In the previous chapter, we examined Azure storage use, looking at the different types available, including their benefits, and how to secure them.
In this chapter, we will focus on migrating workloads from on-premises systems into Azure. The process starts with an analysis of your current environment. We will discuss the areas you must consider, including the communication, dependencies, business drivers, and tools we can use to assist in this process.
Next, we will look at the different options when considering the would-be architecture and how we can perform migrations of VMs and databases.
Finally, we will consider how to monitor the migrated systems to optimize your new platform.
With this in mind, in this chapter, we will cover the following:
- Assessing on-premises systems
- Migration options
- Migrating virtual machines and databases
- Monitoring and optimization
Technical requirements
This chapter will use the Azure portal (https://portal.azure.com) for examples.
Assessing on-premises systems
When an organization decides to migrate its existing systems from on-premises to the cloud, the migration must be well planned and well designed. An architect’s role is not just limited to the end state’s design; they must also be involved from the very beginning of the process and throughout.
At a high level, any successful migration consists of the following steps:
- Assessing
- Migrating
- Optimizing
- Monitoring
The fact that the actual migration is not the final step may come as a surprise to some. However, all organizations are unique – they have different requirements, infrastructure, and various reasons for migrating.
This means that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for migrating, and once the migration is complete, you cannot wholly predict how your systems will perform. Therefore, to ensure a move is successful, you must monitor and tweak your components once your applications have migrated.
The first step of the migration process is the assessment of your existing environment. This involves both the discovery and evaluation of your on-premises servers, databases, and the applications that run on them.
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