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Azure Migration Program: 4 Key Elements

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July 23, 2021

Topics: Cloud Volumes ONTAP AzureData MigrationElementary5 minute read

What is the Azure Migration Program?

The Azure Migration Program (AMP) allows customers and partners to work directly with Microsoft when planning and implementing Azure migration projects. The program leverages proven Microsoft cloud adoption tools, methodologies, best practices and resources to simplify, customize, and accelerate Azure cloud migrations.

The Azure Migration Program includes:

  • Step-by-step training—starting with defining business objectives all the way to fine tuning cloud workloads for optimal performance.
  • Comprehensive technical resources and skill building—offered through courses that help teach you how to leverage the cloud optimally and drive long term success.
  • Free Azure migration tools—designed to help you before, during, and after the migration process. For example, Azure Migrate can help you to quickly and securely move workloads.
  • Cost-saving offers—such as Azure credits and Azure Hybrid Benefit, as well as free extended security updates.

In this article, you will learn:

Azure Migration Program Overview

The Azure Migration Program is designed to simplify the migration process. The program offers extended support for application modernization scenarios, including web applications using Java, .NET, and Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python (LAMP).

When modernizing applications, the program lets you choose from a variety of options. For example, you can choose between Azure App Service and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for compute. You can also choose a database service from options like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Azure SQL Database (managed SQL Server). The program also caters to use cases like migrating data center infrastructure, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and database migration.

The program offers Azure Migrate, which serves as a centralized hub that controls the entire migration process. The hub comes with an application containerization tool that supports Java and ASP.NET web applications. This tool is the recommended way to migrate applications to containers on AKS.

The Azure Migrate hub also offers the use of Azure PowerShell, which lets you use agentless Server Migration tools when moving VMware virtual machines to Azure. You can use PowerShell to configure and manage the replication of servers to Azure. You can use the PowerShell cmdlets command to automate the migration of servers to Azure VMs.

Another advantage of the hub is that it provides unified assessment and discovery capabilities for Linux, SQL, and Windows servers. You can use it to assess servers and their databases prior to migration.

4 Key Elements of the Azure Migration Program

1. Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure

The Cloud Adoption Framework provides guidelines that are designed to help create and implement business and technology strategies necessary in the cloud. The framework provides best practices, tools, and documentation that can help IT professionals, cloud architects, and relevant decision makers achieve successful migrations.

If you are planning your migration to Azure, read our guides:

2. Microsoft FastTrack for Azure

FastTrack for Azure offers a technical enablement program designed to help achieve quick and effective design and deployment of cloud solutions. The program offers practices and architectural guidance recommended by Azure engineers. The guidelines cover:

  • Discovery—how to define business vision and goals, as well as assess architectural needs.
  • Solution enablement—including design principles, proven practices, and tools recommended for business applications.
  • Deployment—the FastTrack team helps ensure collaboration between in-house resources and external partners in order to successfully deploy Azure solutions to production.

3. Migration Partners

Azure works with many expert migration partners. Microsoft evaluates partners to ensure they meet the highest standards and can help assist customers with their migration process. Certified partners can be found in the Azure Migration Partners Center.

Partners offer services and tools that can assist with specific aspects like security, Kubernetes on Azure, SAP on Azure, data warehouse or databases on Azure, or provide an end-to-end solution that covers all of your migration needs.

4. Azure Migrate

Azure Migrate is a centralized hub that helps assess and migrate to Azure infrastructure, on-premises servers, data, and applications. Key features of Azure Migrate include:

  • Unified migration platform—a single portal through which you can start, run, and monitor the Azure migration process.
  • Assessment and migration tools—letting you automatically assess workloads before migration and automate migration processes.
  • Variety of supported workloads—the Azure Migrate hub lets you assess and migrate Linux and Windows machines, SQL Server databases, open-source databases, virtual desktops, web applications, and raw data.

Related content: read our guide to Azure migration tools

Azure Migration Program Q&A

What are the Benefits of the Azure Migration Program?

Azure Migration Program accelerates your migration to the cloud by providing the following benefits:

  • Providing best practices, resources, and guidance
  • Helping you build technical skills
  • Offering Azure engineering support
  • Connecting you with expert migration partners
  • Providing dedicated migration tool
  • Offering ways to reduce migration costs

How Can You Join the Azure Migration Program?

  1. Contact Azure—tell Azure about your migration project via this form.
  2. Review resources—after receiving your form, Microsoft gathers a variety of resources and provides suggestions that can guide you on how to proceed.
  3. Migrate—Microsoft can help you evaluate and migrate your environment. Azure also provides resources to optimize costs and protect your environment against risk.

How Much Does the Azure Migration Program Cost?

Azure customers can take advantage of the Azure Migration Program at no additional cost, beyond the cost of Azure resources used during and after the migration.

Azure Migration with Cloud Volumes ONTAP

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, the leading enterprise-grade storage management solution, delivers secure, proven storage management services on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Cloud Volumes ONTAP capacity can scale into the petabytes, and it supports various use cases such as file services, databases, DevOps or any other enterprise workload, with a strong set of features including high availability, data protection, storage efficiencies, Kubernetes integration, and more.

In particular, Cloud Volumes ONTAP assists with lift and shift cloud migration. NetApp’s data replication tools SnapMirror® and Cloud Sync service will get your data to the cloud.

Learn more about how Cloud Volumes ONTAP helps to address the challenges of cloud migration in these Cloud Migration Case Studies.

 
Yifat Perry, Product Evangelist
Yifat Perry

Product Evangelist