Why are organizations migrating and modernizing to the cloud?
Global pandemics serve as a spur for change, and the uncertainty has increased prospects for innovation. The pandemic has accelerated the pace of transformation across 72% of the industry. Today, organizations seek to drive transformative business outcomes by operating in the Cloud. The majority of organizations are attempting to alter their business processes through cloud-native innovation. It is predicted that 95% of new digital initiatives are projected to be on cloud platforms by 2025. By investing in the cloud, businesses are experiencing heightened expectations and scrutiny on budgets and cost optimization. Hybrid and multi-cloud environments are becoming more prevalent and may be the future state for many enterprises. Now, 90% of enterprises depend on hybrid cloud infrastructures. Based on this context, several migration and modernization triggers can be seen.
How you can drive operational efficiencies by moving to Azure?
Azure provides the best value at every stage of the cloud migration journey. For example, it is up to 80% less expensive to run Windows Server and SQL Server virtual machines on Azure than their main competitor. This is due to unmatched offers such as Azure Hybrid Benefit and free Extended Security Updates. Azure offers unique capabilities to simplify VM management and the broadest SQL Server compatibility for an easier move.
Why are customers moving to Azure?
Azure is a highly productive application and data platform that allows you to innovate faster. Whether modernizing existing apps or building new cloud-native apps, Azure manages the underlying operational work. This includes various innovative options on Azure, including fully managed PaaS, containers, low-code apps, and database-as-a-service offerings.
Azure has enterprise-grade infrastructure for all your workloads, a great way to future-proof your business from general-purpose workloads such as Windows Server, Linux, and VMware to your most mission-critical workloads such as SAP. You can also transform your business processes by using rich data analytics and insights on top of your Azure infrastructure investments.
The organization's needs and requirements are complex, be it regulations, security, compliance, or even recognizing that investments will span multi-cloud, on-premises, and edge environments. Azure Arc is designed to give you that hybrid flexibility. With Azure Arc-enabled PaaS service, you can extend and deploy Azure services on-premises, which allows you to use consistent application development practices across your hybrid environments. Similarly, with Azure Arc-enabled infrastructure, you can manage and govern your Windows Server and Linux investments the same way anywhere across on-premises and multi-cloud environments. You can always move these workloads when they are ready to move.
Azure has comprehensive programs, guidance, tools, and skills to help you move successfully. Azure Migration and Modernization Program provides the right mix of expert help, best practices, technical skilling, and incentives to reduce migration costs and guide you every step along the way.
O2 in the Czech Republic migrated many of its on-premises workloads to Azure to become more agile, reduce costs, and scale faster. These workloads included important helpdesk ticketing and customer self-service applications. O2 is now enhancing the customer experience with a modernized cloud platform, saving 30% of TCO over five years for each workload shifted and innovating faster by shortening their innovation cycles from six months to one month.
Common migration and modernization projects
Here's a summary of the typical migration and modernization projects that many organizations invest in.
Apps: Apps can be for internal use or for customers. For example, these could be .NET or Java apps that you plan to move.
Databases: In many cases, you might have databases such as SQL, MySQL, and NoSQL that support your.NET or Java applications.
Servers: Windows Server and Linux environments that provide the OS layer for your apps and host key infrastructure needs such as Active Directory and DNS.
VMware: You may have several VMware virtualized environments that you plan to migrate to build on your existing VMware investments and skill sets.
SAP: You may be running mission-critical SAP environments that you want to migrate to the cloud.
VDI: VDI environments that enable remote experiences for all your employees.
Apart from these projects, there are some projects around Oracle and mainframe migration. When moving to Azure, you want to ensure your cloud environments are secure and well-managed and maintain hybrid and multi-cloud flexibility.
Cloud migration and modernization journey
Azure provides a comprehensive set of guidance, tools, and programs. The majority of it can be divided into three categories:
- Proven guidance
- Programs, partners, and tools
- Learning and scaling resources
To adopt Azure quickly, you may obtain dedicated expert assistance from Azure engineers, partners, and programs such as FastTrack for Azure and the Azure Migration and Modernization Program. It also includes several self-service options, such as the Azure Migrate tool, which is free and a great way to get started independently.
Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
The route to cloud migration and modernization is a continuous process that involves change management, spanning people, processes, and technology. Adopting a holistic approach will help you successfully navigate the journey and ensure that your business achieves new benefits, including efficiency, agility, and scale, once your workloads operate on the cloud. This strategy is based on the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework, where you begin by defining what motivates your migration. It requires involving and aligning key stakeholders to your motivators for the move and maximizing buy-in. Many customers create a center of excellence, which includes a cross-functional team comprising IT, finance, application, and business owners.
During the move, you must plan for your migration and modernization to be iterative, and waves of workloads that move one after the other are recommended. For example, based on your business goals, you might migrate some workloads to modernize them later or modernize some directly if they are core to your business. After the move, focusing on government, management, and cost optimization is recommended. Security is always a consideration throughout the journey and is captured well within the Cloud Adoption Framework.
Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework
Workloads must be architect optimally as they move. This workload-specific guidance is part of the Azure Well-Architected Framework, which has five core pillars: reliability, cost optimization, operational excellence, performance efficiency, and security. The Well-Architected Framework provides design principles based on proven practices and patterns from customer deployments so that your workloads can successfully run on Azure. At the business level, the Cloud Adoption Framework helps you define a strategy, plan for it, and then manage the execution.
Azure Migration and Modernization Program (AMMP)
Azure Migration and Modernization Program (AMMP) was built to help simplify and accelerate your cloud adoption journey. AMMP helped customers unlock the benefits of the cloud with expert help and best practices at each step. AMMP supports a wide range of common migration and modernization projects mentioned before. Today, AMMP supports various projects, including infrastructure and database migration, virtual desktop migration, SAP, apps and data modernization, and cloud-native projects. AMMP provides offers and incentives based on your needs, be it subsidized services from partners or Azure credits to offset transition costs as you move. It helps skill up your organization on Azure, so you can move confidently and be successful on an ongoing basis right from day one. AMMP offers prescriptive step-by-step guidance, including participation from specialized partners and Azure engineers from the assessments to execution. Sustainability is a core priority for Microsoft and many of you. AMMP enables you to deliver sustainable outcomes for your company. In fact, the 2020 environmental sustainability report shows that you can achieve up to 93% more energy efficiency and up to 98% more carbon efficiency by moving to the cloud.
AMMP allows you to move securely with additional planning and deployment assistance for cloud security services such as Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Sentinel. It also helps you enable Azure Arc for on-premises workloads that are not ready to move, enabling consistent operations, security, and development anywhere.
Azure Migrate
Azure Migrate is a free self-serve tool. It simplifies migration and modernization with an automated experience across your apps, infrastructure, and data. With one centralized cloud service, you can discover, assess, migrate, and modernize your workloads. Microsoft has extensive first and third-party tooling, including with ISVs, to help you with your migration and modernization journey.
Updates
Microsoft has recently announced some new capabilities for Azure Migrate, including a new feature to modernize your ASP.NET web apps to Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure App Service. They have also announced a comprehensive migration and modernization assessment capability for SQL Server. This new capability helps you quickly discover and assess your entire SQL estate at scale. It helps identify ideal migration and modernization targets for Azure SQL and has built-in cost optimization guidance.
Resources
Azure.com/migration
Azure.com/AMMP
Microsoft.com/learn
Reference:
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