AZURE MIGRATION SERVICES

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IN A NUTSHELL: AZURE MIGRATION

Azure migration services entails migrating to the Azure cloud applications, data warehouses, desktops, and so on in order to benefit from lower IT operations costs, improved performance and scalability of migrated workloads, and so on. Companies that want to migrate some workloads to Azure while keeping others on-premises for regulatory compliance or other reasons can use a hybrid Azure migration strategy.

Manin assists IT and non-IT companies in quickly and safely migrating their workloads to Azure.

Steps for Azure migration include defining migration goals and scope, selecting a migration strategy, planning an Azure migration project, pilot and full-scale migration, and monitoring and optimising migrated workloads.

A project manager, a business analyst, an Azure solution architect, a software engineer, a database engineer, a DevOps engineer, an IT security specialist, and a QA specialist comprise the Azure migration team.

AZURE MIGRATION SERVICES STEP-BY-STEP

The number and complexity of workloads to migrate, the migration strategy chosen, and other factors all influence the Azure migration services process. The steps we take at Manin to complete Azure migration projects are outlined below.

STEP 1. DESCRIBING MIGRATION OBJECTIVES, SCOPE, AND RISKS

  • Examining the compatibility of the workloads to be migrated with Azure and determining their readiness for migration.
  • Identifying the risks of migrating specific workloads (e.g., long transfer time, issues with pulling data back to on-premises).
  • Identifying workloads to migrate to Azure (applications, databases, data warehouses, desktops, and so on).
  • Identifying all sensitive data within the selected workloads in order to plan additional security and compliance measures.
  • Identifying business requirements and establishing migration objectives (boosting software resilience and performance, cutting workloads operational costs, etc.).

STEP 2. MAKING A DECISION ON AN AZURE MIGRATION STRATEGY

▸Choosing an appropriate Azure migration strategy based on the migration objectives. Among the strategies used by Manin in its migration projects are:

Rehosting (“lift-and-shift”)

  • Workloads are moved to Azure without any code changes.

  • Rapid and low-cost Azure migration with limited cloud-based capabilities (latency, performance, and scalability).

Best for: Workloads that are unlikely to be scaled and migration projects that prioritise short-term gains (e.g., immediate reduction of on-premises infrastructure costs).

Refactoring (“rearchitecting”)

  • Making apps Azure-compatible.
  • Using full-fledged cloud capabilities (auto-scaling, high resilience, serverless computing, etc.).

Best for: Making migrated applications cloud-native.

Replatforming (‘lift, tinker and shift’)

  • Moving applications to Azure with minimal code changes and enhancements but no architectural changes.
  • The migrated apps now perform better and scale more easily.


Best for: Applications with high load fluctuations and unstable performance.

▸Choosing a cloud deployment model (Azure public cloud, Azure Stack for private cloud deployment, or on-premises + Azure).

STEP 3. PROJECT PLANNING FOR AZURE MIGRATION

  • Planning measures to ensure the security of workloads in the Azure environment, such as:
  • Data encryption in transit and at rest.
  • Restriction on data storage access (Azure firewall and network security groups) (NSGs).
  • MFA (multi-factor authentication) and complex passwords
  • Patching the API.
  • Creating an Azure migration plan with prioritised workloads for each iteration.
  • Calculating the cost of the Azure migration project (including migration ROI, TCO).
  • Creating backup and disaster recovery plans to reduce migration risks.
  • Setting KPIs for Azure migration (CPU usage, workload response time, end-user accessibility, node switchover time, and so on).
  • Tool selection for automated Azure migration.
  • Creating the target architecture and planning modifications for workloads that are being migrated.

STEP 4. RUNNING A TEST MIGRATION TO AZURE (OPTIONAL)

Typical migration activities include:

  • Setting up DevOps processes and tools, as well as preparing a production environment.
  • Migrating data related to the workloads being migrated as well as the workloads themselves.
  • Checking workloads for proper operation after migration.

