When moving to the cloud, it’s important to consider how best to migrate your data, applications, and workloads. Azure offers several options depending on your specific needs.
Azure Migrate
If you need to lift and shift workloads such as SQL Server to an Azure Virtual Machine, Azure Migrate is the ideal tool. It provides a centralized hub to start, execute, and track your migration process.
Azure Migrate can:
- Discover and assess your on-premises infrastructure.
- Work across your entire data estate, identifying SQL instances and other workloads.
- Give deployment recommendations for Azure SQL-based options.
- Offer target sizing guidance to help right-size your Azure resources.
- Provide monthly cost estimates so you can plan budgets accurately.
It simplifies the process and reduces risk by providing insights before you move anything.
Azure Data Box
For extremely large data transfers where it’s not feasible to move data over the internet, Azure Data Box can be used. This is a physical device provided by Microsoft, shipped to your location.
- You copy your data onto the device locally.
- Microsoft then securely transfers the data to Azure on your behalf.
- It’s ideal for multi-terabyte datasets or environments with limited connectivity.
Data Box supports:
- Bulk data migration
- Disaster recovery data import
- Offline transfers where privacy and bandwidth are concerns
By choosing the right combination of tools, your journey to Azure can be smoother and more efficient.
Explore this topic in more depth with my video lesson on cloud migration strategies – part of my full Azure Fundamentals course. It’s a great way to visualise the process and understand how to apply it in real-world scenarios. Alternatively, go back to the topics in the AZ-900 exam.
Please click here to find out more about Microsoft’s AZ-900 exam.
