Things are evolving rapidly, presenting challenges such as security threats, inflation, skill shortages, government regulations, and other global issues. So, having a well-defined plan and creating a secure and resilient environment is important. Simultaneously, technological innovation has accelerated, with 75% of leaders developing all new products and features in the Cloud to maintain a competitive edge. The most significant change is the integration of AI into our daily lives, transforming industries and generating new opportunities.

Organizations are increasingly depending on technology to drive agility and innovation. 91% of organizations have integrated Cloud computing into their strategic plans. This shift towards a Cloud-first approach shows a significant change in how organizations adopt technology. However, operating in the Cloud requires a high focus on security, with nearly 80% of organizations identifying security as a top challenge. Also, around 90% of customers believe AI is important for achieving a competitive advantage. By leveraging AI analytics and intelligent automation, businesses can better predict customer needs, deliver personalized experiences, and make data-driven decisions that enable them to surpass competitors. The evidence shows that embracing Cloud computing, leveraging AI capabilities, and committing to digital transformation is key to success.

Microsoft Cloud

Microsoft is committed to empowering organizations to capitalize on growth opportunities and drive innovation. The Microsoft Cloud provides a comprehensive product suite that addresses six critical areas for business success: Security, Infrastructure, Digital and App Innovation, Data and AI, Business Applications, and Modern Work. At the core of the Microsoft Cloud is Microsoft Azure, which enables organizations to securely adopt and advance with the latest technologies while also facilitating the development of innovations.

Azure Migrate and Modernize and Azure Innovate

Microsoft has recently announced a significant expansion in the scale and availability of Azure Migrate and Modernize and has introduced Azure Innovate. Azure Migrate and Modernize assist in migrating and modernizing existing applications, data, and infrastructure to Azure. In contrast, Azure Innovate addresses advanced innovation needs, such as integrating AI into applications and experiences, conducting advanced analytics, and developing custom Cloud and native applications. Both services offer extensive resources for every phase of your journey, including direct access to Microsoft experts or specialized partners who provide support across a wide range of scenarios, from migration to advanced AI-driven innovation.

Comprehensive Resources

Both Azure Migrate and Modernize and Azure Innovate provide extensive, step-by-step resources for every stage of your journey, from planning through to deployment. These comprehensive resources include expert guidance and support for assessments, designing proofs of concept or pilots, migrating workloads to Azure, architecture reviews, deployment assessments, workshops, and accessing free or low-cost skilling. Azure Migrate is available to help those who prefer a more self-directed approach.

Azure Migrate

Azure Migrate is a free, first-party migration tool designed to facilitate the discovery, assessment, business case creation, migration, and modernization of your on-premises, hybrid, or multi-cloud environments, including those in AWS or Google Cloud.

These are some of Azure Migrate capabilities;

Discovery: Azure Migrate can be accessed through the Azure portal by searching for it. The migration process begins with discovering your IT estate. During the discovery phase, Azure Migrate uses an agentless Azure Migrate appliance to identify and map your on-premises IT assets, including VMware VMs, Hyper-V VMs, virtual servers, and physical servers. Discovery can be performed using this agentless appliance or by importing data through a CSV template. The recommended appliance method minimizes human error and captures configuration and resource utilization data, which helps in right-sizing for Azure. Also, data from the discovery phase enables the identification and dependency mapping of your entire IT estate.

TCO/Business case for Azure: To know costs and potential savings in Azure before migration, the TCO business case feature in Azure Migrate allows you to generate a business case using discovery data or a manually provided CSV file. Start by selecting Build Business Case and entering the necessary input. You will receive a comparison of current costs with Azure TCO and a return on investment for potential savings. You can also create what-if scenarios using custom data and assumptions and assess the security costs and savings associated with Azure Defender for Cloud. Also, financial data can be exported to Excel for creating business case proposals, which can be shared with stakeholders to secure their approval.