STEP 5. MIGRATING TO AZURE

  • Data related to the workloads being migrated is being migrated. Data migration should be done continuously throughout the migration process to keep the cloud database up to date.
  • Configuring cloud monitoring tools.
  • Workload migration.
  • Building a new production environment around the new workload architecture.

STEP 6. WORKLOAD MONITORING AND OPTIMIZATION IN THE AZURE ENVIRONMENT

  • Setting up Azure monitoring tools (Azure Service Health, Azure Monitor, Azure Advisor, Microsoft Sentinel).
  • Monitoring the performance and health of workloads.
  • Using Azure Cost Management to right-size Azure resources in use for cost optimization.

THINK ABOUT PROFESSIONAL AZURE MIGRATION SERVICES

AZURE MIGRATION CONSULTING

Our consultants include

▸Analyze the business requirements driving your Azure migration.
▸Determine the readiness of the workloads for migration.
▸Create a business case that includes ROI and TCO.
▸Make a detailed migration plan.
▸Choose the best Azure services for migrating workloads.
▸Provide advice on cost optimization for migrated workloads.

AZURE MIGRATION OUTSOURCING

Our Azure migration team consists of:

▸Selects a suitable Azure migration strategy.
▸Modifies workloads (for example, application refactoring).
▸Workloads are migrated to the target Azure environment.
▸Unused workloads or their components are decommissioned.
▸Sets up Azure monitoring tools to track the health, security, and load of the migrated workloads.

COST FACTORS FOR AZURE MIGRATION

The final cost of Azure migration can vary greatly depending on the scope and scale of the project. Here are some examples of factors influencing migration costs:

Key Azure migration cost factors

  • The extent to which workloads must be modified.
  • Model of deployment (Azure public cloud, Azure Stack for private cloud deployment, on-premises + Azure).
  • Workload availability is required.
  • Attempts at testingThe complexity of the workloads to migrate (applications, data warehouses, virtual desktops, etc.).
  • Workloads are ready for migration.
  • Documentation for relevant legacy workloads is available.
  • The interdependence and complexity of workloads.

KEY AZURE POST-MIGRATION COST FACTORS

  • Costs of Azure cloud infrastructure and services
  • Support and maintenance costs for migrated workloads and infrastructure that rely on:
  • Storage and compute resources were required.
  • Azure services were used.
  • Other factors include the physical location of data centres (Azure Regions).

ROLES ON MANIN AZURE MIGRATION TEAMS

PROJECT MANAGER

  • Creates a detailed plan for Azure migration, including budget and time estimates, key milestones, risk mitigation strategies, and more.
  • Assigns tasks to team members and oversees their completion.
  • Establishes and manages cloud migration KPIs, as well as the quality of deliverables.
  • Reports on the status of the Azure migration project to project stakeholders on a regular basis.

IT SECURITY SPECIALIST

  • Security recommendations are provided at each stage of the Azure migration process.
  • For the migrated workloads, configures network security, access control mechanisms, monitoring, and event management.
  • Ensures that workloads deployed or developed in Azure meet the security and compliance requirements of the organisation.

DEVOPS ENGINEER

  • The infrastructure-as-code approach is used to integrate the development and operation environments.
  • Configures CI/CD pipelines and automates workload deployment and testing.
  • Configures tools for monitoring the health of migrated workloads and alerting on issues discovered.

SOFTWARE ENGINEER

  • At the code level, changes workloads or their components.
  • Debugs any workload issues discovered during performance testing.

AZURE SOLUTION ARCHITECT

  • Creates an Azure migration strategy and works with the technical team to put it into action.
  • Plans architectural changes for the workloads being migrated.
  • Chooses Azure services.

DATABASE ENGINEER

  • Provides advice on Azure database services and configures cloud databases and data warehouses (s).
  • Performs data migration.
  • Implements backup/recovery of data and optimises database performance.
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