Sage extends cloud-enabling solutions for partners using Azure Virtual Desktop alongside Azure Lighthouse

Sage decided to redesign the remote access architecture it used to host its Sage 100, Sage 200, and Sage 300 offerings for its own customers. This architecture uses Windows Server Remote Desktop Services (RDS) sessions available in a web browser with the SparkView HTML5 Remote Desktop Protocol client, with backup services from Microsoft Azure SQL Database. 

For the new solution, Sage uses Azure Virtual Desktop instead of SparkView and RDS. It launched a pilot of its Sage Provisioning Portal (SPP) in the United Kingdom in 2021 with the goal of enabling Sage Business Partners to easily deploy existing products as remote services using standardized Azure infrastructure instances. Sage was also using Azure Lighthouse to help partners see how SPP interacts with their Azure subscriptions.

The decision to use Azure Virtual Desktop was based in part on Sage South Africa’s success using it to offer the Sage 300 People application as a service. Westlake says, “We had already tried and tested the Azure platform for its reliability and security. Today we have more than 10,000 global customer sites using our hosted subscriptions through Azure. It’s been an easy decision to go with Azure Virtual Desktop.” These 10,000 global customer sites have approximately 39,000 employees using Sage 100, Sage 200, and Sage 300. As of December 2021, more than 25 partners have signed up for SPP through the United Kingdom pilot.

Enjoying a close relationship with Microsoft and reduced IT overhead

Sage worked closely with Azure Virtual Desktop product experts at Microsoft when building the solution. “We had really great engagement with the Microsoft product team, with weekly meetings to align with them around the product road map,” says Westlake. “This helps Sage plan ahead and identify opportunities that we can bring to our customers around upcoming technologies—and potentially even co-develop solutions with Microsoft.”

With the United Kingdom pilot launch of SPP, the company doesn’t have the burden of updating and maintaining the environment. Josep Mascaró Fedelich, Development Manager at Sage, says, “With Azure Virtual Desktop, it’s like having Remote Desktop as a Service. We can rely on Microsoft knowledge and experience to provide the underlying RDS, and we no longer need to maintain those tools.”

Sage automated the process of deploying a standardized infrastructure to each customer instance. This helps partners reduce the time to provision virtual resources from about two days to only an hour. It also enables partners to provide customers with integrations and customizations for another revenue stream opportunity. Fedelich says, “Partners can easily use Azure Virtual Desktop to spin up new host pools and manage users with a few clicks. They also get Azure data backups, backup management, databases, and virtual machines.”

Benefiting from flexibility and security during transformation

Partners who use SPP own their Azure subscriptions directly. They can install whatever they want, including Sage software and customized add-ons, moving their customers to the cloud at whatever pace they choose. “Our partners benefit from the uptime, security, and anytime, anywhere access enabled by Azure while still offering remote access to the solutions they’ve been enjoying and enhancing for years,” says Westlake. “It’s a transformation for how our partners service customers. We’re helping partners change their traditional business model to become a managed service provider: how to scale up skill sets, create and manage service-level agreements and technical cloud support lines, and all the things that they’ll need to support their customers in this new environment.”

To make the transition easier for partners, Sage has offered educational demonstrations and other support, and partner feedback has been uniformly positive. “Our Sage Provisioning Portal demonstrations show partners how seamless, quick, and easy it is to deploy to the Azure ecosystem using SPP and accessing it via Azure Virtual Desktop resources,” adds Westlake.

When it comes to security, Fedelich says, “The virtual infrastructure components are deeply integrated with Azure security—with Azure Active Directory, SQL databases, and more. By using Azure Virtual Desktop, we can put more solution components in the same bucket, from a security point of view, for more granular control.” Partners benefit too. “The sheer amount of investment that Microsoft makes in the Azure ecosystem, and the robust security it provides, are unparalleled in the market,” says Westlake. “Our partners get to take advantage of the innovation and security of Azure, in which Microsoft has invested billions of dollars. And we get the peace of mind of delivering a trusted platform—that’s good for our partners and our brand.”

Following the launch of SPP with Azure Virtual Desktop in the United Kingdom, Sage will consider deploying it across more regions globally. Westlake says, “By automating and reducing maintenance with Azure, we’re freeing our IT staff to concentrate on innovation and product development. This will drive greater benefit for our partners and their customers. And adopting Azure Virtual Desktop will create new opportunities for Sage in the Microsoft ecosystem that we might not have had otherwise.”

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