Azure Cloud
Most Azure cloud migrations start with a list of servers and end with the same infrastructure running at twice the cost. The reason is almost always the same: the move was planned as a technical exercise rather than a strategic programme.
We run Azure cloud migration and adoption programmes for agencies and product teams who need to move to Azure correctly — with the assessment, architecture, and phased execution that separates a successful cloud adoption from an expensive one.
Azure Cloud Migration as a Programme, Not a Project
Moving workloads to Azure takes between three weeks and eighteen months depending on what is being moved and how. A single web application migrated to App Service is three weeks. A portfolio of on-premises enterprise applications, databases, and legacy integrations is eighteen months. The difference is not just scale — it is the depth of planning required before the first resource is provisioned.
The Azure Cloud Adoption Framework exists because Microsoft has seen enough failed cloud migrations to know that the technical work is rarely the hardest part. The hard parts are: which workloads move first, which should be rebuilt rather than moved, what the network topology looks like during the transition, and who owns the cloud environment after the migration team leaves. We manage all four as part of every Azure cloud engagement. See how Azure cloud adoption is handled in our engagements.
Azure Cloud Migration Services
Six migration and cloud adoption services covering the full Azure cloud journey.
Azure Cloud Migration Assessment
Before any workload moves to Azure, a structured discovery and assessment determines what exists in the current environment, how dependent each application is on others, and what the total cost of ownership looks like before and after migration. We use Azure Migrate for discovery and dependency analysis, produce a migration readiness scorecard per workload, and deliver a written migration business case with TCO comparison and recommended migration strategy. White-label assessment available for agency partners.
Lift-and-Shift Migration to Azure
The lowest-effort migration path — moving virtual machines from on-premises or a different cloud to Azure Virtual Machines without code changes. Right for applications that cannot be refactored on the migration timeline, legacy systems scheduled for decommission within 12 to 24 months, and workloads where the budget does not accommodate re-architecture. We use Azure Site Recovery for large VM portfolios and configure availability sets or availability zones for production workloads with right-sizing recommendations included for the 30-day post-migration review.
Re-platforming to Azure PaaS
Moving workloads from virtual machines to Azure managed platform services — IIS applications to Azure App Service, SQL Server VMs to Azure SQL Managed Instance, Redis VMs to Azure Cache for Redis. Re-platforming eliminates OS patching and infrastructure management overhead without requiring application code changes beyond connection strings and configuration values. We identify re-platform candidates from the migration assessment, design the target PaaS architecture, and migrate SQL workloads using Azure Database Migration Service.
Azure Landing Zone Setup
Azure Landing Zones are the foundational Azure environment structure — management group hierarchy, subscription design, Azure Policy assignments, network topology, identity configuration, and logging baseline — that all migrated workloads land into. Without a landing zone, each migrated workload arrives with no consistent governance, network isolation, or security baseline. We implement the Azure Landing Zone accelerator or a custom design based on the organisation’s size and governance requirements, creating the structured environment before migration work begins.
Azure Hybrid Cloud Architecture
For organisations that cannot move all workloads to Azure — data residency requirements, applications with tight on-premises dependencies, or a multi-year phased migration — a hybrid cloud architecture maintains connectivity between on-premises infrastructure and Azure. We design and implement Azure ExpressRoute or VPN Gateway for private network connectivity, configure Entra ID Connect for hybrid identity synchronisation, and design the traffic routing model so on-premises and Azure workloads interoperate without exposing internal services to the internet.
Azure Cloud Cost Optimisation
The first Azure bill after a migration is almost always higher than expected — virtual machines over-sized, development environments running 24/7, no reserved instance commitments made at migration time. We run a structured cost optimisation engagement: Azure Advisor recommendations implemented, right-sizing applied based on 30-day utilisation data, reserved instances purchased for stable workloads, dev/test pricing applied to non-production subscriptions, and Azure Hybrid Benefit applied to Windows and SQL Server workloads under existing Microsoft licensing. See how cost optimisation is delivered.
