Adapting Infrastructure to Market Change

If you’ve been involved in recent on‑premises refresh cycles, you’ve likely noticed how dynamic the hardware landscape has become: shorter quote validity, fluctuating availability, variable lead times, and noticeable bill‑of‑materials movement—particularly around memory. These shifts are largely driven by global supply‑and‑demand pressures, with increased consumption of DRAM and HBM for AI data centre workloads influencing pricing and availability across servers, storage, and related components. Industry analysts and market trackers continue to flag ongoing uncertainty through 2026, making timing and cost predictability more challenging for some customers. 

In this context, Azure provides an additional deployment option where customers value pricing predictability, pay‑for‑what‑you‑use economics, and access to funded assessment and migration programs. Customers can choose to move to, extend into, or selectively consume public cloud with Azure, or adopt a hybrid approach using a combination of Azure Local and Azure, leveraging validated, infrastructure‑aligned hardware from familiar vendor ecosystems to align with workload, data residency, and operational requirements. For organisations navigating hardware timing constraints, phased refresh strategies, or short‑term capacity gaps, Azure offers a practical way to maintain momentum while preserving architectural flexibility and customer choice, rather than replacing existing on‑premises investments. 

Azure’s Cost Story: Predictability, Flexibility, and Real Savings Levers

1) Stable, transparent list pricing—and multiple ways to lock in savings

Azure publishes transparent pricing and offers long term commitment discounts via Reservations (1 year or 3 year) and the Azure Savings Plan for compute—often delivering up to ~72% off PAYG when paired with the Azure Hybrid Benefit (AHUB) for Windows/SQL or eligible Linux subscriptions.

2) Azure Hybrid Benefit (AHUB): Bring your licenses, pay the base compute rate

AHUB lets customers apply existing Windows Server, SQL Server, and eligible Linux (RHEL/SLES) subscriptions to reduce Azure costs—often to the Linux base rate for VMs—and can be used across Azure, Azure Local, AKS hybrid, and more.  

3) Only pay for what you consume

Azure is inherently pay-as-you-go, so you can elastically scale up or down and pay only for usage—ideal when your capacity needs fluctuate or when project timing is uncertain.  

4) Elastic capacity beats lead time risk

With cloud capacity on tap, you can start now, then rightsize continuously— providing flexibility where timing or capacity requirements are still evolving. If a workload stabilises later, lock it with an Azure Reservation.  

Migration Options: Full Cloud, “Transfer,” or Hybrid—Your Pace, Your Control

• Full or phased migrations: Rehost, re-platform, or modernise apps and data with prescriptive programs and incentives (see below).  

• Hybrid designs: Keep core workloads on site while bursting to Azure for elastic growth. Azure Stack HCI gives you on-prem virtualisation with Azure connected operations (backup, monitoring, Arc, AVD) and subscription style software billing.  

• Azure Arc & unified ops: Govern and secure resources across on prem, multi cloud, and edge with a single control plane. 

Result: You don’t have to “choose cloud or on-prem.” You can blend them—modernise where it makes sense, keep what must stay local, and expand elastically when demand spikes. 

Funded Assessments and Migration Help (No Cost, No Lock In)

A common blocker to moving forward is “Where do we start?” Microsoft’s funded programs remove that barrier:

• When you work with an Advanced Specialised partner, Microsoft Solution Assessments offer data-driven, partner-led evaluations that review your environment, estimate workloads, calculate total cost of ownership (TCO), and outline a practical migration plan—all at no cost or obligation to you. 

• Azure Migrate & Modernise / Azure Accelerate: Funded partner services to migrate and modernise infra, databases, SAP, VDI, and more—now encompassed by Azure Accelerate with unified investments and zero cost expert assistance. 

These offers are designed to derisk decisions, quantify costs, and accelerate time to value—precisely when on-prem procurement is least predictable. 

Planning for Infrastructure Decisions 

We’re seeing customers take more time to evaluate refresh and expansion decisions as component availability and pricing fluctuate. In some cases, this can introduce timing or budget pressures if plans aren’t revisited regularly. 

In this context, flexibility and optionality become increasingly important when designing infrastructure strategies. 

Azure can be one way to introduce that flexibility where timing or capacity requirements remain uncertain. 

Azure Changes The Conversation

1. Start when you’re ready: Stand up landing zones and move the first wave of workloads now—without the need to wait for hardware infrastructure. 

2. Lock in economics: Apply Azure Hybrid Use Benefits + 1 or 3-year Reservations for predictable workloads; keep variable/burst demand on PAYG.

3. Keep hybrid optionality: Where locality or latency matters, Azure Local + Azure Arc provide onprem control with cloud consistency.  

Talking Points You Can Use with Customers

• “Industry analysts continue to highlight market pressures on DRAM and NAND, driven in part by increased demand from AI‑focused data centres. This has had a flow‑on effect to server memory and enterprise SSDs, contributing to greater cost variability and planning complexity for infrastructure refreshes. 

• “We’re not seeing Azure listprice shocks—plus you can lock discounts.” Use Reservations (1/3-year) and Azure Hybrid Use Benefits to secure predictable runrates and counter hardware volatility.  

• “Only pay for what you use, and scale both ways.” Azure lets you grow or shrink capacity as needed. 

Azure sidesteps those procurement pitfalls.  

• “No cost assessments, no lock in.” We can baseline your estate, build a plan and business case funded by Microsoft—with no obligation to proceed. 

• “Hybrid is absolutely an option.” Keep core apps local with Azure Local while using Azure for elastic growth, DR, backup, analytics, or AI services.  

Example Commercial Levers to Highlight in Proposals

• Azure Reservations (1/3-year) for VMs, databases, storage capacities to lock rates for steady state usage. 

• Azure Hybrid Benefit to convert existing entitlements into cloud savings; combine with Reservations for maximum effect. Cost Management + Advisor to right size and eliminate waste continuously.  

   

A Sensible Path Forward (Suggested Next Steps)

1. Book a Microsoft-funded Solution Assessment to inventory, right-size, and model TCO vs. on-prem refresh scenarios. (No cost, no lock-in.) 

2. Define a hybrid landing pattern using Azure Local for onprem control plus Azure for elasticity and managed services.  

3. Normalise run-rates with Hybrid Use Benefits + Reservations for the predictable layer; keep burst on PAYG.
 

Final Thoughts

In an uncertain market, the key is flexibility and informed planning. By evaluating hardware, cloud, and hybrid options together, organisations can move forward at the right pace, manage cost exposure, and align infrastructure decisions to business outcomes. Azure supports a range of modernisation paths, from augmenting refreshed or existing on‑premises environments with cloud elasticity and flexibility, through to becoming the primary destination for infrastructure modernisation—while preserving customer choice at every stage. 

For tailored advice on how Azure or hybrid options could support your customers’ infrastructure plans, reach out to me or my team for a conversation.