Research individuals shared that Azure supplies a extra environment friendly and efficient platform for his or her Ubuntu workloads, maximizing their worth in core enterprise capabilities and supporting new expertise adoption.
Companies right this moment are beneath stress to innovate quicker, scale back prices, and keep safe—all whereas getting ready for an AI-driven future. As a part of this shift, many organizations are turning to Microsoft Azure to modernize their infrastructure. In doing so, they discover that migrating to Azure helps meet these evolving calls for by enhancing agility, strengthening safety, and laying the inspiration for AI readiness.
Microsoft Azure helps your migration and modernization journey with providers constructed for Linux and Open Supply. Central to this transformation is Ubuntu, Canonical’s enterprise-grade Linux distribution, which integrates seamlessly with Azure’s IaaS and PaaS. Collectively, they ship excessive efficiency, reliability, and enterprise help—plus a broad set of instruments to make migration clean and environment friendly.
To convey a data-driven perspective to those advantages, Microsoft commissioned Worldwide Knowledge Company (IDC) to conduct a enterprise worth research* based mostly on interviews with organizations that moved their Ubuntu workloads from on-premises to Azure. Research individuals shared that Azure supplies a extra environment friendly and efficient platform for his or her Ubuntu workloads, maximizing their worth in core enterprise capabilities and supporting new expertise adoption. Utilizing the information derived from these interviews, IDC analysts created a typical buyer profile to symbolize widespread experiences and enterprise outcomes. The consolidated information from research individuals reveals that working Canonical Ubuntu workloads on Azure delivers the next advantages:
- 306% three-year return on funding with an 11-month payback on funding.
- 35% decrease three-year price of operations.
- 63% quicker to deploy new compute sources and 52% quicker to scale to new enterprise alternatives.
- 85% much less unplanned downtime affecting customers.
- $30.63M increased income per group per yr.
Quantified advantages of Ubuntu on Microsoft Azure
IDC interviewed stakeholders concerned with Ubuntu workloads on Azure, uncovering vital advantages cited by individuals, together with:
Run mission-critical workloads with sturdy efficiency and adaptability
Organizations working workloads equivalent to information analytics, engineering simulations, and machine studying, expertise elevated agility and operational effectivity with Ubuntu on Azure. By leveraging Ubuntu on Azure, companies can scale seamlessly and reply swiftly to altering market situations, making certain optimum software efficiency whereas accelerating innovation and sustaining a aggressive edge.
“With Ubuntu on Azure, we’ve unlocked AI adoption. We will scale improvements and experiment with applied sciences like GenAI, ML, and massive information analytics with out infrastructure constraints.”
The research individuals additionally highlighted the convenience of migrating Ubuntu workloads to Azure and the flexibility so as to add or take away capability as wanted. Beneficial properties in agility and improvement have been notable, with customers capable of alter and scale their Ubuntu environments extra quickly and flexibly in Azure, decreasing deployment-related friction on improvement and enterprise actions.
“Scalability is without doubt one of the causes we moved to Ubuntu on Azure. We now have fast scaling and versatile deployment, which improve our responsiveness to enterprise wants by nearly 40%.”
Strengthen safety and empower your IT groups
Safety was one other standout profit for organizations adopting Ubuntu on Azure. They skilled enhanced operational resilience and lowered publicity to safety and efficiency dangers. Azure’s built-in safety instruments, together with Microsoft Defender for Cloud, supply steady safety evaluation risk detection, and actionable suggestions. This allows IT groups to proactively determine vulnerabilities, reply swiftly to potential threats, and keep sturdy safety, finally supporting enterprise continuity and fostering belief with clients and stakeholders.
“Ubuntu on Azure supplies built-in safety features equivalent to Microsoft Defender for Cloud, which is a steady safety evaluation and actionable suggestions. This proactive method helps us determine vulnerabilities earlier than they are often exploited, which is what all of us are looking for.”
As well as, IT groups have been capable of shift their focus from maintenance-heavy duties to extra strategic, innovation-driven efforts, together with AI initiatives. The transition to Azure simplified operations, streamlined improvement cycles, and enabled groups to make quicker progress on business-critical initiatives by leveraging built-in AI instruments and infrastructure that help fast experimentation and deployment.
“With Ubuntu on Azure, we leverage AI and refocus our IT staff. Managing on-premises infrastructure was tough, however Azure AI providers enhanced our functions and drove innovation. We’ve shifted IT sources from upkeep to strategic initiatives, enhancing productiveness by 25%.”
Cut back operational prices whereas scaling effectively
Organizations additionally realized vital price efficiencies with Ubuntu on Azure. By making the most of Azure’s pay-as-you-go pricing and eradicating {hardware} upkeep burdens, companies achieved notable infrastructure and licensing financial savings.
IDC discovered that clients lowered the price of working Ubuntu workloads by a mean of 35% over three years, saving $6,500 per Azure VM. Many additionally noticed a 29% discount in annual infrastructure prices, equating to roughly $581,100 per yr.
“Ubuntu on Azure has lowered our direct IT prices by 40%, and it additionally optimizes our useful resource allocation, so now we have higher operational effectivity and workers time financial savings.”
“Ubuntu on Azure gives vital price financial savings and scalability in comparison with on-premises options. It additionally supplies glorious integration and interoperability and helps tackle information challenges, enhancing completeness, accuracy, and availability to help enterprise selections.”
Study extra from the IDC research
*IDC White Paper, sponsored by Microsoft, The Enterprise Worth of Ubuntu on Microsoft Azure, doc # US52857024, January 2025.
