Room2.08Floor 2 Servers and cloud
Microsoft Azure support for small and mid-size businesses
We design, build and look after Azure for offices that want servers, virtual desktops and backups in the cloud, sized before you commit, kept in Canadian regions and watched so the monthly bill holds no surprises.
- Azure sized before you commit
- Azure Virtual Desktop
- Canada Central and Canada East
- Monthly costs kept tidy
What Azure is good for in an office of 10 to 250 people
Azure is Microsoft’s cloud platform: rented servers, storage, networking and hundreds of other services, billed by the minute or the gigabyte. Large companies use a great deal of it. Most smaller businesses need only a few pieces, and some need none at all, because Microsoft 365 already covers email, files and sign-in.
We start by working out which of your needs Azure actually solves. When the honest answer is that SharePoint and Intune will do the job for less money, we say so.
Where Azure earns its cost
- A line-of-business application that needs a Windows server, without a server in your office
- Remote desktops for staff who need a full Windows desktop from anywhere, through Azure Virtual Desktop
- An off-site copy of your on-premises servers that can be started in Azure if your office is lost
- Second offices or remote staff who all need the same central application
- Windows Server 2016 machines that cannot be upgraded before support ends on January 12, 2027
Where it usually does not
- File sharing. SharePoint and OneDrive are included in Microsoft 365 and cost nothing extra
- Sign-in and device management. Microsoft Entra ID and Intune handle these without a server
- Large media or CAD files used all day by people in one office, where local storage is faster
- A single server that runs fine on site and has years of life left
- Anything nobody will watch the bill for
Your data stays in Canada
Azure has two regions in Canada: Canada Central in Toronto and Canada East in Quebec City. We build in Canada Central by default, which gives the lowest delay for offices across the GTA, and use Canada East as the second location for backups and disaster recovery copies.
We also apply an Azure Policy that refuses to create resources outside the Canadian regions. That one setting stops a well-meaning administrator, or a template copied from the internet, from quietly putting a server or a database in another country. For law firms, clinics and anyone answering client questions about data residency, it turns a promise into a rule the platform enforces.
Azure Virtual Desktop
Azure Virtual Desktop gives staff a full Windows desktop that runs in Azure and can be reached from any laptop, tablet or thin client. It is the most common reason our clients use Azure at all, especially accounting firms, construction companies with site staff, and anyone running older software that was never built for the cloud.
Licensing you may already own
The right to use Azure Virtual Desktop comes with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 and E5. You pay Azure only for the computing power and storage the desktops use, not for a separate desktop licence per person.
Many people per virtual machine
Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session lets several people share one virtual machine, each with their own desktop. Ten light users can often share a single machine, which is where most of the saving comes from.
Profiles that follow the user
Each person’s profile is stored in Azure Files using FSLogix, so they get the same desktop, settings and Outlook cache whichever machine they land on.
Machines that switch off at night
A scaling plan powers virtual machines on as people arrive and off when they leave. Desktops that would otherwise run all weekend for nobody are the single biggest cost we cut in Azure accounts we take over.
Or Windows 365
Windows 365 is the simpler sibling: one Cloud PC per person at a fixed monthly price. It costs more per head than a well-run Azure Virtual Desktop pool, but needs far less looking after. For fewer than ten users it is often the better choice.
Where Azure bills surprise people
Azure is cheap when it is run carefully and expensive when it is not. Almost every surprise bill we are asked to look at comes from one of these.
| The cause | Why it costs money | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| A virtual machine shut down from inside Windows | It shows as Stopped, not Stopped (deallocated), and Azure keeps charging for the computer | Shut down from Azure, or on a schedule, so the machine is fully deallocated |
| Machines sized for a guess | Most servers moved to Azure use a fraction of what they were given | Measure real usage for a few weeks, then resize down |
| Disks and IP addresses left behind | Deleting a virtual machine does not delete its disks or public addresses | Monthly sweep for anything with no owner |
| Paying full rate for machines that run all year | Pay-as-you-go is the most expensive way to run a permanent server | One- or three-year reservations or a savings plan, once the size is proven |
| Paying again for Windows Server | Azure includes a Windows licence in the hourly price unless told otherwise | Azure Hybrid Benefit applied where you already own licences with Software Assurance |
| Data leaving Azure | Downloads out of Azure are charged by the gigabyte | Design so large files are not pulled out daily |
| Nobody looking | A test environment runs for a year | Budgets with alerts at 80 and 100 percent, sent to a person |
Secure and tidy from the first day
An Azure subscription is a data centre you can reach from the internet. These are the controls we set up before the first server goes in, not after the first problem.
