Red Mosquito - Blog

Microsoft’s cloud computing platform – Azure – is a brilliant product which enables organisations of all sizes to create and manage applications and services in the cloud.  Microsoft offer a very generous incentive, of £2,800 in Azure service credits per year, to support charities to use this platform.  RedMosquito provides IT Support services to a range of organisations in Glasgow and Edinburgh, including many charities.  We find that few charities are aware of the potential for them to get their hands on this transformative product at little or no cost.   Using Azure can often save organisations money as the move to the cloud means some expensive on-site equipment (such as servers) is no longer necessary.  This offer is particularly valuable if your organisation’s servers is one of those going ‘end of life’ during the next year.  Using these credits would enable you to replace the server, without the usual capital expenditure associated to this change. We are offering a free hardware audit to charities, which will help you determine if your server needs to be replaced in the coming year.

The other many advantages of moving to the cloud, are well documented –  not least of which is the ability to access data anytime, anyplace, anywhere (which has wifi!).

Is your organisation eligible for Azure credits?

You must meet 5 criteria to be eligible for Microsoft’s donated or discounted support for non-profits:

• You must be a registered charity
• You must have a mission to benefit the local community
• User licensing can be used by paid non profit employees or unpaid executive staff that act as senior leadership. Beneficiaries of the charity are not eligible.
• There are some license restrictions – including not be able to share, transfer or sell the products
• Policies and mission must meet Microsoft’s commitment to non-discrimination

After you have registered for the scheme you are able to access a different pricing structure for a wider range of Microsoft services which you may be interested in.  This includes Dynamics CRM, spam filtering etc.

How can RedMosquito help?

As a Microsoft Cloud Solutions partner, we have helped several of our third sector IT Support customers in Glasgow and Edinburgh register for this scheme.  Our Technical Consultants can guide you through the registration process and provide expert guidance on how to leverage these products to your best advantage.   Why don’t you contact us today to explore how Azure could work for you?