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The Future of Operations study series provides our partners with deep insight into the small to medium sized business segment.

We invest in quantitative data to support your ability to respond ahead of emerging demand.

Let’s turn this insight into action!

To help our partners monetise demand trends in the study, we’ve matched solutions from our portfolio to analysis of SMB objectives, prioritised IT actions and adoption intent within the study.

SMBs are adjusting hybrid cloud strategies

SMBs are adjusting hybrid cloud strategies

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Asia Pacific are under increasing pressure to scale quickly, respond to shifting market demands, and maintain continuity across remote and hybrid work environments. Hybrid cloud computing has emerged as a cornerstone strategy for doing so. Data from the study confirms these facts.

64% of SMBs prioritise improved ability to adopt flexible and scalable ways of working as a strategic objective

47% of SMBs cite the hybrid cloud strategy objectives as a high to critical priority

50% intend to adopt hybrid cloud compute within the next two years.

Source: The Future of Operations: Advancing AI Innovation and Cloud Agility for Small and Medium Sized Businesses, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Crayon, March 2025

Cloud-first but not cloud-only.

SMBs are chasing ‘cloud first’ but their hybrid strategies are shifting away from ‘cloud only’ to encompass on-premises and edge.

This shift is partly driven by the rapid emergence and adoption of AI within the SMB sector that is highlighted in the study.

It also reflects continued modernisation for industries with distributed operations, such as manufacturing, healthcare, retail banking and education.

The influence of regulatory change and compliance challenges is not to be overlooked either.

The study shows SMBs have increased awareness of data sovereignty as an issue, and this may have influence on thinking for where data is stored and processed.

Microsoft Azure remains one of the most powerful and accessible platforms that partners can leverage to help customers achieve their hybrid cloud objectives.

Why hybrid cloud and why now?

Why hybrid cloud and why now?

Hybrid cloud isn’t just about infrastructure—it’s about aligning business agility with IT architecture.

For many SMBs, moving fully to public cloud isn’t always possible due to cost, legacy applications, data residency, or latency concerns.

Hybrid cloud enables these businesses to:

  • Modernise applications incrementally
  • Host sensitive workloads on-premises while scaling others in the cloud
  • Support business continuity and disaster recovery scenarios
  • Leverage AI and analytics without relocating entire data sets

Azure provides an actionable response.

Microsoft Azure has become the go-to platform to make hybrid cloud practical and effective.

Its ecosystem supports seamless integration between on-premises environments and cloud services, reducing complexity and accelerating time-to-value for SMBs.

Azure isn’t just a hyperscale IaaS platform.

It includes a suite of purpose-built tools designed to enable hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Let’s run through how a number of these can contribute to productive engagement with customers in the SMB segment.

Azure capabilities that fit hybrid strategies

Azure capabilities that fit hybrid strategies

Azure Local

Formerly Azure Stack HCI, Azure Local unifies all Microsoft’s distributed infrastructure offerings under a single umbrella. Azure Local encompasses Azure Stack HCI and services like Azure Edge Zones, Private MEC, and Local Regions that deliver Azure services closer to users and workloads.

  • Provides a hyperconverged infrastructure solution that hosts virtualised Windows and Linux workloads in a hybrid on-premises environment.
  • Supports deployment of Azure services such as Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and AI workloads at local sites.
  • Offers flexibility with support for smaller and larger deployments, more hardware options, and disconnected operations.
  • Enables SMBs to modernise their virtualization estate with familiar tools while gaining cloud-like benefits.

Azure Site Recovery and Backup

  • Seamlessly integrates on-prem backup and disaster recovery with the cloud. 
  • High opportunity offering for SMBs ramping up investment plans for Business Continuity.

Azure Arc

  • Extends Azure services to on-premises servers, Kubernetes clusters, and even other cloud environments.
  • Enables centralised management, policy enforcement, and security monitoring across hybrid environments.
  • Ideal for SMBs with mixed estate infrastructure or compliance needs.