- No remote desktop open to the internet. Servers are reached through Azure Bastion or a VPN. An open RDP port is found by attackers within hours.
- Separate administrator accounts with MFA and Conditional Access, and nobody working in Azure day to day as a global administrator.
- Least-privilege roles. Your accountant can see the bill without being able to delete a server.
- Resource locks on production systems, so nothing important is deleted by accident.
- Backups with soft delete and immutability, so an attacker with stolen credentials cannot wipe the backups too.
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud switched on, with its security recommendations reviewed rather than ignored.
- Tags and naming that tell anyone, a year from now, what each resource is for and who asked for it.
Buying Azure, and who supports it
You can buy Azure directly from Microsoft with a credit card, or through a Cloud Solution Provider partner. Through our cloud subscriptions service you get one Canadian invoice with your Microsoft 365 licences, and first-line support from us rather than a ticket queue.
When something genuinely needs Microsoft’s engineers, we raise and manage that case for you.
Azure rarely stands alone. It usually sits alongside Microsoft 365, a cloud migration of an older server, or a hybrid setup where some servers stay on site under our server virtualization service.
Azure work we quote
Every Azure project starts with a sizing exercise based on what your systems actually use, so the monthly estimate is grounded in measurement rather than a calculator guess.
- Azure readiness and monthly cost estimateFixed quote
- Azure Virtual Desktop for a team or officeFixed quote
- Line-of-business server moved to an Azure VMFixed quote
- Disaster recovery copy of on-site servers in AzureFixed quote
- Azure cost review and clean-upFixed quote
- Security and governance baseline for an existing subscriptionFixed quote
Questions people ask
Is Azure cheaper than running our own server?
Sometimes. A server that runs around the clock costs roughly the same in Azure as on site once hardware, power, backup and replacement are counted, and less when it is right-sized and reserved. Azure becomes expensive when machines are oversized, left running for nobody, or move large amounts of data out. We compare both over five years before you decide.
Can we keep our data in Canada?
Yes. Azure has two Canadian regions, Canada Central in Toronto and Canada East in Quebec City. We build in Canadian regions and apply a policy that blocks resources from being created anywhere else, so data residency is enforced by the platform rather than by memory.
What is the difference between Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365?
Azure Virtual Desktop lets several people share virtual machines that you size, schedule and pay for by usage. Windows 365 gives each person their own Cloud PC at a fixed monthly price. Azure Virtual Desktop is usually cheaper for larger groups but needs more management. Windows 365 suits small teams that want simplicity.
Do we need extra licences for Azure Virtual Desktop?
Usually not. Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 and E5 include the right to use Azure Virtual Desktop with Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session. You pay Azure for the virtual machines and storage. Some applications inside the desktop, such as accounting software, may have their own licensing rules for remote use, which we check.
Why is our Azure bill higher than expected?
The usual causes are virtual machines shut down from inside Windows rather than deallocated, machines far larger than they need to be, disks and IP addresses left after a machine was deleted, and permanent servers paid at pay-as-you-go rates. A cost review normally finds savings in the first week.
Can our accounting software run in Azure?
Usually, yes. Desktop accounting packages that keep a shared data file, such as QuickBooks Desktop or Sage 50, run well on Azure Virtual Desktop or an Azure server, with staff connecting remotely. They should not be run by syncing the data file through OneDrive, which risks corruption. We check the vendor's support position first.
Do we have to buy Azure through you?
No. We support Azure subscriptions bought directly from Microsoft as well. Buying through our cloud subscriptions service puts Azure and Microsoft 365 on one Canadian invoice and makes us your first point of support, which most clients find simpler.
What happens if Azure has an outage?
Outages are rare but do happen. Canada Central has availability zones, which are separate data centres within the region, so important systems can be spread across them. For disaster recovery we keep copies in Canada East. How much resilience you need is a cost decision we set out clearly at the design stage.
Tell us what’s going on
Pick how urgent it is and leave a way to reach you. The help desk replies by phone or email. If work has stopped, call 647-812-3775 instead.
Something broken, or something to plan?
For anything urgent, call. A technician answers the emergency line 24/7. For everything else, open a ticket and tell us what is going on.