Understanding Azure Migration

• Azure migrations often begin with a lift-and-shift approach, but all migration strategies require thorough upfront planning.
• Tools and guidance to migrate VMs and data to Azure are available from Microsoft and third parties.
• The Azure Migration service is being upgraded to a migration hub that will offer several new capabilities.

It is common for organizations to perform initial deployments on Azure by migrating existing VMs and data using a so-called lift-and-shift approach. Tools and guidance can streamline this process, but organizations should develop thorough migration plans before initiating Azure deployments to avoid issues such as application unavailability and cost overruns.

Planning for an organizational adoption of Azure involves considerations and choices in several areas such as management, security, and compliance. This report focuses on migration aspects only. For a broader discussion on planning new Azure deployments, see “Planning for Azure” on page 21 of the Sept. 2018 Update.