Cloud & Infrastructure

Azure Development Services

We build on Azure for organizations already standardized on Microsoft's identity and productivity stack.

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NDA before discovery

You own the code and IP on payment

Code in your repository from day one

A working demo every two weeks

Senior engineers do the work

How we work

Azure development services make the most sense for organizations that already run on Microsoft 365, Entra ID and Windows Server, because the value of Azure is largely how tightly it integrates with infrastructure a company already owns. We build App Service and Azure Functions deployments, Azure SQL Database and Cosmos DB backends, and AKS clusters where a team needs Kubernetes but wants it inside the same tenant as everything else.

Most of our Azure engagements start with an identity question: who needs access to what, and how does that map onto Entra ID groups and conditional access policies that already exist. Getting that right early avoids rebuilding authentication later.

We use Bicep or Terraform for infrastructure as code and Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions for pipelines, matching whichever the client's team already uses so operations does not have to learn a second toolchain on top of a new cloud.

Fit

When Microsoft Azure is the right choice, and when it is not

Good fit

Your organization already runs Microsoft 365 and Entra ID, and single sign-on across internal tools matters more than picking the theoretically fastest cloud.
Your engineering team is primarily .NET, and App Service or Azure Functions let them deploy without learning a new deployment model.
You need hybrid connectivity to on-premises Windows Server infrastructure through Azure Arc or ExpressRoute.
Your compliance or procurement process already has Azure on an approved vendor list, which shortens onboarding compared with introducing a new cloud provider.
You want Azure OpenAI Service so model calls stay inside a Microsoft enterprise agreement and data residency boundary.

Consider something else

A startup with no existing Microsoft footprint usually gets no benefit from Azure's identity integration and may find AWS's broader tooling ecosystem easier to hire for.
Teams building heavily serverless, event-driven systems often find AWS Lambda's ecosystem and third-party tooling more mature than Azure Functions' equivalents.
If the core workload is data warehousing and analytics at scale, Google Cloud's BigQuery is frequently faster to get value from than Synapse Analytics.
Extremely small teams with a single simple web app may not need a full cloud platform at all; a managed platform like Render can be less to operate.

What we build

What we build with Microsoft Azure

Identity and access
Entra ID app registrations, conditional access policies, and single sign-on for both internal tools and customer-facing applications through Entra External ID.
Compute
App Service for web applications and APIs without managing servers, Azure Functions for event-driven workloads, and AKS when a team needs Kubernetes inside its existing tenant and networking.
Data
Azure SQL Database and Azure Database for PostgreSQL for relational workloads, Cosmos DB for globally distributed document or key-value data, and Blob Storage for files and backups.
Integration
Logic Apps for low-code workflow automation between Microsoft and third-party systems, Service Bus for durable messaging, and API Management for exposing and governing internal APIs.
AI services
Azure OpenAI Service for model access under a Microsoft enterprise agreement, and Azure AI Search for retrieval-augmented generation over enterprise documents.
Observability
Application Insights for request tracing and performance data, and Azure Monitor for infrastructure metrics and alerting across the subscription.

Ecosystem

Libraries and tools we pair it with

Bicep
Terraform
Azure DevOps Pipelines
GitHub Actions
Application Insights
Azure Monitor
Entra ID
Azure API Management

Entra ID and Enterprise Single Sign-On

Most of the practical benefit of choosing Azure over another cloud comes down to identity. When an internal tool, a customer portal and a mobile app all need to authenticate against the same directory an organization already manages in Entra ID, building on Azure removes a whole category of custom authentication work.

We register applications directly against the client's existing tenant, apply conditional access policies the security team has already defined, and use Entra External ID when the audience is customers rather than employees. For organizations without an existing Microsoft tenant, this advantage disappears, and the decision should rest on other factors instead.

.NET on App Service Versus AKS

App Service is our default for a .NET web application or API. It deploys directly from a pipeline, handles TLS certificates and scaling rules through configuration, and needs no cluster administration. Most business applications, internal tools and customer portals fit comfortably within its model.

AKS becomes worth its added complexity when a system genuinely needs Kubernetes primitives: fine-grained control over networking between many services, custom autoscaling logic, or a platform team standardizing deployment across services written in several languages. We steer clients away from AKS by default and toward it only when App Service's constraints actually block a real requirement.

App Service: managed scaling, built-in TLS, simplest operations
AKS: full control over networking and scheduling, more to operate
Azure Functions: best for event triggers and scheduled jobs

Services

Services that use Microsoft Azure

Industries

Where we use it

FAQ

Microsoft Azure FAQs

Does Azure make sense for a company with no existing Microsoft infrastructure?

It can, but the strongest argument for Azure is tight integration with Entra ID, Microsoft 365 and existing Windows Server infrastructure. Without that context, the decision should rest on team skills, workload type and which cloud's managed services best fit the product, and AWS or Google Cloud are frequently a better default for a greenfield team.

Should we build on App Service or move straight to AKS?

Start with App Service unless you already know you need Kubernetes-specific capabilities such as custom schedulers or a service mesh. App Service scales, handles TLS and deploys from a pipeline with far less operational overhead, and most business applications never outgrow it.

How does Azure OpenAI Service differ from calling OpenAI's API directly?

Azure OpenAI Service runs the same underlying models under a Microsoft enterprise agreement, with data handling and network boundaries that fit inside an existing Azure tenant and compliance program. The trade-off is that new model capabilities sometimes reach OpenAI's own API before they reach the Azure-hosted version, so teams chasing the newest features may need to track both release schedules.

Can we integrate on-premises Windows Server systems with Azure without a full migration?

Yes, through Azure Arc for management and ExpressRoute or a Site-to-Site VPN for connectivity. Many clients run a hybrid state for years, extending Entra ID and monitoring to on-premises systems while moving individual workloads to Azure as it makes sense rather than on a single cutover date.

What is the realistic cost difference between Azure and AWS for a similar workload?

Raw compute and storage pricing are close enough between the two that the decision rarely comes down to list price. The larger cost factor is usually engineering time: integration with an existing Microsoft tenant can save weeks of identity work on Azure, while a team with deep AWS experience may build faster there regardless of provider pricing.

How long does a typical Azure migration take for a mid-sized application?

A single application with a handful of dependencies typically takes six to twelve weeks from discovery to cutover, assuming no major re-architecture. Timelines extend when the migration includes replatforming a monolith into separate services, or when hybrid connectivity to on-premises systems has to stay live throughout the transition.

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