MS Azure Migration: How to Move Your Applications to the Cloud

Most companies think that MS Azure migration is a difficult process. However, you only need to do careful planning for becoming successful. You need to find the parts of your network that you need to move. Also, you might need to divide your migration plan into multiple phases.

You need a strategic plan for moving your applications and data to the Azure cloud environment. This plan will ensure that every piece of migration will fit together. You need to have clear priorities first. After that, you need to decide the migration order and find important resources. In this article, we are going to share some tips that will help you in moving your applications to MS Azure.

1. Pre-Migration requirements and considerations

You need to consider various things before moving your applications to the cloud. The compliance requirements can be a roadblock for you if you need to move your sensitive data to the cloud. You should also check for proprietary technology as you can’t run them on the Azure platform.

You might be using some platform-specific applications which will make your task more challenging. Many companies also ignore their bandwidth factor. If you have insufficient bandwidth, then it will result in lost productivity. You should analyze your network traffic before moving your applications. This will help you in determining the bandwidth that you need.

System downtime is going to be another issue during the migration process. You should carefully plan as system downtime is inevitable. Thus, you should move your applications when your employees are not working on them.

Application compatibility is another issue that you need to deal with. You can solve this problem by creating a test environment first.

You also need to find the best management systems for your cloud platform. It is better to research the management systems before starting the migration process. You need to find the best management system for your cloud environment.

Also, you need to analyze your security requirements. The cloud is considered more secure when compared to traditional infrastructure. However, you might have some extra security needs. Thus, you should look for the best security options that your cloud provider is offering. This will help you in protecting your applications and data from data breaches.

2. Assess your resources

You should have a list of your IT assets and resources. Make sure that you know how your IT infrastructure actually works. It is important to perform an infrastructure assessment before starting the migration process.

This assessment will help you in assessing your on-premise applications and servers. You should understand your server configurations. Also, you should determine their current capacity. You should identify all the applications that you are using and their server dependencies. This will help you in understanding which servers are helping your applications.

You should also analyze your configurations. This will help you in determining the workload that you need to move. It will also help you in detecting configuration changes and remediate issues.

This data will also help you in planning your IT budget. You can use any online Azure calculator for calculating your cloud costs.

3. Create a POC of Proof of Concept

You should create a POC before moving your infrastructure to MS Azure. Your POC won’t help you in predicting all the migration issues. However, it will still help you in understanding some challenges that you might face during migrating applications.

MS is already offering a 30-day account to new users. You will have $200 in credits for checking Azure power. New users can access more than 25 services for free. This will ensure that you test and deploy your applications first. This will help you in understanding the data capabilities available on Azure.

It might be difficult to set up a test environment on Azure. Thus, you should consider working with an MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in setting up your own best environment. They will also help you in creating a cloud migration plan. Thus, you don’t need to worry about hiring cloud engineers.

4. Select the best migration approach

There are four common cloud migration strategies that you can use for migrating your applications:

• Lift and Shift: This approach will help you in quickly moving your applications to Azure. You can directly substitute your cloud infrastructure on the Azure platform. The best thing about the lift and shift strategy is that you don’t need to modify your architecture. However, there are also some disadvantages of using the lift and shift strategy. If you are using the lift and shift strategy, then you can’t enjoy the elasticity of your cloud platform. Thus, you might end up paying more money for your cloud services.
• Refactor: In this approach, you need to do some changes to your application. You can change some code of your applications to enjoy the benefits of the auto-scaling feature. This approach can help you in saving a lot of money.
• Rearchitect: You might need to modify some applications if you want to run them on the cloud. Thus, you need developers that can modify your applications. Rearchitecting will take a lot of time as it is not easy to modify any application. It is also going to be expensive at the start. However, it will help you in saving money in the long run. It will help you in running your old applications on the cloud platform.
• Replace: It is almost impossible to modify your legacy applications. Thus, you should look for an alternative. The best alternative available in the market is SaaS or Software-as-a-service. It is perfect for cloud users.

Conclusion

It is very important to create a migration plan first before moving your applications. You should also test your plan before moving your applications. This will ensure that your migration process will be smooth. Most SMBs find it difficult to move their applications to the cloud. Thus, SMBs should consider working with an experienced MSP. Good MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in creating a migration plan. They will help you in finding the best cloud platform for your business. Thus, MSPs are the best option for SMBs. If you need more information regarding cloud migration, then you can contact Bleuwire.

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