So you finally decided to take the plunge and migrate to Azure Cloud.
Congratulations! Deciding to move to the Cloud is a big step in the right direction, even if it feels a bit daunting at first.
Whether this is your first Azure migration or your second — The Azure Cloud Experts have your back.
In this article, you’ll find the best Azure migration checklist. We’ll answer questions like; What is the first phase of migration to cloud environment? We will show you how to optimize your azure migration, how to ensure a quick and effective Azure migration process, and how to move your data without disrupting your current operations.
Let’s dive in.
Azure Migration Checklist Phases
Imagine building your dream home. You sit down with an architect and create a floor plan. You decide where each room goes, the size of your hallways, how many floors you’ll have, and many other details.
After settling on a design you like, the real fun begins: construction!
The contractors come in and prepare a construction site and pour the foundation. They build your home’s frame, do the plumbing, electrical and HVAC. Next comes the drywall and interior and exterior finishes.
Once all of that is complete, the builder gives the place a final walkthrough and makes sure everything works fine. Before you know it, your dream home is complete, and you’re ready to move in.
This is kind of how migrating workloads to the Cloud works. It’s all about careful planning, combining the right tools and inspecting everything at the end to make sure it works.
And just as you wouldn’t try to build an entire house in one day, you shouldn’t try to move all your workloads to the Cloud in one go either.
What is the First Phase of Migration to Cloud Environment?
Using a phased approach is a much better solution and one that will save you a lot of headaches and sleepless nights. The three phases of the Azure migration checklist are as follows: Assess, Migrate and Optimize.
Azure Migration Checklist Phase 1: Assess
The first step on the Azure migration checklist involves setting your migration goals and business objectives. Having the right goals will allow you to continually track your progress and refine your strategy as you move deeper into your Cloud environment.
The Assess phase includes three steps:
1. Discover
The Discover step uses the Azure migration assessment tools to create profile information and performance metrics about the applications stored on your servers. This information will help you build your Cloud migration plan.
2. Map on-premises applications
Using the information from Azure Cloud’s migration assessment tools found during your Discovery, you’ll then map out the dependencies between your servers. This will allow you to identify all the necessary application components in your Cloud migration plan and reduce any risks from there.
3. Evaluate
Next, you’ll need to decide the best way to move your applications to the Cloud. A good way to do that is to use the Azure migration assessment tools to get a better idea of the cost and compatibility of your applications.
Azure Migration Checklist Phase 2: Migrate
There are four Azure migration strategies you can use to move your workloads to Azure, depending on your business use case.
For example, you could choose to rehost or “lift and shift” less-strategic apps with no code changes, and re-architect business-critical apps by decomposing them into microservices.
Below are the four most common Azure migration strategies:
- Rehost – Great for quickly moving applications from your datacenter to the Cloud.
- Refactor – Best suited for situations where you need to use an existing code base and development skills and where code portability is a concern.
- Re-architect – A good choice when your application needs a major revision to incorporate new capabilities or to work more effectively on a Cloud platform.
- Rebuild – Use this strategy when you want rapid development and the existing application is limiting in terms of functionality and lifespan.
Azure Migration Checklist Phase 3: Optimize
Once you’ve successfully moved your applications to Azure Cloud, you’ll need to make sure everything works as you planned. This all happens in the Optimize phase.
During this phase, your goal is to govern, secure, and monitor your Cloud applications in Azure. That sounds like a lot of stuff to do, but luckily Azure has a good collection of security and management resources to simplify the task.
Here are the tools you’ll need to optimize your workloads on Azure Cloud:
Azure Security Center
The Security Center lets you see and control the security of all your Cloud applications. You’ll be able to quickly respond to threats and dramatically reduce your chances of getting breached.
Azure Cloud monitoring tools
Azure’s cloud monitoring tools include Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights. These tools allow you to collect data from multiple sources and gain rich insights into the health of your Cloud infrastructure.
Azure Backup
Azure Backup helps you avoid costly business disruptions, meet compliance goals, and protect your data against ransomware and human errors by backing up your apps in Azure. It’s easy to setup, plus you only pay for what you use and restore data with no additional costs.
What Next?
Get in touch with us to discover the many ways in which we can help you migrate your workloads to Azure Cloud.
