Macquarie Cloud Services developed the portal for eight months. The Macquarie Lens portal gives customers access to the VMware CloudHealth platform via a free ‘self-service’ option to give faster reporting capabilities and significant cost reductions.

Macquarie Cloud Services found that it provides customers with average cost savings of 26%.

Macquarie Lens insights are gathered, analysed, and presented back to customers after four weeks by one of Macquarie’s Azure Principal Consultants.

The self-service portal allows customers to select the Azure subscriptions for review. The automated service requires read-only rights, alleviating privacy concerns and removing any impact on IT environments.

Macquarie head of Azure Naran McClung claims the service is further proof of the company’s commitment to maximising the customer experience in a market that is underserved and overcharged.

It also speaks to the real needs that IT leaders and teams are facing when dealing with increasing compliance and security requirements, he adds.

“We’ve worked closely with our customers and VMware to develop this service and provide the critical insights needed to inform transformation. It’s one of a number of new services we’ll be launching in the near future, as our Azure business goes from strength to strength.”

“Customers are leveraging cloud as a platform for innovation, as well as to operate their entire environment with optimal cost, security, and governance,” explains VMware Australia and New Zealand director partner business Olga Specjalska.

The launch of Macquarie Lens comes as public cloud spend in Australia is expected to reach $10.6 billion this year, a growth of 20%. McClung continues that the self-service portal will help customers already using Azure directly, or through another provider, to optimise their spend.

“We’ve seen incredible opportunity to reduce unnecessary spend and focus Azure services to where they can drive greater business value. Optimisation is vital as cloud spend hits staggering heights and the need for IT teams to deliver an ROI rises in tandem,” he says.

McClung says that the faster reporting capabilities of Macquarie Lens will allow customers to drive internal efficiencies and free up time for their employees to focus on high-level work. These are key considerations as skills gaps persist across a range of industries, from technology to manufacturing.

“With digital skills gaps an ongoing reality across local sectors, organisations have an obligation to not let employees drown in work and burn out by assuming tasks outside their remit,” McClung says.

“Macquarie Lens allows business heads to free up costs as well as the time traditionally spent reporting, easing the load for employees and allowing them to funnel extra capacity into training programs and other avenues for professional development,” McClung concludes.