Businesses today are under pressure to innovate faster, reduce costs, and stay secure—all while preparing for an AI-driven future. As part of this shift, many organizations are turning to Microsoft Azure to modernize their infrastructure. In doing so, they find that migrating to Azure helps meet these evolving demands by improving agility, strengthening security, and laying the foundation for AI readiness.
Microsoft Azure supports your migration and modernization journey with services built for Linux and Open Source. Central to this transformation is Ubuntu, Canonical’s enterprise-grade Linux distribution, which integrates seamlessly with Azure’s IaaS and PaaS. Together, they deliver high performance, reliability, and enterprise support—plus a broad set of tools to make migration smooth and efficient.
To bring a data-driven perspective to these benefits, Microsoft commissioned International Data Corporation (IDC) to conduct a business value study* based on interviews with organizations that moved their Ubuntu workloads from on-premises to Azure. Study participants shared that Azure provides a more efficient and effective platform for their Ubuntu workloads, maximizing their value in core business functions and supporting new technology adoption. Using the data derived from these interviews, IDC analysts created a typical customer profile to represent common experiences and business outcomes. The consolidated data from study participants shows that running Canonical Ubuntu workloads on Azure delivers the following benefits:
- 306% three-year return on investment with an 11-month payback on investment.
- 35% lower three-year cost of operations.
- 63% faster to deploy new compute resources and 52% faster to scale to new business opportunities.
- 85% less unplanned downtime affecting users.
- $30.63M higher revenue per organization per year.
Quantified benefits of Ubuntu on Microsoft Azure
IDC interviewed stakeholders involved with Ubuntu workloads on Azure, uncovering significant benefits cited by participants, including:
Run mission-critical workloads with robust performance and flexibility
Organizations running workloads such as data analytics, engineering simulations, and machine learning, experience increased agility and operational efficiency with Ubuntu on Azure. By leveraging Ubuntu on Azure, businesses can scale seamlessly and respond swiftly to changing market conditions, ensuring optimal application performance while accelerating innovation and maintaining a competitive edge.
“With Ubuntu on Azure, we’ve unlocked AI adoption. We can scale innovations and experiment with technologies like GenAI, ML, and big data analytics without infrastructure constraints.”
The study participants also highlighted the ease of migrating Ubuntu workloads to Azure and the ability to add or remove capacity as needed. Gains in agility and development were notable, with users able to adjust and scale their Ubuntu environments more rapidly and flexibly in Azure, reducing deployment-related friction on development and business activities.
“Scalability is one of the reasons we moved to Ubuntu on Azure. We now have rapid scaling and flexible deployment, which enhance our responsiveness to business needs by almost 40%.”
Strengthen security and empower your IT teams
Security was another standout benefit for organizations adopting Ubuntu on Azure. They experienced enhanced operational resilience and reduced exposure to security and performance risks. Azure’s built-in security tools, including Microsoft Defender for Cloud, offer continuous security assessment threat detection, and actionable recommendations. This enables IT teams to proactively identify vulnerabilities, respond swiftly to potential threats, and maintain robust protection, ultimately supporting business continuity and fostering trust with customers and stakeholders.
“Ubuntu on Azure provides built-in security features such as Microsoft Defender for Cloud, which is a continuous security assessment and actionable recommendations. This proactive approach helps us identify vulnerabilities before they can be exploited, which is what we all are looking out for.”
In addition, IT teams have been able to shift their focus from maintenance-heavy tasks to more strategic, innovation-driven efforts, including AI initiatives. The transition to Azure simplified operations, streamlined development cycles, and enabled teams to make faster progress on business-critical projects by leveraging built-in AI tools and infrastructure that support rapid experimentation and deployment.
“With Ubuntu on Azure, we leverage AI and refocus our IT team. Managing on-premises infrastructure was difficult, but Azure AI services enhanced our applications and drove innovation. We’ve shifted IT resources from maintenance to strategic projects, improving productivity by 25%.”
Reduce operational costs while scaling efficiently
Organizations also realized significant cost efficiencies with Ubuntu on Azure. By taking advantage of Azure’s pay-as-you-go pricing and removing hardware maintenance burdens, businesses achieved notable infrastructure and licensing savings.
IDC found that customers reduced the cost of running Ubuntu workloads by an average of 35% over three years, saving $6,500 per Azure VM. Many also saw a 29% reduction in annual infrastructure costs, equating to approximately $581,100 per year.
“Ubuntu on Azure has reduced our direct IT costs by 40%, and it also optimizes our resource allocation, so we have better operational efficiency and staff time savings.”
“Ubuntu on Azure offers significant cost savings and scalability compared to on-premises solutions. It also provides excellent integration and interoperability and helps address data challenges, enhancing completeness, accuracy, and availability to support business decisions.”
Learn more from the IDC study
- Download the full study: The Business Value of Ubuntu on Microsoft Azure.
- Register to attend the webinar and listen to our guests from IDC, Microsoft, and Canonical discuss the benefits of running Ubuntu Linux on Azure.
- To learn more about Ubuntu on Azure, visit our website.
*IDC White Paper, sponsored by Microsoft, The Business Value of Ubuntu on Microsoft Azure, doc # US52857024, January 2025.
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