Microsoft Azure is a popular cloud computing platform that offers a range of valuable services to help businesses streamline operational efficiency and accelerate growth. Azure’s services include cloud storage, mobile app development tools, machine learning services, virtual networks, and other collaboration tools. Migrating workloads to Microsoft Azure can be highly beneficial if Azure migration challenges are dealt with tactfully. This is true of SMBs who the knowledge and experience may not have to handle even the most common challenges of Azure migration. Let us get into more details.
Understanding a few Azure Migration Fundamentals:
Any Azure migration journey changes the entire digital setup and must be carefully dealt with using a combination of technical and strategic approaches. Businesses usually begin with the choice of implementing one or more solutions within the Microsoft Azure suite of solutions. Now this means stakeholders can embrace a broad spectrum of Azure services or a selection of specialised applications such as Azure SQL. The transfer of workloads from on-premises to the cloud can vary on a case-by-case basis, which is primarily influenced by the organisation’s cloud readiness. For an enterprise that already functions with integrated Azure cloud tools such as Dynamics 365 or Microsoft 365, the incidence of Azure migration challenges may be far less compared to a smaller business that is just getting started with its digital transformation journey. Again, let us consider the case of a setup that is only partially migrated but is contemplating implementing a complex cloud service like Azure DevOps Server; challenges of Azure migration may be more intense here. It is essential to answer these questions first-
- What is the extent of migration that the business envisages?
- Is it a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud deployment that is sought?
- Is it going to be a specific execution of a couple of business applications in the Azure cloud?
Service providers may also need to distinguish between customers who are not new to cloud computing, but might be new to Azure alone. Businesses may be utilising specific AWS solutions but are interested in exploring more complex Azure solutions for their exclusive features, or the objective could also revolve around competitive pricing. Clarity and communication before getting started can eliminate many challenges of Azure migration, regardless of the complexity of this task.
Challenges of Azure migration:
1.Understanding the differences among cloud applications:
Beyond the challenge of becoming familiar with a new interface, distinguishing between cloud-hosted and locally deployed applications can be daunting. It is essential to differentiate between concepts in the local infrastructure and those on the cloud. In this context, particularly while migrating to Azure, the unique features offered by Azure have to be explored first.
2. Bandwidth issues:
Azure is an IaaS platform, and users sometimes overlook bandwidth requirements, which is a challenge. It is crucial to estimate an appropriate bandwidth, particularly when using a hybrid cloud section to manage heavy traffic between remote cloud elements and local hosts. This leads to a slowing down of the local bandwidth.
3. Fear of downtime:
This is the most significant challenge in Azure migration: the lack of preparedness for potential downtime. While eliminating downtime is utopian, systematic planning for anticipated downtime can minimise its impact and save resources.
4. Challenges while accessing the common database:
Several enterprise applications depend on external databases to function. While Azure allows migration of applications while the database is being hosted, the chances of these applications being incompatible with commands or variable types can occur. Therefore, the involvement of a database specialist to ensure that the database function is not lost during Azure migration may be required.
5.Handling existing dependencies:
Almost all enterprise applications are related to or depend on each other for data and functioning. It is therefore critical to account for these dependencies and carefully consider lest the connection configuration gets invalidated during migration. Proper planning is key at this point.
6. Application compatibility:
Just as we discussed, database compatibility when running on Azure, handling Azure migration challenges for applications in the Azure test environment is also critical. This helps test the deployment to the cloud and identify potential Azure cloud migration challenges, and identify solutions for them.
7. Constraint of resources:
The Azure Data migration is a slow process, demanding a large amount of bandwidth and person-hours. Furthermore, security compliance requirements vary according to industry and are crucial to the IT team. Most businesses tend to store and access data from local servers, which also presents a challenge.
Migration to Azure might not be as tough as it seems, but estimating efforts correctly plays a huge role in its outcome. Let us quickly run through some best practices that can serve as a solution for challenges in Azure migration.
Best Practices for seamless Azure Migration:
- Assess the current IT environment, identify workloads, applications, and data that can be moved to the cloud. Explore Azure’s built-in migration tool, Azure Migrate, at this stage to plan your migration.
- Several migration strategies offer different kinds of balances in efficiency, functionality, and business continuity aspects, such as
- Rehosting or lift-and-shift, where applications and data are shifted directly to the cloud by replicating applications and their dependencies from on-premises to the cloud
- Refactoring moves applications to a new platform with minor adjustments, like altering a database or operating system, to leverage the cloud-native services and infrastructure.
- Re-architecting is where applications are redesigned from the start to be cloud-native by breaking them down into smaller independent services for easy deployment and management.
- Proper systematic security measures, such as data encryption, role-based access controls, and Multi-factor authentication, are a must for data protection. Azure comes with robust security tools that can protect the cloud infrastructure when utilised appropriately. Explore Azure Sentinel and Azure Security Centre.
- Azure Cost Management and Billing helps monitor and control costs spent before and after migration to limit sudden cost or usage spikes. Azure Reserved Instances can also help.
Post migration, ensure that testing and monitoring of the new cloud environment are carried out periodically to ensure all migration objectives are met. Regularly reviewing and continually testing will ensure that all data and applications are functioning as expected. This paves the way to optimise Azure resources to ensure efficiency, identify issues proactively and address them. Regular security audits detect vulnerabilities and ensure compliance with industry standards.
Conclusion
Migration to Microsoft Azure might come with its set of challenges, but effectively planning to mitigate these hurdles assures the success of this endeavour. Better still, partner
