Azure consultant and Azure development company

What Azure is and where it fits

Microsoft Azure is Microsoft’s cloud platform. For a typical business app the pieces that matter are App Service for hosting web apps and APIs, Azure Functions for small pieces of code that run on a schedule or when something happens, Azure SQL Database and Azure Database for PostgreSQL for managed databases, Blob Storage for files, and Azure OpenAI for using OpenAI models inside your own Azure tenant.

Azure’s biggest advantage for many small and mid-sized businesses is that it is already half set up. If your staff sign in to Microsoft 365, you have Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory), which means a new app can let employees log in with the accounts they already use, and permissions can follow the groups IT already manages. Through Microsoft Graph, software can also read and write Outlook calendars, Teams messages, SharePoint files and OneDrive documents.

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

AWS offers a wider range of services and has the largest ecosystem of third-party tools. In practice, all three major clouds can run a business app well, and the best choice is usually the one that matches the accounts, skills and tools you already have.

• Good fit: your company runs on Microsoft 365, Teams and SharePoint, and new software should feel like part of that world.
• Good fit: you have .NET apps or SQL Server databases, which move to Azure with the least friction.
• Good fit: customers, auditors or a parent company ask that data stay in your Microsoft tenant.
• Good fit: you want OpenAI models with Microsoft’s enterprise data terms instead of a separate AI vendor.
• Weaker fit: a small app with no Microsoft ties, where a simpler host costs less and needs less care.
• Weaker fit: products built around Google Workspace, BigQuery or Firebase, which sit more naturally on Google Cloud.

What we build as an Azure development company

• Internal web apps and employee portals with Microsoft sign-in, replacing spreadsheets and shared inboxes.
• Customer and vendor portals hosted on Azure, with data kept in your tenant.
• Integrations with Microsoft 365: creating calendar events, posting Teams notifications, filing documents in SharePoint.
• AI assistants that answer questions from your SharePoint or OneDrive documents using Azure OpenAI.
• Replacements for Access databases and Excel workbooks, moved to Azure SQL with a proper web front end.
• Moves of on-premises .NET apps and SQL Server databases to Azure, with a tested switch-over plan.
• Reviews of existing Azure subscriptions for security gaps and wasted spend.

Hiring an Azure consultant, a freelancer or a team

Many IT managed service providers offer Azure help. They are often strong on Microsoft 365 administration, devices and networks, but custom software development is a different skill, so check whether they actually build apps or mainly manage licenses and machines.

A freelance Azure developer can be a good fit for a single, clear task, such as deploying an existing app or setting up a database. An independent Azure consultant is useful for an architecture or cost review, though the fixes still need doing afterwards.

Zoti works as your Azure development team. We design, build and host the software, connect it to Microsoft 365, and keep making changes over time, with a dedicated project manager as your one point of contact, on a monthly plan from $499/month.

How an Azure project works with us

1. Map the Microsoft setupWe look at your tenant, subscriptions, licenses and who manages them, so nothing new clashes with what IT already runs.
2. Map the processWe write down the workflow the software will handle, the people involved and the data it touches.
3. Design firstYou click through screens before code is written and approve how sign-in and permissions will work.
4. Build in roundsWorking pieces arrive in short rounds you review, deployed to a test environment in your Azure subscription.
5. Launch and runWe go live with monitoring, budget alerts and backups, then keep improving it.