Azure Virtual Network & ExpressRoute

  • Establishes secure, low-latency connections between on-prem environments and Azure regions.
  • Supports high availability scenarios with hybrid networking.

 

Azure Lighthouse

  • Offers partners multi-tenant management capabilities with automation, governance and role-based access control.
  • Enables efficient customer onboarding and policy application at scale.

 

These technologies aren't always well understood by SMBs—but they are instrumental in bridging old and new environments with minimal disruption.

The Opportunity

The Opportunity

Services are the winning game

It’s no secret: the margins on Azure licensing are slim. But the partner opportunity lies in building high-value services.

For partners willing to specialise, these services offer recurring revenue, sticky engagements, and high customer lifetime value.

By designing for hybrid needs, partners can also cross-sell into security, backup, networking and application modernisation. 

We can help you explore:

  • Hybrid infrastructure design and deployment leveraging programs like Azure Migrate & Modernise
  • Azure AI deployment services leveraging programs like Azure Innovate
  • Azure governance and cost management consulting
  • Managed services and monitoring using Azure Monitor, Arc and Defender
  • Business continuity and DRaaS using Azure Backup and Site Recovery
  • Cloud-native security operations leveraging Microsoft Sentinel or Defender for Cloud
Why build an Azure practice?

Why build an Azure practice?

Microsoft Azure has matured into a platform that enables scale—but it can be daunting for any business customer that doesn’t have the right support.

Building an Azure practice enables partners to respond to the high level of need for external expertise – not for licensing, but for everything that goes into driving sustained value from the investment.

  • Tap into predictable recurring revenue
  • Leverage co-sell opportunities & access to incentives, rebates through Microsoft and Crayon
  • Standardise delivery using Azure blueprints, ARM templates, and Bicep
  • Use automation via Azure Lighthouse for efficient tenant management
  • Offer lifecycle value: design, deploy, secure, optimise, and manage

An Azure practice is also a springboard to expand into:

  • AI via Azure OpenAI
  • Data platforms with Synapse, Databricks, and Fabric
  • Data governance using Microsoft Purview
  • Developer services with App Services, DevOps.

All of these adjacent areas can be developed into from a single Azure foundation.

All of these address areas of high demand and service need from SMB customers over the next two years.

Value of working with Crayon.

When you choose Crayon, you’re placing a wining bet on distribution, done differently.  We back our mission to create value for our partners and will enable you to:

  • Access licensing expertise: Crayon’s specialists support CSP, MCA-E, Azure reservations, hybrid benefit optimisation, and more.
  • Leverage end to end migration services: Crayon brings over 10 years of Azure migration experience with countless migrations and modernisations for very complex and large deployments.
  • Gain Data & AI guidance: Assistance as you develop capabilities for data-led and AI-powered Microsoft workloads. We’ll help you shape pilot projects and Proof of Value for Fabric, and support applications where you may be eligible for funding. Leverage our in-house technical resource to assist with implementations and engage with our marketing team to develop Data and AI case studies.
  • Accelerate capability building: Training, certifications, and architecture support across infrastructure, data, and security.
  • Streamline partner ops: Crayon’s cloud portal simplifies provisioning, billing, and reporting.
  • Design solutions with impact: Work with Crayon’s cloud solution team to build repeatable, industry-specific hybrid offerings.
  • Go to market faster: Use Crayon’s marketing and enablement services to build demand and convert leads.
Build Hybrid Cloud on Azure, with Crayon

Build Hybrid Cloud on Azure, with Crayon

Hybrid cloud is more than a transition path—it’s a competitive advantage. For SMBs, it unlocks scalability, resilience, and innovation without wholesale IT disruption. For partners, it offers recurring revenue and service stickiness. 

Start a conversation with Crayon today to: 

  • Co-design hybrid solution offerings 
  • Access technical and pre-sales resources 
  • Understand rebates & incentives & benefits available 
  • Develop packaged service offerings 
  • Leverage the Partner Value ecosystem 

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