Rehost, Replatform, or Re-architect — Choosing the Right Migration Strategy
Every workload in a migration portfolio should be assessed against three primary strategies. Rehost moves the workload as-is — fastest, lowest risk, but the cloud economics improvement is marginal because Azure VM costs are comparable to on-premises hardware for equivalent capacity. Replatform moves the workload to a managed PaaS service — eliminates OS patching overhead and reduces the monthly cost by removing the infrastructure management layer. Re-architecture rewrites or refactors the application to use cloud-native services — highest effort, but produces the most significant improvement in cost, scalability, and operational overhead.
The right choice is rarely the same for every workload in the portfolio. A decommission-scheduled legacy application gets rehosted. A stable SQL Server workload gets replatformed to Azure SQL. A monolith the business wants to scale gets re-architected into container-based services. We make these recommendations per workload rather than applying one strategy across the whole portfolio. Talk to us before committing to a migration approach.
What We Deliver in an Azure Cloud Migration Engagement
Four foundational capabilities that determine whether a cloud migration succeeds long term.
Azure Cloud Adoption Framework Assessment
The Azure Cloud Adoption Framework is Microsoft’s methodology covering strategy, planning, readiness, migration, and governance. We run the assessment against the organisation’s current cloud maturity, identify gaps between current state and a well-governed Azure environment, and produce a roadmap that sequences migration work against business priorities. The roadmap drives the migration programme rather than sitting as documentation produced alongside it. Request a Cloud Adoption Framework assessment.
Azure Landing Zone Design and Governance
A landing zone is the governance container that all migrated workloads move into. It is built before the first workload migrates, not after three months of ungoverned resource provisioning. We design the management group hierarchy, subscription structure, Azure Policy assignments, RBAC model, hub-spoke network topology, and diagnostic settings baseline — sized for the organisation’s actual complexity, not a one-size-fits-all template. See how landing zones are designed in our engagements.
Application Dependency Mapping for Migration
Moving a workload without understanding its dependencies is the most common cause of failed migration waves. An application that appears independent may have an undocumented dependency on a shared fileserver, a network call to an internal IP, or a Windows Authentication requirement that breaks when the VM moves network segments. We use Azure Migrate’s dependency analysis to map application communication paths, group workloads with dependencies into migration waves, and identify breaking changes before migration executes rather than during the production cutover.
Post-Migration Right-Sizing and Optimisation
Azure Virtual Machines are provisioned at peak estimated capacity during migration. The right size for the actual steady-state workload is typically 30 to 60% smaller for business applications, based on 30 days of utilisation data. We run a post-migration right-sizing sprint: Azure Monitor utilisation collected, VM right-sizing recommendations produced, reserved instance analysis run for stable workloads, and storage tier changes applied where hot data has moved to cold access patterns. The Azure cloud environment costs what the workload actually requires rather than what was estimated before migration.
White-Label Azure Cloud Migration for Agency Partners
Your agency has a client who needs to move infrastructure to Azure. The project may be three months or twelve. It needs someone who has done it before, can navigate the complexity of an enterprise Azure environment, and will document the work properly for your client’s internal team to own afterward. We provide white-label Azure cloud migration under your agency brand — delivered under your engagement structure, documented for handover, leaving the cloud environment your client’s team can operate confidently.
Agency partners receive a dedicated Azure migration engineer, a delivery programme aligned to the Azure Cloud Adoption Framework, and a post-migration documentation package covering the landing zone design, migration decisions, and operational runbook. Explore the agency partner programme or review the white-label development model for details.
Why Azure Cloud Migrations Fail — and How to Structure One That Does Not
The most common reason Azure cloud migrations produce expensive, underperforming outcomes is that the migration was treated as a technical task rather than a programme. The team moved servers. Nobody asked whether those servers should be moved, rebuilt as PaaS services, or decommissioned. The landing zone was not set up before migration, so each workload arrived with no governance policy, no network baseline, and no cost management structure. The on-premises Active Directory was not connected to Entra ID, so application authentication broke after the VMs moved.
