A couple months ago, I noticed how stiff I had become. I was playing around with my son when I realized I could no longer touch my toes. I also discovered I didn’t have the same range of motion when throwing a ball. All these years of sitting at the computer was taking a toll on my back and shoulders.

To improve my flexibility, I decided to implement a daily routine of stretching. I now stretch for 20 minutes every evening, ending my workout with a series of sit-ups. The results have been amazing. In just two months, I’ve dramatically improved my flexibility. More importantly, I feel a lot better. I’ve come to realize that a flexible body = a healthy body. 

As I stretch at night, my mind tends to wander and I started thinking about how the concept of flexibility applies to enterprise business. So much of the work we do at Microsoft is designed to help companies improve their flexibility – to increase their range of motion so they can respond to changing business conditions both swiftly and effectively. And, one of my favorite topics, a hybrid approach to the cloud, is one of the ways companies increase their flexibility. Having the option to keep some workloads on-premises while moving others to the cloud gives businesses the full range of motion they need to address the unique challenges they face.

One company that’s increased its flexibility through a hybrid approach to the cloud is MedcoEnergi Internasional. An integrated energy company with 3,000 employees and operations in seven countries, MedcoEnergi frequently buys and sells smaller companies. The company also has many employees who work in remote locations as well as employees who frequently change roles. In the past, all of this meant the IT team had to spend a lot of extra time managing user accounts. 

The company wanted to keep its current on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 deployment at its headquarters. It also wanted to continue serving employees using its on-premises versions of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Lync Server 2010. Yet it wanted a simpler way to create and manage email accounts for new employees and for people who changes roles within the company. It also wanted to reduce costs and workload for IT administrators by reducing the amount of infrastructure they were required to manage on a daily basis.

After testing Microsoft Exchange Server Online as part of the Microsoft Office 365 Rapid Deployment Program, MedcoEnergi decided to transition some of its remote offices and all future businesses that MedcoEnergi acquires to the hosted service. The company can easily move employee mailboxes between Exchange Online and on-premises Exchange Server deployments when people transfer to new positions in the company or to new office locations.

With a cloud-based email service that complements its current on-premises communications solution, MedcoEnergi has been able to continue leveraging its existing IT investments while reducing administration costs. “At many of our locations, we can eliminate our on-premises servers running Exchange Server altogether, which will greatly reduce administration,” says Cecep Saefudin, Manager-Infrastructure Services, MedcoEnergi Internasional. “In addition, when we acquire new businesses, we can avoid deploying additional hardware in those locations.”

By taking advantage of the hybrid approach to the cloud that Microsoft offers, MedcoEnergi has improved its flexibility. And ultimately, a more flexible company = a healthier company. To learn more about the approach MedcoEnergi Internasional is taking to the cloud, please see the full case study.

Tell us about your company. Is it taking a hybrid approach to the cloud? How is this approach helped to increase your flexibility?