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  • SOLUTION 02. AZURE CLOUD

Migrated in weeks. Managed for years.

Microsoft Azure planned, built and run by an Azure Expert MSP. Hosted in the South African datacentres, under one agreement with Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.
SA clients
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Microsoft-certified
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Microsoft
Managed
Partners
0 in SA
Azure datacentres in SA
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  • The wedge a one-off reseller cannot claim.

Braintree runs your Azure. Not just the migration.

Most Azure partners hand you a subscription and a dashboard, then move on. Braintree is an Azure Expert MSP. We design the landing zone, run the migration, then operate the estate every month after: monitoring, security posture, cost control and governance. One team accountable, under the same agreement as your Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.
Azure Expert MSP. Managed, not handed over.
Screenshot 2026 06 01 at 13.52.01 | Braintree
  • The Microsoft stack

The Azure stack you will run. Five surfaces. One managed estate.

Azure Infrastructure

Compute, storage and networking, built to your workloads and scaled in the South African regions.

Azure Landing Zone

Identity, network, governance and a security baseline. The foundation, built once and version-controlled.

Managed Cloud

24/7 monitoring, patching and incident response on one Braintree SLA.

FinOps Cost Optimisation

Reservations, Azure Hybrid Benefit and right-sizing. Reviewed every month.

Azure Security

Microsoft Defender for Cloud and a Secure Score baseline, reported monthly.

  • What managed actually means.

What managed actually means. One Azure estate. Run as five disciplines, every month.

Migration is the project. Managed cloud is the relationship. After go-live, these five disciplines run on your estate every month. The Microsoft tooling named below ships in Azure today. Braintree operates it as an Azure Expert MSP.
Discipline 01

Monitor

Azure Monitor

Metrics, logs and alerts from every workload, in one place. The estate is watched 24/7, not checked when something breaks.

Log Analytics

One query surface across the whole estate. Incidents get triaged against real telemetry, not guesswork.

Discipline 02

Protect

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Continuous security posture assessment across every subscription. Misconfigurations surface before they become incidents.

Microsoft Secure Score

One number for cloud security posture. Baselined at onboarding, tracked monthly, the trend reported to you.

Discipline 03

Optimise

Microsoft Cost Management

Spend visibility per subscription and per workload. Budget alerts before a threshold is reached, not after.

Azure Advisor and Reservations

Right-sizing, Reserved Instances and Azure Hybrid Benefit applied to live spend. FinOps as a monthly habit.

Discipline 04

Govern

Azure Policy

Guardrails in code. Non-compliant resources are flagged or blocked before they reach production.

Microsoft Entra and management groups

Identity and access governed consistently across every Azure subscription. One control plane, not many.

Discipline 05

Evolve

Architecture review

The estate reviewed each quarter against the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework. The roadmap stays current.

Workload modernisation

Virtual machines moved to Azure platform services where the case proves out. Capacity planned ahead of demand.

The automation layer

Built by Braintree on the Azure platform

Microsoft ships the platform. Braintree ships the operating discipline on top. The landing zone is defined in Bicep and Terraform, not click-configured. Azure Automation runbooks handle the routine work. Custom FinOps and Secure Score dashboards put the estate in front of you. Version-controlled, repeatable, audited.
  • How we deliver

How we deliver. Assess, Land, Migrate, Optimise.

Four stages to a managed Azure estate. The cost model is signed off before the build starts. Then the managed-cloud relationship begins.

Assess

We review your infrastructure, security posture and workloads. The output: a cloud readiness report, a migration scope and a cost model.

Land

Go / No-go gate The Azure landing zone built in the SA regions. Identity, network, governance and the security baseline. Built once the cost model is signed off.

Migrate

Phased workload migration. Each workload tested and validated before cutover. No big-bang risk.

Optimise

FinOps from day one. Reservations, Azure Hybrid Benefit and right-sizing. Then the managed run-state, every month.

Braintree doesn’t migrate your cloud and walk away. We run it as an Azure Expert MSP, every month after.
  • Two paths. Same destination.

Migrating in, or already there. Both land on managed Azure.

Some buyers are moving off on-premises servers or a co-location datacentre. Others are already on Azure but self-managing it, watching costs drift. Both paths land on the same place: an Azure estate run by an Azure Expert MSP under one agreement.
Best when you are on on-premises servers or a co-location datacentre.