None of these are unusual problems. They are predictable, and they are prevented by doing the assessment and architecture work before the first workload moves. An Azure cloud migration scoped correctly — discovery, dependency mapping, landing zone, phased waves, post-migration optimisation — costs more upfront and significantly less over the following 24 months. Book a consultation to understand what a well-structured Azure cloud migration looks like for your environment.
Azure Cloud Migration Engagement Models
Four structures for Azure cloud adoption and migration programmes.
Azure Cloud Migration Assessment
A standalone discovery and assessment engagement: Azure Migrate deployed to discover and map the existing workload portfolio, migration readiness scored per application group, TCO comparison produced, and a written migration strategy recommendation delivered. Fixed scope, typically two to four weeks depending on the size of the estate. The assessment output can drive your own internal migration programme or serve as the input to a full migration engagement with us.
Phased Migration Programme
Full migration execution from assessment to post-migration optimisation. The workload portfolio is grouped into migration waves based on dependency analysis and business priority. Each wave has a defined scope, test cutover, and production cutover date with a defined rollback window. Post-migration right-sizing is included in the programme scope rather than left as a follow-on project that never gets prioritised. Suitable for organisations migrating a defined portfolio to Azure over three to twelve months.
Azure Landing Zone Setup
A dedicated engagement to design and implement the Azure Landing Zone before migration begins, or to retrofit governance structure onto an Azure environment that was set up without one. Management group hierarchy, subscription design, Azure Policy, RBAC model, network topology, and logging baseline. Delivered in two to three weeks for a standard enterprise structure. Talk to us about your landing zone requirements.
Hybrid Cloud Architecture Design
Design and implementation of the network connectivity, identity synchronisation, and workload placement strategy for an organisation operating across on-premises and Azure for an extended period. ExpressRoute or VPN Gateway for private connectivity, Entra ID Connect for hybrid identity, DNS design for split-horizon resolution, and a traffic routing model that keeps on-premises and Azure workloads integrated without exposing internal services to the public internet.
How We Deliver an Azure Cloud Migration Engagement
01. Discovery and Dependency Mapping
02. Migration Strategy and Wave Planning
Azure Migrate is deployed to the on-premises environment to discover and inventory all virtual machines, databases, web applications, and network dependencies. The discovery runs for a minimum of two weeks to capture representative workload patterns. Dependency analysis maps communication paths between workloads, identifying hidden dependencies that would cause migration waves to fail if grouped incorrectly. The output is a complete picture of the existing estate before any migration planning is committed to.
03. Azure Landing Zone Setup
Each workload is assessed against the rehost, replatform, and re-architect criteria. Migration waves are defined based on dependency grouping and business priority — interdependent workloads migrate together, business-critical production workloads migrate with longer parallel running periods, and decommission candidates are flagged so the migration does not replicate unnecessary workloads into the cloud. The migration wave plan is signed off before the landing zone is built.
04. Migration Wave Execution
The foundational Azure environment is built before the first workload migrates. Management group hierarchy, subscription structure, Azure Policy assignments, RBAC roles, hub-spoke network topology with private DNS zones, and the monitoring baseline are provisioned using Infrastructure as Code. The landing zone is tested with a non-production workload before production waves begin. Everything that will govern the production Azure environment is in place before production data arrives.
05. Post-Migration Testing and Validation
Each migration wave executes in three stages: test migration to validate the workload in Azure without impacting production, parallel running period where both source and Azure environments run simultaneously, and production cutover with a defined rollback window. VMs are migrated using Azure Site Recovery for continuous replication. Databases are migrated using Azure Database Migration Service. Application configurations are updated to point to Azure endpoints after validation and within the agreed maintenance window.
06. Optimisation and Documentation
After each wave cutover, a structured validation checklist confirms the workload operates correctly in Azure: application functionality against pre-defined test cases, performance benchmarking against pre-migration baselines, network connectivity testing to dependent services, authentication testing against Entra ID, and backup policy confirmation. Issues are resolved before the source environment is decommissioned. The decommission date for on-premises VMs is agreed only after the Azure environment has demonstrated production stability.
