Macquarie Cloud Services, part of Macquarie Technology Group, announced today the launch of a groundbreaking SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) offering on Microsoft Marketplace. This innovative launch, named Macquarie Guard, provides previously inaccessible services and benefits for Australian businesses dealing directly with Microsoft, hence promoting innovation and efficiency in cloud spending.

A first of its kind, Macquarie Guard comprises over 50 unique applications and has the capacity to further speedy development, enhance governance while continuously optimising cost. It also simplifies the process of utilising the Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) credits rapidly thus facilitating quicker access to new benefits and increasing the value of the public cloud investment. Macquarie Guard primarily aims to enable Azure customers on Microsoft agreements to access the most out of their MACC credits and incentives.

Built on Macquarie Cloud Services’ industry-leading Managed Azure intellectual property (IP) and associated services structure, Macquarie Guard offers unique function applications that come with enhanced reporting, monitoring and security capabilities. It also features automated responses to IT operations around the clock, including auto-remediation, auto-healing, continuous cost optimisation, advanced logging, alerting, monitoring and ticketing.

"Macquarie Guard is the result of the unique IP from our team of 120 and our expertise in offering leading Azure cloud services to Australian organisations," stated Naran McClung, the Head of Azure at Macquarie Cloud Services. He continued, "Our goal is to aid customers that are underserved and overcharged. We are prepared to extend our expertise and our NPS-proven service to a new segment as organisations are expanding their cloud footprint and looking at technologies like AI and machine learning."

Addressing the potential for transformation, McClung said, "Macquarie Guard’s AI powered guardrails help organisations free their teams from burdensome resource and infrastructure management, thereby allowing them to focus more on meaningful and secure change."

This initiative follows after Microsoft recently announced that it would be investing A$5 billion over the next two years to strengthen Australian cyber security, cloud and AI capabilities. Reflecting on the collaboration, Vanessa Sorenson, Microsoft Chief Partner Officer Australia and New Zealand, said, "Customers are truly understanding what real transformation means by accentuating data security." She further added, "Macquarie Cloud Services is part of this transformation journey Microsoft is on. Together we can provide a secure lens and guardrails around customers’ cloud environments, safeguard their data, and service what they truly need to transform."