Migrate to Azure

  • Azure landing zone built first. Identity, network, governance and security baseline.
  • Phased workload migration. Each workload tested and validated before cutover.
  • Azure Hybrid Benefit applied to eligible Windows Server and SQL Server workloads.
  • Timeline: phased over weeks, scoped to your workloads.
Best when you are already on Azure but self-managing, with costs drifting.

Take over an existing Azure estate

  • A Secure Score baseline and a full cost review of the estate you already run.
  • FinOps cleanup. Reservations, right-sizing and Hybrid Benefit applied to current spend.
  • Moved onto the Braintree managed agreement. One SLA across Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.
  • Timeline: managed run-state inside the first month.
  • The commercial case.

One Microsoft Partner. One Intelligent Agreement. One Unified, Secure Solution.

Self-managed Azure carries a hidden operating cost: alert noise, patch gaps, cost drift and no single accountability when something breaks. Braintree replaces that with one managed agreement. Azure run under the same SLA as your Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365. One contract. One team. One Secure Score to answer for.
Azure on its own. Patched when someone remembers.

Before. Self-managed sprawl.

  • Alert noise with no dedicated cloud operations function
  • Patch gaps and a drifting Secure Score
  • Consumption creep with no monthly cost review
  • Break-fix support only. No Azure SLA
  • Separate agreements across Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365
One Braintree agreement. One SLA. One roadmap.

After. One Intelligent Agreement.

  • One Microsoft Customer Agreement across the estate
  • 24/7 monitoring, patching and incident response on one SLA
  • Monthly FinOps review. Reservations, right-sizing, Hybrid Benefit
  • Secure Score baseline maintained and reported every month
  • One team accountable for Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365
0 %

Microsoft Secure Score Efficient Group. A South African financial services firm.
On-premises infrastructure migrated to Microsoft Azure and
secured to international best practice,
under one Braintree agreement.

2 SA REGIONS

Microsoft Azure South Africa North and West Johannesburg North runs three Availability Zones. Cape Town is the second region. POPIA-aligned since 2021.

EXPERT MSP

Azure Expert Managed Services Provider Microsoft's top managed-cloud accreditation, awarded after an independent third-party audit of production Azure operations.

  • vs the alternative

AWS, Microsoft Azure, and the practical winner.

Dimension
AWS
Microsoft Azure
Practical winner
Data residency in South Africa
One SA region, in Cape Town
Two SA regions. Joburg North with three Availability Zones, plus Cape Town
Azure
Fit with Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365
Separate identity, separate billing
Same Microsoft Entra identity. One Microsoft Customer Agreement
Azure
Existing licence reuse
Limited Windows and SQL bring-your-own-licence
Azure Hybrid Benefit on Windows Server and SQL Server
Azure
WedgeRun as one managed agreement
Separate cloud, separate partner, separate SLA
One Braintree agreement across Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365
Azure
Breadth of cloud-native services
The largest service catalogue in the market
Deep, second-largest catalogue
AWS
POPIA-aligned by default
Configurable, and partner-dependent
SA regions and POPIA-aligned controls from day one
Azure
5 to 1 in Microsoft Azure’s favour. AWS wins on raw service-catalogue breadth. Honest.
  • Talk to an Azure specialist

Three specialists. One direct line. Plus the 8-minute cloud benchmark.

The bench you will work with

Three Azure specialists. Matched to your cloud review.

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01 Azure Practice Lead

Microsoft Certified. Azure Solutions Architect Expert.

02 Cloud Migration and Landing Zone Architect

Microsoft Certified. Azure Administrator and Solutions Architect.

03 Commercial Lead, One Intelligent Agreement

Microsoft Customer Agreement. CSP.

We match you to the right specialist when you book the cloud review. Names land in your calendar invite, not on a page you scrolled past.
Match me to a specialist→
  • Free, 8 minutes

How does your cloud setup compare to the SA enterprise median?

8 questions. We map your Azure estate against benchmarks from 220+ SA clients. You get a tier. Above median, At median, Below median fixable in 90 days, Below median fixable in 12 months. Plus the actions to close the gap.
  • Book the cloud review.

From cloud review to managed Azure in three steps.