Assessed. Migrated. Optimised. Documented.
After the full migration programme, a 30-day post-migration optimisation sprint right-sizes virtual machines based on actual utilisation data, applies reserved instance commitments for stable production workloads, implements Azure Advisor cost recommendations, and documents the final Azure architecture. The handover package includes the architecture design, landing zone configuration, operational runbook, and a cost optimisation baseline so the client’s team has a documented starting point for ongoing cloud operations.
Azure Cloud Migration: Common Questions
Answered by engineers who have planned and executed Azure cloud migrations.
What is an Azure cloud migration and what does it involve?
An Azure cloud migration is the process of moving workloads — applications, databases, virtual machines, and associated infrastructure — from on-premises data centres or another cloud provider to Microsoft Azure. It involves discovery and dependency mapping of the existing environment, selection of the migration strategy for each workload, design of the target Azure environment including landing zone governance and network topology, execution of migration in sequenced waves, and post-migration validation and optimisation. A migration can range from moving a single application to replacing an entire data centre over an eighteen-month programme.
What is a lift-and-shift migration and when is it the right choice?
A lift-and-shift migration moves a workload to Azure as-is — the application and operating system are replicated to an Azure Virtual Machine without code changes. It is the right choice when the application cannot be refactored on the migration timeline, when it is scheduled for decommission within 12 to 24 months, or when the budget does not permit re-architecture. Lift-and-shift is the fastest migration strategy but typically the one with the smallest cost reduction, since Azure VM costs are broadly comparable to on-premises hardware for equivalent capacity. The cost benefit comes primarily from eliminating data centre facilities costs — power, cooling, and hardware refresh — not from Azure compute being inherently cheaper.
What is an Azure landing zone and why does it matter for migration?
An Azure landing zone is the foundational governance and network structure that all migrated workloads move into — management group hierarchy, subscription structure, Azure Policy assignments, RBAC access model, network topology separating production and non-production environments, and logging baseline applied to all resources. Without a landing zone, workloads arrive with no governance policy, no network isolation, and no cost management structure. Retrofitting a landing zone after workloads have migrated requires re-deploying governance controls around resources that were provisioned without those constraints, which is significantly more complex than building the structure first.
How long does an Azure cloud migration take?
A single web application migrated to Azure App Service can be assessed, migrated, and validated in three to four weeks. A portfolio of five to ten on-premises virtual machines with a proper landing zone setup is typically a two to three month engagement. A full enterprise data centre migration covering dozens of applications and multiple databases is typically six to eighteen months. The variable that most affects timeline is not the number of virtual machines — it is the complexity of application dependencies and the degree of refactoring required. We scope based on the actual dependency map from Azure Migrate, not on a per-server estimate.
What does re-platforming to Azure PaaS services involve?
Re-platforming moves a workload from virtual machines to an Azure managed platform service — a web application on an IIS VM moves to Azure App Service, a SQL Server database on a VM moves to Azure SQL Managed Instance or Azure SQL Database. The application code typically does not change — connection strings and configuration values are updated to point to the managed service endpoints. The benefit is the elimination of OS and middleware patching overhead, managed high availability, and the ability to scale the application tier independently of infrastructure. Re-platforming produces better long-term economics than lift-and-shift but requires more planning to validate application compatibility with the target PaaS service.
Will our Azure cloud costs be lower after the migration?
If the migration is planned correctly, yes — but not on day one. The immediate post-migration cost is often higher because virtual machines were provisioned at estimated peak capacity and are right-sized down after 30 days of actual utilisation data. The cost reduction from Azure cloud comes from: data centre facilities costs eliminated, PaaS services replacing VM-hosted middleware, reserved instance discounts for stable workloads committed to Azure for one to three years, and Azure Hybrid Benefit reducing Windows and SQL Server licensing costs for organisations under existing Microsoft licensing. We include a post-migration optimisation sprint in every migration engagement to capture these savings within 30 days of cutover rather than leaving them unrealised for twelve months.