What is APA?

“Azure Pricing Arrangement (APA) is an agreement made between Microsoft and the Crown Commercial Service as an Addendum to the current Digital Transformation Arrangement (DTA) MoU for the UK Public Sector.

UK Public Sector organisations will be able to enrol on or move to APA from 1 April 2020 through to 30 April 2021 when the current DTA expires. By doing so it will provide special discounts and terms for organisations wishing to invest in Azure IaaS and PaaS public cloud products and related services. The discount level provided depends upon the Azure spend and does not apply to already discounted Azure products or services i.e. reserved instances.

We’ve had a large number of our Public Sector customers look to move to APA to benefit from the savings and their typically they have seen savings of between 5 and 12% off their current Azure bill.

APA Agreement

For customers new to Azure who can commit to spending at least £10k per annum, the Server and Cloud Enrolment (SCE) agreement is the recommended approach. It is a three year agreement which offers price protection for the entire term meaning you can benefit from the agreed discount over the longest period available.

For Customers already investing in Azure through an Enterprise Agreement (EA) or a SCE, an APA amendment can be made to your existing agreement (subject to eligibility) to apply the discount for the remaining term on the agreement.  Alternatively, at your next agreement anniversary, you can move your Azure Monetary Commitment from that agreement to a new SCE if you would prefer to benefit from the discount over a full three year period.  Once the new agreement is in place you would simply need to follow the link on the “Welcome to Azure” email that you will receive from Microsoft, and this will ensure that the funding source for the Azure consumption is transferred across to your new agreement from your existing one, so that no overage costs are incurred.

Other Criteria

As part of the agreement there is also a requirement from Microsoft for organisations to agree to explore PowerApps and one other Azure ‘innovation workload’ which can include Azure Synapse (or Azure Data Services), Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Sentinel (or Security Solutions), Windows Virtual Desktop or Azure VMware Solution.

Exploring Power Apps

To support you with exploring Power Apps we can deliver a PowerApps Surgery. What to expect from the Surgery:

• Discussions around what is Power Apps and how well can your current processes be translated into Power Apps
• Specific deeper dive into potential Power Apps being explored and considerations involved with the building of these apps
• Discuss what level of support may be required to help you develop and build the applications

Surgery Key Takeaways:

• An awareness of the possibilities of the Power Apps platform.
• An understanding of the complexity in creating some of your specific Power Apps ideas.
• Guidance on Best Practice and considerations that should be made when building these Power Apps.

Exploring Innovation Workloads

In addition, Phoenix have a range of workshops to assist as you look at the following areas:

Azure Synapse – Data 101 Workshop

Azure Cognitive Services – AI 101 Workshop

Azure Sentinel / Security –  Azure Sentinel Workshop

Windows Virtual Desktop and Azure VMware Solution – Azure 101 Workshop

Further Support

To help you make the most of the APA discount and available azure services we can assist with ongoing technical services as part of the Azure Migration Program or provide training to support you in delivering these solutions.

We can also provide a free Cost Optimisation and Security Review to support you in optimising your current azure spend and current configuration. We can also provide cost optimisation and support on an ongoing basis as part of our Azure Essentials Managed Service (see attached for more details).

If this is of interest to yourself and you’d like to discuss APA in more depth and what we may need from yourselves to help calculate what your savings could look like please feel free to reach out to [email protected] or call 01904 562200.”

A blog by:
Ben Gannon – Data and AI Specialist, Phoenix Software
Craig Taylor – Cloud Solutions Director, Phoenix Software