01

Share your environment

Tell us what you run today. On-premises footprint, current Azure estate, workloads, licences, what is and is not working. Ten minutes on your side.

02

5-day scoped response (SLA)

Braintree returns a cloud readiness assessment, a migration or takeover scope, a cost model and a risk summary. Inside five business days.

03

30-minute findings call

Review the scope with an Azure architect. Confirm the landing-zone design, the migration phasing and the managed run-state. No sales pitch.
  • Common questions, honestly answered.

What CIOs ask before they book.

Eight questions we answer in every cloud review. Pre-empted here so you can scan first.
What does Azure Expert MSP actually mean?
It is the top managed-services accreditation Microsoft awards for Azure. A partner earns it by demonstrating technical depth in Azure managed services, maintaining a portfolio of production Azure environments, and passing an independent third-party audit. It is re-audited, not awarded once. For you, it means the partner running your estate has been checked by someone other than themselves.
It depends on the size and complexity of your environment. A straightforward server migration for a 200-person organisation typically runs 6 to 12 weeks. Larger environments with complex integrations or legacy applications take longer. The Assess stage, in the first five business days, gives you a realistic scope and cost model before you commit to anything.
Azure Hybrid Benefit lets you apply your existing on-premises Windows Server and SQL Server licences to reduce the cost of running those workloads in Azure. If you have active Software Assurance, or you bought those licences through Braintree, you very likely qualify. We check eligibility during the Assess stage and apply it from day one, before any new spend.
We configure your estate on the South African regions, Azure South Africa North in Johannesburg or Azure South Africa West in Cape Town, so customer data is processed and stored inside South African borders. We apply Microsoft’s POPIA-aligned security controls, set data retention policies, and document the technical controls for your compliance records. Data residency is a documented control, not a checkbox.
Yes. Taking over an existing Azure estate is one of the two paths on this page. We start with a Secure Score baseline and a full cost review, tidy up the landing zone, then move the estate onto the Braintree managed agreement. Most handovers reach a managed run-state inside the first month.
A Microsoft support plan gives you access to Microsoft’s engineers for break-fix support. You call when something is already broken. Braintree Managed Azure is proactive. We monitor the estate around the clock, review costs every month, patch before problems land, and answer to an SLA. We also know your business, not just the platform.
Yes. One Braintree agreement covers your full Microsoft estate: Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, security and devices. One invoice. One SLA. One contact. That is the One Intelligent Agreement model, and it is the commercial spine of this page.
Managed Azure includes monthly cost reviews with Reservation and Azure Hybrid Benefit optimisation. We also set budget alerts at the subscription level. If spend moves toward a threshold you have set, you hear from us before it is reached. No invoice surprises.
  • From the Braintree practice.

Insights for CIOs and CFOs running Microsoft Azure.

Strategy

Self-managed or managed Azure. The real cost of running cloud operations.

Self-managed Azure looks cheaper on paper. It is harder in practice. Alert noise, patch gaps and cost drift add up. The honest cost comparison for SA organisations.
  • Article in production

Compliance

POPIA and the cloud. What SA organisations need to document.

Data residency, processing controls and a documented architecture. A practical view on POPIA-aligned Azure configurations and what the Information Regulator now expects.
  • Article in production

Cost optimisation

Azure Hybrid Benefit and Reservations. The spend most SA firms leave on the table.

Most organisations on Windows Server or SQL Server can cut the cost of those workloads in Azure. Very few claim it. Where the savings hide and how to find them.
  • Article in production
  • Where this connects.

Azure is one surface of your Microsoft estate.

One Braintree agreement. One team. Full Microsoft coverage.

Security

Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, Entra and Purview. The Azure security baseline runs alongside a posture across every other surface. One Secure Score, one team accountable.

Explore →

Modern Workplace

Microsoft 365 and Copilot, run under the same agreement as your Azure estate. The desktop and the datacentre, one contract, one SLA.

Explore →

Data & Analytics

Microsoft Fabric and Power BI run on Azure. When the data platform and the infrastructure share one partner, the path from raw data to decision is shorter.

Explore →
  • Migrated in weeks. Managed for years

A cloud your CIO and CFO both sign off.

30-minute cloud review. We assess your estate, scope the migration or the takeover, and model the cost before you commit. No pitch deck.