Cloud migration is nothing new – much like the digital transformation it’s been happening for some time. With the digital transformation what’s changed is the significant increase in pace. And with cloud migration what’s changed is the increase in cloud applications and their adoption.

A couple years ago when the pandemic hit, a lot of organizations were forced to expedite their cloud migrations. Luckily, many were already there or underway with their move to the cloud. What we’re seeing these days is that for most, it’s the preferred way to do business. One of the most effective ways to deliver services outside the four walls of an organization is via the cloud. If that’s not enough, there are several other benefits including:

  • Reduced costs. Only pay for what you use.
  • New use cases. The cloud is able to provide the scale required of new use cases like we see with IoT and DevOps.
  • Expanding borders. Employees, customers, and partners are no longer local, and the cloud provides connected user experiences.
  • Managed components. With the known IT skills and resources challenge, managed and as-a-service offerings are high in demand.

If there’s one thing we’ve always championed, it’s that as you move to the cloud, your security should go with you. There should be no compromise or trade-offs with your security in order to do business in the cloud. The recently published 2022 PKI and IoT Trends Study by Ponemon Institute found that the top driver for the deployment of PKI is cloud applications – which is a promising sign.

The trend of “doing business in the cloud” does go beyond cloud business applications though, and increasingly includes the actual purchase of solutions by IT professionals. Did you know that around 1/3 of IT solutions are purchased on cloud marketplaces today? And much like all things cloud, that number is on the rise. In fact, it’s estimated that cloud marketplaces will exceed $10B of transactions by the end of next year, and reach $50B by the end of 2025.

If you’re not already buying from cloud marketplaces, you might be wondering “what’s the big deal”? Well, there are many advantages to having a “one-stop-shop” for all your IT needs – from email systems to CRM to security systems – where they can all be packaged up in one place, from a supplier you trust and already work with.

This is precisely the case with Microsoft and their Azure Marketplace. With the proliferation of Microsoft and its services (over a million companies globally use Office 365 for example), we’ve seen more customers seeking to move them to the cloud, but struggling with security with their on-premises Microsoft PKI – Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS). The solution? Our Entrust PKI as a Service (PKIaaS), which is not only available on the Azure Marketplace, but I’m pleased to say is a Preferred Solution! According to Microsoft, their Preferred Solutions listings “are selected by a team of Microsoft experts and are published by Microsoft partners with deep, proven expertise and capabilities to address specific customer needs in a category, industry, or industry vertical.” That’s pretty awesome and we’re happy to be recognized by Microsoft that way.

Just remember, as you move to the cloud, trust your security with the security experts.

And it doesn’t stop at PKIaaS: Several Entrust digital security solutions are currently available on the Azure Marketplace – have a look!