Insights

What a Good IT Partner Looks Like From the Inside: Part 1, Cloud Services

Author: Beyondsoft Americas Team

In What a Good IT Partner Looks Like From the Inside: An Introduction, we introduced a 4-blog part series that examines the attributes to consider when choosing an IT consultancy. We are doing this from the lens of various service areas, beginning with Cloud Services, so we can provide practical real-world examples of the attributes in action.

Choosing the right IT consultancy can determine whether your cloud initiative delivers measurable value or becomes a costly, disruptive exercise.

Cloud services projects generally fall into two major categories:

Cloud migration: Moving applications, data, and infrastructure from on-premises or legacy systems to cloud environments.

Cloud optimization: Improving cost efficiency, performance, scalability, and security of existing cloud workloads.

Both require more than technical capability. They demand strategic alignment, industry understanding, and long-term partnership. A strong IT consultancy does more than implement technology. They align cloud transformation with business outcomes.

Key Attributes to Look for in a Cloud Services IT Partner

When evaluating potential partners for your cloud initiative, consider whether they demonstrate the following attributes:

• Referrals and proven customer success stories.
• Deep understanding of your business model and goals.
• Deep industry and/or vertical industry expertise.
• Strong business acumen (not just technical skill).
• Sensitivity to cultural norms, stakeholder input and KPIs.
• Comprehensive planning, training, and ongoing support.
• Global footprint and scalable delivery model.

While not all cloud services projects require all these attributes, choosing an IT consultancy that demonstrates these attributes ensures you have a partner that can tackle the current problem, identify dependencies that will impact current problem, other projects on the horizon, and future projects.

How do these attributes play out in real-world cloud services success? Here are a few of our projects that tell the story and the key attributes we brought to the table that made a difference.

Key Attributes That Drove Success in Our Cloud Services Projects

1. Understanding the Business

When the cloud infrastructure for Outback Steakhouse, Abbraccio & Aussie Brazil became sluggish and costly, we worked with them to redesign their systems. But redesigning for cost savings, while important, was not the only business issue.

This restaurant group needed a cloud platform that would be scalable and could support richer web site experiences for their customers. They also needed greater governance and security controls. By asking the right questions, these priorities surfaced and we worked on a design plan that was practical and would achieve the desired business outcomes, achieving reduced cloud costs by 30% on average.

2. Business Acumen

Many organizations believe migration alone delivers transformation. In reality:

• Migration moves workloads.
• Optimization extracts value.

Cloud optimization initiatives often uncover cost inefficiencies, performance gaps, and security vulnerabilities that emerge after initial migration. We view cloud services as a lifecycle and require continuous improvement:

Assess–> Plan–>Migrate–>Optimize–>Govern–>Continuous Improvement

When Senac RJ needed to migrate their servers to a new platform, we were able to do so quickly but also saw the opportunity to reduce processing time by 40% after moving to modern servers with all-flash storage in the cloud. The infrastructure now scales when needed and integrates with over 200 Azure services. Senac RJ now has a stable, agile environment in which they can build new tools and adopt emerging technology.

3. Deep Industry Experience

Implementing and modernizing technology is a task many IT consultants can accomplish. For Outback Steakhouse, Abbraccio & Aussie Brazil, every step along their digital journey was outlined to show value to the organization. Using our deep cloud services expertise, we were able to guide the restaurant group through migrating additional services to the cloud without their cloud costs ballooning.

When Senac RJ decided to migrate their entire data center to Microsoft Azure using Azure VMware Solution (AVS), they partnered with us, a Microsoft partner with experience running AVS migrations, to help execute the move. 

4. Referrals and Proven Customer Success

Modernizing legacy servers is high risk. Businesses often rely on referrals and customer stories to ensure an IT consultancy has handled similar transformations successfully. Proven migration experience reduces the likelihood of downtime, data loss, or security exposure. With FINK, the logistics company’s CEO was referred to us and the partnership is still going strong.

5.  Understanding Culture Norms, Stakeholder Input, and KPIs

Legacy modernization often faces internal resistance. Teams accustomed to on-premises systems may worry about change, skill gaps, and how they will operate in the new environment.

Successful migration requires stakeholder alignment. On the FINK migration project, we incorporated stakeholder input and change management best practices to deliver a smooth adoption. We now operate as an extension of their IT team so that the internal teams are now able to focus on higher-value tasks and digital initiatives knowing that the day-to-day monitoring and responding to minor and critical issues are being handled.

6. Planning, Training, and Ongoing Support

Cloud migration does not end when servers are retired. Teams must be trained on cloud management tools, security monitoring practices, and governance policies. Long-term support prevents regression to outdated processes and strengthens the security posture over time.

As a strategic partner with FINK, weekly meetings include performance reports, preventive analysis, and we provide training when needed. It also allows us to ensure that we are continually operating in alignment with the company’s vision. 

Closing Thoughts

The customer examples above demonstrate that when an IT consultancy combines technical depth with strong business acumen the results are tangible:

• Cost reductions.
• Strengthened security.
• Performance improvement.
• Ability to scale and adopt new technologies quickly.

Cloud transformation done right is not just about infrastructure, it is about enabling smarter, more agile business operations. By prioritizing the right attributes in a cloud consultancy, organizations can ensure their cloud investments drive measurable and sustainable value.

Next in the series, What a Good IT Partner Looks Like From the Inside: Part 2, Data and AI Services.

Ready to discuss your IT initiative? Let us know how we can help. We are here to solve your business pain points on your terms. Onward to better business outcomes!