Migrating On-Premises Applications to Azure

As organisations increasingly seek the scalability, cost efficiency, and innovation opportunities of the cloud, migrating on-premises applications and workloads to Microsoft Azure has become a strategic priority.

Let’s have a look at the essential steps to ensure a seamless migration process, from planning to post-migration optimisation.

1. Assess Your Current Environment

Begin by evaluating your on-premises infrastructure and applications.

Use tools like the Azure Migrate service to analyse workloads, identify dependencies, and estimate costs. This stage helps you categorise applications into candidates for rehosting, refactoring, rearchitecting, or retiring.

2. Define the Migration Strategy

Choose an appropriate migration approach based on the applications’ complexity and business requirements. Common strategies include:

Rehosting (Lift-and-Shift): Migrating applications with minimal changes. Ideal for quick transitions.
Refactoring: Modifying applications to optimise them for cloud scalability.
Rearchitecting: Rebuilding applications to take full advantage of Azure’s cloud-native features.
Retiring: Decommissioning outdated or redundant applications.

3. Plan Your Migration

Develop a comprehensive migration plan that includes:

Resource mapping: Match your on-premises resources to Azure services.
Downtime considerations: Plan around maintenance windows to minimise business disruption.
Compliance and security: Ensure data sovereignty and compliance with regulations like The Spam Act or GDPR.

Azure provides compliance offerings to assist organisations in meeting global standards.

4. Set Up Your Azure Environment

Before migrating workloads, prepare your Azure environment by:

Creating resource groups to organise and manage resources.
Configuring a Virtual Network (VNet) to ensure secure connectivity.
Setting up Identity and Access Management (IAM) with Azure Active Directory.

Refer to Microsoft’s guide on Azure Architecture Best Practices for configuration recommendations.

5. Migrate Applications and Data

Use Azure-native tools for migration:

Azure Migrate: A central hub for migrating servers, databases, and virtual machines.
Database Migration Service (DMS): Migrate databases with minimal downtime.
Azure Site Recovery (ASR): Ensure business continuity by replicating workloads.

Begin with less critical workloads to test your migration plan, scaling up once processes are validated.

6. Test and Validate

After migration, rigorously test applications to ensure functionality and performance. Use Azure Monitor for real-time insights into system health and Azure Application Insights for troubleshooting.

7. Optimise Post-Migration

Once live, optimise costs, performance, and security by:

Leveraging the Azure Cost Management and Billing tool to monitor expenses.
Enabling autoscaling for applications to handle varying workloads.
Applying Azure Security Centre recommendations to strengthen security.

8. Train your Team and Update Processes

Empower your team with training on Azure services and adapt processes for cloud operations. There are FREE training options available such as Microsoft Learn, which is a great starting place that offers free resources to upskill your workforce.

9. Monitor and Maintain

Finally, implement a robust monitoring strategy. Use Azure Monitor and Log Analytics to identify anomalies and ensure ongoing performance.

Get expert guidance with Bespoke Training

Migrating on-premises applications to Azure requires careful planning, the right tools, and a focus on optimisation—skills that are essential for success.

Bespoke Training offers customised Microsoft courses designed to equip your team with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively utilise Azure services and implement best practices. Our experienced instructors provide hands-on guidance to ensure your team gains the confidence required to migrate to Microsoft Azure successfully.

Talk to Bespoke and let us help you get the skills you need to make your Azure migration a success.