserving anything.
- 2
Right-sizing
Most migrated servers are specced like the physical box they replaced rather than like the work they actually do. This is usually the second-largest number on the page.
- 3
Switching off what needn’t run
Development, test and training environments on a schedule rather than twenty-four hours a day. Nobody needs a test server running at three in the morning.
- 4
Then reservations and savings plans
Once the shape of the estate is genuinely known. Reserve an oversized machine and you have locked in the waste for three years — which is why this step comes fourth, not first.
- 5
Storage tiering
Hot, cool and archive, matched to how the data is really used rather than how it was first uploaded.
What Microsoft says you can save
These are Microsoft’s published figures, not ours — so here they are with Microsoft’s own caveat attached.
| Saving | Microsoft’s figure | What it applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Reserved VM Instances | up to 72% | Windows and Linux virtual machines, against pay-as-you-go |
| Azure Savings Plan for compute | up to 65% | Compute, with more flexibility than a reservation |
| Azure SQL Database reservations | up to 80% | Azure SQL Database, against pay-as-you-go |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit — SQL Server | up to 85% | Existing SQL Server licences with Software Assurance |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit — Windows Server, with a reservation | up to 80% | Existing Windows Server licences with Software Assurance |
| Azure Hybrid Benefit — Linux | up to 76% | Eligible Linux subscriptions |
| Azure Blob Storage reservations | up to 38% | Blob storage, against pay-as-you-go |
These are headline maximums, and your number will be different. Microsoft’s own wording is that actual savings vary by region, instance type and usage — and that is true. What you’ll actually save depends on your estate, and we’ll tell you your figure before you commit to anything.
Microsoft’s published rates, checked September 2026. Sources: Azure pricing — Reservations and Azure Hybrid Benefit.
And the part most people leave out
A reservation is a commitment. If your workload changes, shrinks or moves, you still hold it. Part of our job is telling you when not to reserve — which is not advice you get from someone paid on the size of the commitment.
What “managed” means here
Not simply keeping the machines switched on.
Budgets and alerts
Configured properly, and sent to a named person who actually reads them.
A monthly cost review
Written so a business owner can read it: what changed this month, and why.
The same baseline
Patching, backup and monitoring held to the standard as the rest of your estate.
Right-sizing as a habit
Revisited routinely, not once at migration and never again.
What we run in Azure
Servers and file services
Domain controllers, file servers and the line-of-business machines your work depends on.
Azure Virtual Desktop
Proper remote working, with the profile and performance problems solved — we have the scars from doing it at scale.
Backup and disaster recovery
Including Azure Site Recovery, tested rather than assumed.
SQL and line-of-business apps
Databases and the applications sitting on them, sized and licensed properly.
Identity with Entra ID
Sign-in, conditional access and the policies that keep it safe.
Hybrid networking
Site-to-site VPN back to the office, so the cloud and the building behave as one network.
Moving there
Assessment first — what should move, and just as importantly what shouldn’t. We run in parallel, cut over out of hours, and decommission the old kit properly rather than leaving a server humming in a cupboard for two years.
Billing through us
One bill, in sterling, from a company you can ring — instead of a credit card charged to a Microsoft account that nobody in the business owns. We buy through Giacom, Pax8 and TD Synnex, and the licensing review comes with it.
Already in Azure and unsure what you’re paying for?
Send us your last bill. We’ll tell you what’s reducible — and if the answer is “not much”, we’ll tell you that too.