Assessment: Azure Migrate enables assessments for various scenarios, such as evaluating whether VMs can be migrated to Azure as they are. In some cases, it may be necessary to address certain gaps before migration. Also, Azure Migrate provides recommendations for right-sizing your resources. Often, customers provision more resources than needed. By analyzing current utilization, Azure Migrate can determine the optimal resources required in Azure to ensure both performance and cost.

Migration: Azure Migrate helps with the migration process by replicating IT resources to your Azure subscription. This allows you to validate migrations in a test environment before switching to Azure, ensuring zero data loss and minimal downtime on your terms. You can migrate on-premises VMs and servers or VMs from other private or public Clouds with no downtime. For database migrations, the Azure Data Migration Service offers a seamless and integrated experience with end-to-end tracking.

Extensive Guidance

Experts help with pilots or proofs of concept, allowing you to move a small portion of your workload to test Azure's capabilities before planning a larger project. Support includes guided workshops, assessments, architecture reviews, access to technical frameworks, and deployment assistance. Skilling options are also available to ensure long-term success.

Skilling: To deliver business impact effectively, your teams need quick access to training on the latest technologies. Research shows that over 50% of IT professionals feel more confident in their job performance after completing technical training. Microsoft offers several low-cost or free skilling options, covering a range of topics from basic migration to advanced workloads, including Generative AI.

Proven Technical Frameworks

Technical frameworks form the foundation for Cloud adoption. Microsoft offers detailed guidance on Cloud adoption and workload-specific architectures, enabling you to benefit from their expertise as well as the experiences of other customers.

Cloud Adoption Framework: The Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) for Azure provides tools and guidance for implementing Cloud technologies and managing the necessary business and process changes to ensure successful adoption. Built on best practices and the experiences of customers and partners, CAF is regularly updated to reflect the latest insights. The CAF is the starting point for organizational-level guidance. It integrates the best financial management and cultural practices from the FinOps Foundation, helping you optimize Cloud usage according to its variable cost model. It provides detailed technical guidance for defining and deploying an Azure landing zone. Azure landing zones ensure consistent application of Azure policies across all workloads within a multi-subscription reference architecture.

Well-Architected Framework: The Azure Well-Architected Framework (WAF) offers a set of guiding principles to improve the quality of workloads. WAF is designed to focus on specific workloads and the necessary design choices to optimize the workload and its architecture. It draws on insights from thousands of customer engagements to help you make intelligent trade-offs between key operational dimensions, such as reliability, security, and cost. WAF also ensures that your workload is designed for optimal performance by recommending the appropriate structure and policies for your Cloud environment. The Well-Architected Review, a self-guided assessment, offers tailored guidance and recommendations for your workload's architecture. This assessment can be used for architectural design sessions or as a periodic review of your existing workloads.

Direct Access to Experts

Cloud adoption is complex, and a vast network of experts is available to provide support at every stage. To help make the Cloud journey as cost-efficient as possible, unique cost-saving offers are available for each phase, from assessment to deployment. Two expert delivery models are offered: Microsoft experts help with rapid rehost migrations at zero cost, or funding is available for specialized partners to handle more complex projects.

Extensive Coverage

The offerings provide comprehensive coverage for all common migration and innovation scenarios. Azure Migrate and Modernize support a wide range of workloads when moving to Azure, whether it's your first virtual machine or more complex migrations like SAP, Oracle databases, or mainframes. Azure Innovate also helps build AI-infused applications, scale Cloud analytics with GitHub Copilot, modernize on-premises applications, and more. Both Azure Migrate and Modernize and Azure Innovate are designed to support businesses of all sizes and industries.

This overview provides a snapshot of the available offerings. Whether the goal is to gain efficiencies through migration, establish an AI-ready data state, or develop AI-infused solutions, Azure Migrate and Modernize, along with Azure Innovate, offer curated resources in one convenient place.

Reference:

Microsoft Events